Major Riviera Holdings investor buys Strip land

A holding company for the Triple Five Group bought the 5.43-acre site where the La Concha motel once stood for $180 million, or $33.1 million per acre, in October.

The company also has contracts to buy another 12 acres adjacent to the La Concha site at approximately $14 million per acre from separate owners, said John Knott, executive vice president of the Global Gaming Group for CB Richard Ellis.

Triple Five recently sold its 9.2 percent stake in Riviera Holdings Corp. to an investment group trying to buy the gaming company.

The company’s Las Vegas office declined to comment on the land transaction and the stock sale.

Triple Five Group owns the West Edmonton Mall in Canada and the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. It also is planning a major Mall of America-type development in northwest Las Vegas.

The 12 acres the company is buying is located on both sides of Kishner Drive off Convention Center Drive north of the Riviera. The site now houses the Somerset Apartments, Somerset House Motel, a strip mall and Villa Roma Inn.

"It’s the best parcel in Las Vegas that is available," Knott said. "If they could get the rest of it, they would have 26 acres."

The remaining eight acres on the corner of the Strip and Convention Center Drive are occupied by a Walgreens drugstore, discount clothier Ross, the Peppermill and Flyaway Indoor Skydiving facility.

Knott said he would be "shocked" if Triple Five wasn’t negotiating for those eight acres, which are already zoned for gaming.

The topic of the land sale came up during Friday’s earning conference call for Riviera Holdings Corp.

"We’re not sure what they’re planning on doing with it at this point," Riviera Las Vegas Chief Operating Officer Robert Vannucci said during the call. "They have told us they have plans to develop a shopping center there, perhaps a hotel downstream."

Triple Five recently sold nearly 1.5 million shares at $23 per share to Riv Acquisition Holdings, which is trying to buy Riviera Holdings.

The $27 per share offer to buy the gaming company was blocked by the gaming company’s board, which accused Riv Acquisition of colluding with Triple Five to gain control of additional shares.

Riv Acquisition controlled 20 percent of Riviera Holdings stock. Sixty percent of the company’s shareholders needed to approve the buyout.

In May, while Riv Acquisition and Riviera Holdings were settling their dispute in court, Riv Acquisition raised its offer for the company to $423.6 million, or $34 per share.

In August, a Clark County District Court judge struck down a moratorium that barred for three years a maneuver by the investment group to consolidate shareholder support for a takeover of Riviera Holdings.

A spokesman for Riv Acquisition declined to comment on the status of its buyout offer for Riviera Holdings.

The 26-acre Riviera is one of the last old Strip properties on the market after the recent sales of the Sahara and the New Frontier, which closed in July.

The Triple Five Group is controlled by the Ghermezians, a Canadian-based development family.

Eskandar Ghermezian’s name came up during the recent corruption trial of former Triple Five Nevada Development Corp. Vice President Donald Davidson.

Davidson was accused of giving a $200,000 bribe to former Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny and of paying her $3,000 a month for three years, allegedly for supporting Triple Five’s proposed Spring Valley neighborhood casino while on she was on the commission.

Kenny testified she was being paid each month for work she was doing for Triple Five, but the payments continued even after she stopped working for the company because Ghermezian owed her a debt for voting in favor of the casino project.

Kenny testified against Davidson, who was convicted in July on conspiracy and wire fraud charges related to his attempt to bribe then-Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald. He was acquitted of all charges related to trying to bribe Kenny. Ghermezian denied any wrongdoing and was never charged with any crimes.

Contact reporter Arnold M. Knightly at aknightly@reviewjournal.com or (702) 477-3893.