Strip land sells for $12.8M, buyer remains mystery

A small plot of land on the south Strip has been picked up by a mystery buyer as real estate activity in Las Vegas’ famed casino corridor keeps gaining momentum.

Lily Funds founder Tom McManus sold 2.2 acres along Las Vegas Boulevard at Russell Road for about $12.8 million. He did not name the buyer in a news release last week, saying that while the new owner “has requested to remain anonymous, we are excited for the possibilities.”

McManus, whose investment firm is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, told the Review-Journal on Monday that he agreed to let the buyer remain confidential “at this time” and that he does not know why they wanted to shield their identity.

Property records show the land, between the Diamond Inn motel and the Little Church of the West wedding chapel, was bought by a limited liability company called Object Dash, which, as seen in state records, is managed by Object Dash Trust.

Still, public records do not reveal who was behind the purchase.

The deed that recorded the sale with Clark County, and the buyer’s business-entity registration with the Nevada secretary of state’s office, do not show who is behind the LLC or the trust, as such paperwork often does.

Instead, the filings provide mailing addresses for the law firm Kaempfer Crowell — whose practice areas include real estate law — on behalf of the buyer.

Briana Martinez, an attorney with the firm’s transactional department, is listed on the deed. Josh Correlli, whose practice at the firm focuses in part on real estate transactions, is listed on the buyer’s business-entity registration.

Neither lawyer responded to requests for comment Monday.

Real estate deals have been picking up on and near Las Vegas Boulevard over the past year or so as tourism bounces back from the catastrophic drop-off of 2020 when the pandemic hit.

Formula One’s parent company recently completed its $240 million purchase of nearly 40 acres just east of the Strip ahead of its high-speed race in Las Vegas next year, and Las Vegas real estate firm The Siegel Group purchased roughly 10 acres on and near the north Strip for $75 million in April.

Live-entertainment firm Oak View Group also announced plans in March for an estimated $3 billion complex south of the Strip with an arena, hotel-casino and amphitheater, and Hard Rock International said in December that it’s buying The Mirage’s operations for more than $1 billion and aims to build a guitar-shaped hotel tower on the Strip.

Moreover, casino landlord Vici Properties completed its $17.2 billion buyout of MGM Resorts International’s real estate spinoff in late April, giving the buyer several more hotel properties on the Strip.

Vici now owns 660 acres along the corridor and, according to CEO Ed Pitoniak, has become “the leading real estate owner” on what “we believe is the most economically productive street in the world, the Las Vegas Strip.”

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.