F1 land in Las Vegas has history of big project plans, huge sales prices

Formula One’s building east of the Strip gives racing fans a close-up view of the action in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

But this being Las Vegas — where big real estate plans often come and go, and investors spend a fortune for property on or near the famed casino corridor — the motorsports league wasn’t the first group to tie up the site.

Here’s a look at the supersized ideas that were drawn up, and the huge sums paid, over the years for land at or near F1’s site at the northeast corner of Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane.

George Clooney project

In 2005, with easy money inflating Las Vegas’ wild real estate bubble, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and Edge Resorts announced plans for the W Las Vegas, a $1.7 billion project at Harmon and Koval.

Plans included some 3,000 hotel and residential units, as well as dining and nightlife spots, a 75,000-square-foot casino and 300,000 square feet of meeting space.

The developers said they bought 21 acres of “prime land” for roughly $108 million.

“W Las Vegas will be the cornerstone property of the ‘Harmon Corridor,’ an area quickly becoming the location of choice for new development in Las Vegas,” Edge Resorts President Adam Frank said at the time.

The next week, movie star George Clooney, nightclub owner Rande Gerber, Miami condo developer Jorge Pérez and former Las Vegas developer Centra Properties unveiled plans for a $3 billion, 25-acre project next to the W called Las Ramblas.

The developers acquired the site for about $80 million, the Review-Journal previously reported.

“We will have some sort of dress code so that it will feel like you are walking into a more formal Las Vegas of a different age or a classic Monte Carlo casino,” Clooney said in a Los Angeles Times report.

Neither project materialized. The W’s developers bought the Las Ramblas site in 2006 for about $200 million, and the W was nixed in spring 2007 after Starwood reportedly bailed on the development.

‘Old, tired piece of property’

In summer 2007, diamond magnate Lev Leviev’s conglomerate Africa Israel Investments announced a $625 million real estate deal in Las Vegas, teaming with partners to acquire 60 acres at Harmon and Koval.

But the economy soon crashed, and real estate projects throughout Southern Nevada flopped.

Africa Israel said its land in Las Vegas was slated to have a project with hotels, a conference hall, commercial areas and a casino. But amid the “worldwide crisis,” the company said, it decided to no longer invest in the project or repay the existing loans.

Ultimately, the landowners never built a project, and the property went into foreclosure in 2014.

Then in 2019, the Daneshgar family of Southern California stepped in, buying around 60 acres at Harmon and Koval for $130 million. The purchase included an apartment complex next to what’s now Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

The family said it was excited to buy an asset with “tremendous potential and a rich history of development approvals.”

“It takes that old, tired piece of property that’s been vacant forever and puts some energy and life into it,” listing broker Mike Mixer of Colliers International said at the time.

The buyers never built a project either, but they sold the plots for big money.

F1 zooms in

Formula One owner Liberty Media Corp. purchased about 40 acres at Harmon and Koval from the Daneshgars’ real estate firm 3D Investments for $240 million in 2022, just a few months after F1 announced plans for a dramatic 50-lap race in Las Vegas the following year.

3D also sold the adjacent apartment complex for $126 million to a new landlord.

F1 went on to build a 300,000-square-foot structure with drivers’ garages on the ground level, two floors of event space and a rooftop deck. Starting this spring, F1’s property, known as Grand Prix Plaza, will be open year-round, with immersive experiences, karting and other offerings.

Plus, the Grand Prix’s start/finish line is along the side of the building, giving fans in the grandstands and suites a prime view of the action.

Of course, before F1 came along, the property saw a different kind of action for years — just with nothing to show for it.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Review-Journal staff writer Mick Akers contributed to this report.