For some reason, buyers don’t flock to Chicken Ranch

It’s one of Nevada’s most famous legal bordellos, with a name recognized across the country. So why can’t the Chicken Ranch find itself a new owner?

Since the brothel just outside Pahrump was put on the market in 2004, only two serious buyers have emerged, and both deals fell through.

The most recent setback for longtime Chicken Ranch owner Kenneth Green came late last month, when the Nye County Commission refused to grant a brothel license to a Dallas businessman who reportedly agreed to buy the brothel for $5.2 million.

Green’s original asking price for the 17-bed, 17-bath bordello and the 40 acres surrounding it was $6.95 million.

Some attribute the length of time the Chicken Ranch has spent on the market to an overall dip in the profitability of legal brothels.

Others point to the increasingly long and intensive background checks that potential brothel owners must endure from Nye County regulators.

Brothel industry lobbyist George Flint said both factors may be to blame.

“It appears that the Nye County Sheriff’s Office under the administration of Tony DeMeo is using an altogether different criteria than we used to see 10, 15 or 20 years ago,” said Flint, who owns a Reno wedding chapel and serves as executive director for the Nevada Brothel Owners Association.

Flint said the Chicken Ranch’s previous bidder underwent nine months of scrutiny by Nye County before withdrawing his brothel application “because of the length of time it was taking and the expense.”

“If you make getting a license so difficult that no one can qualify, you eventually end up with a sizeable business that is unsellable,” Flint said.

But DeMeo, the Nye County sheriff, makes no apologies for the way brothel license applicants are screened.

“This is the most privileged license in the United States of America,” DeMeo said. “Right now, these brothel applications seem to be being turned in from outside Nevada. We have to extend our reach a little bit.”

All brothel applicants are subject to a full criminal background check by the sheriff’s office and a complete examination of their finances by a forensic auditor.

The primary goal of the audit is to determine how much money the applicant has and where it came from. That’s important, DeMeo said, because of the amount of money and personal financial information that regularly changes hands at a brothel.

“Criminals actually use brothels and prostitution to fund their criminal enterprises,” DeMeo said. “We have to make sure the person is above board and won’t cause us any problems.”

Barb Brents is a sociology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas who has authored a number of articles on Nevada’s legal brothel industry.

Brents said she is surprised the Chicken Ranch hasn’t sold, “because it’s got the name, because it’s close to Las Vegas and because of the success of Sheri’s” Ranch brothel next door.

That said, Brents acknowledged that qualifying to own a Nevada brothel is no easy task.

In addition to the licensing hurdles involved, prospective owners also face serious issues with financing.

“Banks don’t loan for these kinds of businesses in the same way they do for others,” Brents said.

That leaves brothel owners to invest their own capital or find backers who don’t mind pouring money into a controversial industry that could be wiped out of existence on a whim by state lawmakers or county officials.

Flint said owning a brothel isn’t as lucrative as it used to be, either, thanks in large part to rampant prostitution in Las Vegas.

“The brothels can’t compete with that, and it’s too big for Metro to snuff out,” Flint said. “We have competition we never had before. It isn’t a gold mine any longer.”

The Chicken Ranch’s latest suitor was Dallas businessman Bruce Kahn.

DeMeo said Kahn didn’t provide some financial records and other documents requested by investigators. As a result, DeMeo said his office declared Kahn “not financially suitable” at the end of its 125-hour investigation and recommended his application be denied.

The Nye County Liquor and Licensing Board, which includes the sheriff and five-member County Commission, made the denial official on June 19.

Flint said he has it on good authority that Kahn plans to “take another run” at getting a license and buying Green’s brothel 60 miles west of Las Vegas.

Green could not be reached for comment.

He bought the Chicken Ranch for $1.25 million in 1982, after reading a cryptic ad in The Wall Street Journal for a “profitable” business that was “legal in Nevada.”

In the years since, Green has built around the original mobile homes, adding a Victorian facade that fronts a bar, three bungalows for high rollers, an upgraded swimming pool, and a new front parlor where patrons go to see lineups and choose their women.

Whoever buys the bordello also gets its Web sites and full rights to the Chicken Ranch name and logo, a pair of legs with red high heels hatching from a chicken egg.

That is, if someone buys the bordello.

Brents and others have suggested a more fundamental reason the Chicken Ranch is still on the market: Green’s asking price may be too high.

Flint said no Nevada brothel has ever sold for as much as the $5.2 million Kahn seemed willing to pay before he was turned down for a license.

Brents said the brothel is hurt somewhat by its proximity to Sheri’s Ranch, which has expanded significantly over the years and now markets itself as a resort and spa.

Brents said anyone who buys the Chicken Ranch has two choices: spend a lot of money to bring the property up to the level of its neighbor or focus on attracting a less upscale clientele.

“Sheri’s sort of upped the game. That doesn’t leave much room for the small, mom-and-pop brothel operation, so to speak,” she said.

But Las Vegas attorney Allen Lichtenstein, who is general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, downplayed the significance of the Chicken Ranch’s three-year struggle to find a buyer.

“I don’t think you can read anything into it in terms of the state of the industry,” said Lichtenstein, who has represented the Chicken Ranch and other brothels in his private practice. “The brothel industry is still very healthy, and frankly, the Chicken Ranch is very healthy. It’s an economically strong property.”