Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

OPINION:

Time-share mogul on lawsuit: ‘I don’t like being accused of stiffing anybody. It’s not true’

LVH to Westgate

Christopher DeVargas

David Siegel, founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts, talks with media before being hoisted more than 200 feet to remove the LVH letters off his newly purchased property Tuesday, July 1, 2014, in Las Vegas.

Deep into a lengthy conversation about a lawsuit in which he has been sued by a friend of more than 20 years, David Siegel says, “I would have liked nothing more than to have written that check to her, to have paid her the commission on this, but it didn’t come from her. And that’s the story.”

That clearly is the story from Siegel, founder of Westgate Resorts, who July 1 purchased the former LVH from a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs. The “her” is Heather Atwell, who filed a lawsuit against Siegel in August claiming that he owes her a $1.5 million commission on the sale of the property.

That figure is based on the customary 1 percent commission paid to the agent who enacted the transaction, which reportedly was $150 million. Heather Atwell is the daughter of the late David Atwell, a prominent commercial real estate agent in Las Vegas for decades.

Atwell claims her father, who founded real-estate company Resort Properties of America, brought Siegel and LVH officials together, leading to the deal to sell the property to Westgate. Siegel firmly denies that, his disposition running from solemn to defiant when talking of the accusations in Atwell’s complaint.

“I don’t like being accused of stiffing anybody,” Siegel says. “It’s not true. It’s not what happened.”

Siegel has shot back with a counter complaint, issued Sept. 18 in Clark County District Court, in which he seeks dismissal of the Atwell suit. Siegel claims the Atwells never had a written contract to act as the agent for the LVH purchase and that Heather Atwell lacked the proper license to initiate and finalize such a transaction.

As stated by Siegel’s counsel, Greenspoon Marder of Tampa, Fla., the only member of the Atwell family who held the proper license to make a deal on the purchase of LVH was David, who died in November and whose license was not transferable. Siegel’s counter complaint also says Atwell’s claims of emails and “other communications” about the purchase of LVH have not been backed by sufficient documentation.

Complicating matters further, the Siegel and Atwell families have known each other for more than two decades, since David Atwell showed up at Siegel’s office in Orlando, Fla., talking about a hotel in Las Vegas that might make a great fit in the Westgate collection of timeshare properties. That ill-fated property was the Debbie Reynolds Hotel. Siegel and Atwell made a bid at auction for the foreclosed hotel-casino, which eventually went to the WWF, known then as World Wrestling Federation.

“He was the only broker I knew in Las Vegas, and we became family friends,” Siegel said.

After Westgate lost its PH Westgate timeshare on the Strip to Hilton Vacations, Siegel asked Atwell to find him a property in Las Vegas. But the closest the two ever came to teaming on a deal, Siegel says, was when Atwell presented Siegel with the prospect of buying the Riviera. Siegel wasn’t interested, saying he would need to pour a billion dollars into the property to make it something special. He then headed over to LVH.

Siegel already had been contacted by Mayur Shetty, an agent out of California who had sent him information about the LVH. The two were working on that purchase and had a signed agreement stating such, though Siegel says he and Atwell did talk informally about the LVH deal. Atwell also suggested other hotels that might be available if the LVH purchase didn’t work out.

“He’s saying, ‘If that doesn’t work out for you, maybe the Palms? Maybe the Hard Rock?’ ” Siegel recalled. “I was saying, ‘No, I’m not interested.’ But I never had a signed agreement with (David). They never showed me any other property, other than the Riviera. … They never brought me to Las Vegas, they never told me about (LVH), never sent me a package about the property … Even if they said, ‘Why don’t you go look at the LVH?’ that is not enough to get a commission. I’ve been in real estate for 50 years. I know this. You have to be involved from the beginning until the end.”

Heather Atwell says she is confident in her claim and will continue to litigate the case.

“It is disappointing that Westgate is seeking to use my dad’s death as a reason not to pay for the work he and I did on behalf of Westgate that led to its purchase of the LVH property,” she said.

Siegel says the crisscrossing lawsuits spell the end of the relationship. He is confident he’ll win in court.

“I really loved those people,” he says. “They were good, close friends of mine. I celebrated their granddaughter’s birthday with them. But I am 99 percent sure that this (case) will be dismissed.”

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