Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Lawsuit against Westgate owner dismissed, for now

DAVID SIEGEL

Christopher DeVargas

Talks Westgate L.V. plans

Updated Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014 | 9:54 a.m.

In an interview in September in a suite at his Westgate Las Vegas, David Siegel predicted the lawsuit filed by onetime family friend Heather Atwell would be dismissed. And it has been.

The ruling in favor of Westgate was issued Dec. 1 by U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan.

Heather Atwell is the daughter of famed Las Vegas commercial Realtor David Atwell, who died in November 2013. In August, Heather Atwell issued a claim on behalf of the company her father founded, Resort Properties of America, saying she and the company were owed a $1.5 million commission on the sale of the former LVH from a Goldman Sachs subsidiary to Siegel’s Westgate Resorts time-share chain. That figure was based on 1 percent of the sales price, which was reportedly $150 million.

Atwell claimed her father initiated contact between Siegel and LVH officials, and thus his company was owed the commission customarily paid to a Realtor who executes a transaction. Siegel pushed back, saying Atwell wasn’t his contracted agent. Siegel instead worked with California broker Mayur Shetty, who did receive a commission.

The court ruled that Heather Atwell’s original suit has failed to prove that her company was owed a commission based on her father’s work with Siegel.

“I never had a signed agreement with (David),” Siegel said in September. “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.”

Heather Atwell vows to continue the fight. The dismissal was made “without prejudice,” meaning she has the option of refiling. Her side claims there was an error in the original filing, a “technicality amendment,” as she describes it, that her attorneys from Las Vegas firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Shreck are redrafting.

Atwell plans to file a new case soon, most likely by the end of the month. She says the fight is far from over.

In other news:

• Don’t be surprised if the planned implosion of the Clarion is moved back as the permit process takes hold. New owner Lorenzo Doumani had hoped to knock the property down at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 13 to start building “something very cool.”

• One way to tell it is Christmas Day in VegasVille is to drive into SLS Las Vegas. If the garage on Paradise Road is open – Merry Christmas!

That is the target day for malfunctioning elevators to be replaced. It will be a holiday gift to anyone parking on the property.

One day, SLS will have functioning elevators throughout the property and a full-service buffet. High fives, all around.

• A dearth of information about plans for Resorts World Las Vegas at the site of the stalled Echelon project is not doing anything to engender confidence that overlord K.T. Lim will follow through on plans to invest up to $4 billion on the Strip. Shovels were supposed to be in the ground by the end of this year.

• There is a sense of nervousness around the Stirling Club at Turnberry Place. People worry the club will never be returned to its former glory. The new ownership group out of Silicon Valley has not opened any portion of the restaurant, lounge or spa to residents.

• On Nov. 26, a group of MGM Resorts International officials descended on the grand opening of the new Nacho Daddy on West Sahara Avenue, the former Firefly and Z Tejas location, and instantly were disappointed. Not in the restaurant, but because the grand opening was Nov. 24.

• Comment from a friend of mine who is, or was, an Uber driver: “The level of disdain my passengers had for everything that has to do with cabs in Las Vegas was incredible.”

A thought from another longtime Las Vegan: No cab company in this market has an app that can compete with Uber in an open marketplace. The general convenience of Uber is its chief selling point.

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