Aladdin Villas apartments face foreclosure in one week

The Aladdin Villas apartments in Meadows Village will be put up for foreclosure sale in one week -- a seemingly short time for the boarded-up buildings on Tam Street to change owners.

But in reality, the sale has been months in the making.

The first step toward foreclosure occurred in April 1997, when a group of city building inspectors, neighborhood service officials and Metro Police officers conducted Operation Wham Tam. It was a carpet-bombing approach to cleaning up the dilapidated buildings in the Meadows Village neighborhood.

Collectively the group handed out building code violations and search warrants while chatting with residents about problems in the area.

Aladdin Villas was issued several violations citing exposed wires, faulty gas lines, unsound stairwells, leaky roofs and broken down landings.

For months, city inspectors tried to notify the owners of the apartments about the damage, none of which was being repaired.

Almost a year later, on Feb. 6, Aladdin Villas made Las Vegas City Council history by becoming the subject of the longest meeting in council history at more than 13 hours.

At that meeting, the City Council unanimously voted to vacate the buildings giving 100 residents only a few days to move out. Once vacated, the buildings were ordered to be demolished within a week.

But then the owners, Nick and Brian Mallas, declared bankruptcy. Destroying the apartments -- regardless of their unusable state -- could affect their value. So the court issued a stay on the demolition order for 30 days for the owners to find a buyer.

Thirty days came and went, and the Mallas brothers wanted another 60 days to find a lender to rehabilitate the buildings.

That deadline was Tuesday, when U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Clive Jones allowed the foreclosure sale of the apartments. He added that he would not issue another stay on the case.

After the foreclosure sale, the city will work with the new owners to find out if the buildings will be rehabilitated or razed. Either way, say city officials, it's better than working with the Mallas brothers.

"This owner had since April of 1997 to come into compliance," City Councilman Michael McDonald said. "They take their money out of the neighborhood but they don't put it back in."

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