Monday, Nov. 18, 2002 | 10:15 a.m.
Eager bidders at the Bureau of Land Management auction Friday pushed up the value of 1,130 acres in the Las Vegas Valley to a record $180 million.
The sale of 40 properties included 992.5 acres in the valley's southwest destined to become part of a 2,400-acre community dubbed Mountain's Edge, planned by Focus Property Group.
The company had to outbid several other developers, pushing the price for three properties -- actually a noncontiguous patchwork of smaller parcels -- to almost double the minimum bid of $83 million. The final price for the 992.5 acres was $159.1 million, or about $160,000 per acre.
Smaller properties throughout the valley generally matched that price-per-acre. The BLM, which had appraised the entire batch of properties auctioned Friday at $99 million, almost doubled that figure.
BLM spokesman Phil Guerrero said the bidders packed into the Clark County Commission chambers provided more excitement than a blockbuster movie.
"The energy and electricity in the air was simply breathtaking," he said. "Developers were jump-bidding at a million dollars a pop.
"I wasn't even bidding and my stomach was churning," Guerrero said.
Friday's sale more than doubles proceeds from the previous 10 land sales authorized by the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act. The take from the earlier sales totaled about $155 million.
Guerrero said the important benefit from the sales is that the money benefits people throughout Nevada. Under the 1998 law proceeds go toward the purchase of environmentally sensitive land throughout Clark County, to aid conservation at Lake Tahoe, for capital projects in federal recreation and conservation areas in Southern Nevada, to the state's education trust fund and to the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Friday's auction alone will put $3.6 million into the school trust fund and give the Southern Nevada Water Authority $18 million, Guerrero said, with most of the rest going to environmental and recreational purposes.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced last week her approval to spend $109 million to acquire environmentally important property in Nevada, and make 44 capital improvements to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and the Lake Mead and Spring Mountains national recreation areas.
She also approved funding for 18 parks, trails and natural area development projects.
For developers, though, the sales are important because they give a place to build new homes and businesses for the still rapidly growing Las Vegas population.
Focus President John Ritter said he hopes to begin construction on homes in the Mountain's Edge community in January 2004. Until then there is a lot of work to do putting in the roads, sewers and other infrastructure that is required by Clark County for a master-planned community.
Ritter said his company was hoping the price would be closer to $120 million, about $40 million less than what the company was forced to pay.
"But we're real happy that we were the successful bidder," he said.
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