Tuesday, March 9, 2004 | 11:08 a.m.
A Clark County District Court judge this morning set aside Friday's probate sale of a parcel underneath the closed Binion's Horseshoe hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas.
Judge Michael Douglas ordered a new sale, ruling that the price set in last week's sale was a mistake. Douglas ruled the price should have included about $136,000 in back rent and costs owed by the Horseshoe to the estate that owns the land.
"There was a mistake as to price," Douglas said. "The court's only choice is to set the sale aside and order a new sale. That gives any party a new opportunity with proper numbers."
An appeal of Douglas' ruling is planned. If the appeal fails, former state Sen. Bill O'Donnell said after the hearing that he intends to rebid on the parcel. O'Donnell said he wants to buy the lease because it's a great income producer. The parcel has a 30-year lease that began in 1997, he said, and yields $155,000 a year.
"That's a 4,000-foot parcel on Fremont Street yielding 13 percent on my investment. This is a good investment," he said, adding that the deal was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
He also said that his intention was not to put anyone out of work. Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and MTR Gaming Group had said initially that if they couldn't buy the parcel, they would pull out of the deal to operate and buy, respectively, the Horseshoe.
But Harrah's and MTR expect to close the transaction, buying the Horseshoe today, and the companies said they don't expect O'Donnell's interest in the parcel to effect the closing.
Douglas ordered a sale but no date had been set immediately after the hearing, which was held in the county's overflow courtroom in the Phoenix building on Third St.
O'Donnell had been awarded the parcel in a Friday probate sale after he topped MTR's $1.8 million bid for the so-called Parry parcel, which is under the southwest corner of Binion's Horseshoe.
If O'Donnell again wins the bid for the parcel, MTR and Harrah's, which has a deal to operate the property for at least one year, say they could operate without using the casino space that sits above the Parry parcel.
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