By: Las Vegas Now Staff
Secret negotiations are underway to sell the venerable Las Vegas Country Club. Eyewitness News has learned that the country club's board of directors is engaged in talks about a sale to an unnamed buyer from the Middle East.
The Las Vegas Country Club drips with history and tradition and is home to many of the valley's most influential families, some of whom were blind-sided by the sales pitch now being made to the club's board of directors.
Someone wants to buy the club and develop the golf course land, although it's unknown what type of development the buyer has in mind. Negotiations began behind closed doors on Valentine's Day.
In a letter to the club's 600-plus members, the board president revealed that the would-be owner is 'part of a large Middle East-based consortium with very substantial holdings' who wants to seek dense rezoning for the club's 155 acres. Some residents speculated off-camera that the potential buyer might have ties to an oil-rich government in the Middle East.
This isn't the first time a deep-pockets investor has coveted the property. In 2004, billionaire casino man Steve Wynn offered more than $50 million for the same property. The members turned him down and changed their rules so any future sale would require a 2/3's vote of the members.
Most of the people who live within the walls of the country club are not members of the club itself, only homeowners or renters. They will have no say in how the property is developed but have told us off-camera that they are terrified that their pastoral golf course views might be gobbled up by condos. Whoever buys the golf course would not own most of the homes and many common areas including streets.
How serious is the offer? According to the letter, the unnamed buyer paid $100,000 as a non-refundable fee just to open the talks.
Although the potential buyer is not publicly known, the law firm which represents the buyer is known to have represented a large consortium from Dubai in the past.
Calls the board members were not returned.
Email your comments to Chief Investigative Reporter George Knapp.
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