That assessment was made by the Clark County Fire Department. According to Clark County Public Information Officer Stacey Welling, "They look at the property values in the [surrounding] area" and then estimate the cost of reconstruction. In the case of the Key Largo, such rebuilding would have been made more expensive by abatement costs, brought on by the presence of asbestos in the structure. The more asbestos, the higher the tab.
Although Key Largo ownership used to station a guard at the Flamingo Avenue gate to the property, no one was on duty when fire struck in midafternoon on the 28th, according to Welling. Firefighters had to force their way into the building, she says. "The building is an abandoned hotel and casino and is often occupied by several homeless individuals who associate in the area," reported a joint communiqué issued by Clark County and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives.
The 'conflagration at the Key,' which has been determined by the Fire Department to have been "incendiary" (in the official speak of the National Fire Protection Association, that means deliberately* started -- in this instance with two points of origin identified -- and with a likely focus on monetary harm) gives a new and wholly different meaning to "fire sale." When LVA checked out a Key Largo prospectus for potential buyers two years ago, it was priced at just under $6 million an acre. The (undated) prospectus currently on Colliers International’s website shows the price now jacked up to $9 million an acre. After all, whoever buys it will probably no longer have to tear the Key Largo down. However, at a time when Boyd Gaming is selling Strip land for a seemingly paltry $4 million per acre, asking over double that amount for a derelict casino at the intersection of Flamingo and Paradise roads seems hubristic in the extreme.
*In light of the findings of the investigation into the cause of the fire, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the blaze. It's interesting that not only was there no security guard on duty, but that none of those vagrants who habituated the abandoned property were in the vicinity at the time (initially there were reports that cadaver dogs had located possible human remains, but apparently those early reports were inaccurate).
