Why Didn't Wynn Buy the Apartment When He Built the Mirage?

Back when Steve Wynn planned and built the Mirage, he bought a lot of land in that area for the resort. What's the story on the Villa de Flores Apartments? Why did he leave that little piece of land and building alone, to remain where it is, surrounded by the Mirage? The two properties are within spittin' distance of each other, but worlds apart in niceness.

In the back parking lot between the Mirage and TI, at 3601 Vegas Plaza Dr., is a 36-unit apartment complex built on six-tenths of an acre. You can see the Villa de Flores building from the south side of Spring Mountain, closest to the Fashion Show Mall.

And it wasn't so much Steve Wynn "leaving the little piece of land and building alone" as it was that the owner of Villa de Flores, Mike Flores, whose family had owned the place since the '60s, wanted $6 million. Wynn wouldn't pay more than $3 million. A world apart.

As you might imagine, Wynn not getting his way led to some unpleasantness over the years.

First, paving work around the back of the Mirage cut off all access to the apartments for a time. When it hit the news, that issue was resolved in favor of the tenants.

Then Flores announced plans to rebuild the property as a hotel-and-timeshare tower. Wynn sued everyone, including Flores, his parents, his architect, and the county commissioners. Flores claimed Wynn sued his mother-in-law and cat. Wynn insisted that the planned building was too big for the small parcel, violating building codes and causing traffic problems for the Mirage. The case dragged on for a few years and while the tower plans were dropped, nothing else changed.

In 1999, one of the propane tanks buried across from the entrance to the apartments to power the fireworks for the pirate battle in front of Treasure Island caught fire and blew up. No one was injured, luckily, but Flores claimed it was an accident just waiting to happen.

Mike Flores did finally sell the property, in 2004, but not to Wynn. It went for $3.8 million to a company, according to the Clark County Assessor's site, KG Vegas Circle LLC (the KG standing for Kevin Golshan of Los Angeles, according to the deed of sale).

Over the ensuing years, the place has remained pretty much as is, with the same owner and a report here and there of some remodeling to some of the units.

MGM Resorts obviously had no interest in doing anything about the situation, perhaps knowing that the Mirage itself would wind up on its own auction block. But now that Hard Rock International will be taking over the property with plans to do a lot of redeveloping, the Villa de Flores might finally keep its long-expected date with the wrecking ball. We'll see.

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Comments

Hoppy Jun-07-2022

Volcano? What Volcano?

Here's an idea. After Hard Rock demos the volcano, they can erect a metal sculpture/thrill ride in the form of a wrecking ball, to replace the volcano.

gaattc2001 Jun-07-2022

A fascinating story...

I looked the place up on Wikimapia: It's literally surrounded by Mirage and Treasure Island [1]. 
Similar things happened in Houston when the oil-and-computer conglomerates were buying up huge tracts of land for office buildings. At least one person refused to sell--and wound up with his house surrounded on three sides by a five-level parking deck, right up to the property line.

1.http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.124218&lon=-115.175343&z=16&m=bh

Kevin Lewis Jun-07-2022

The king is displeased

Steve Wynn has always shown that when opposed, even regarding something trivial, he can be as petty and vindictive as a medieval monarch. He had the money--a hundred times over. He could have bought the guy out without breaking a sweat.

Bob Jun-07-2022

Fair offer?

Seems to me the $3 million offer must have been more than generous Circa 1986 as Mr.Flores waited 18 years and then sold it for 3.8 million.   I'd take 3 million 1986 dollars over 3.8 million 2004 dollars.   plus save 18 years of Taxes and Upkeep on a 25+ year old 36 unit Apt complex.  But hey, that's 3.8 million more than I've got...

AL Jun-07-2022

And 1 more story . . .

As bad as that Houston example: If I have the details correct, the same thing happened in Atlantic City, in which an old house owned by an old lady was on land that a certain casino company wanted to buy all of so that it could build a building on the land. They made offer after offer, all the way up to $3 million, and the obstinate old lady still wouldn't sell. So they gave up and just built their building around her little house on 3 sides. The article included a photo, and it was ridiculous. The lady's quality of life in her old home was severely impacted negatively.  Sometimes ego-pride is just plain stupid. She should've gotten real about what would happen and how life would be, and therefore decide to take the $3M and buy a similar old house someplace else, but now having a ton of money in the bank such that she could buy anything she wanted, travel anywhere she wanted, and give away money to whomever or whatever charities she wanted. When a super-gift is offered to us, take it.

Question of the Day - 07 June 2022

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