Since Colliers International hasn’t been able to move Gary Goett‘s 100 gaming-enabled acres on St. Rose Parkway and I-15, at $1.25 million per acre, he’s still got time to rethink his decision not to build his Southern Highlands megaresort (left), complete with a mini-ripoff of Wynn Las Vegas, architecturally speaking. But Penn National Gaming continues to entrench at M Resort. (M’s much-touted, sprung-structure pavilion can best be described as “butt ugly” and is unfortunately the closest part of M to the street.) Colliers will split off the 51 acres closest to M, if it likes your offer, and sell those to you. Of course, you can forget Goett’s 1,200 approved condo units and I doubt anybody will build 2,700 hotel rooms far, far south of the Las Vegas Strip, even in a renascent market. Penn has talked about expansion at M, but more in the nature of additional amenities, not rooms.
More interestingly, Colliers is shopping 260 Goett additional acres at Las Vegas Boulevard and Cactus Lane. Bidding starts at … well, name your own price! “SUBMIT ALL OFFERS” screams the prospectus, meaning that Goett wants to 
be rid of the place and will listen to anything remotely reasonable — i.e., not a penny less than $400K an acre. Colliers even has the audacity to use 2004-09 sale prices for its “comparables.” Those guys might think prospective buyers just fell off a turnip truck. (Judging by the location, zoning, etc., I thought this might be Station Casinos‘ “Cactus Station” site — but evidently not.) Why Goett thought he needed two gaming-enabled properties in such close proximity is a real poser, too. An adjacent 102 commercial acres are being peddled by Diversified Realty, but info is hard to come by.
Even though a Cactus/I-15 interchange is in the works, South Point owner Michael Gaughan has had the better part of a decade to plant his flag and he’s built a fiercely devoted customer base in the process. Trying to go directly against Gaughan is a suicide mission. Finally, Nevada has approved intrastate Internet gambling, which will have an as-yet-unmeasured (but undoubtedly chilling) effect on brick-and-mortar casinos and whose imminent players include a certain Michael Gaughan. Don’t cry for Goett: Even if he has to take lowest-offer bids — i.e., $125 million for the whole hundred acres — on that land, he’ll still profit handsomely, having picked up all that M-adjoining scrub for well under $2 million, back in 2004. He’ll manage to buy low, sell not-quite-high and still make a fortune.
Nobody expects Boyd Gaming to execute its Goett-based Park Highlands casino, up in the trackless wastes north of the Woodbury Beltway anymore, Goett least of all. He is trying to offload that acreage 
but evidently feels more bullish about his northerly prospects than his southern ones. The 156-acre tract is being shopped at $17 million — a far more robust price for not-significantly more land. And the Colliers “comparables” are more up to date, too, hailing from 2010-11, when the market was El Stinko. However, the prospectus needs updating, referring as it does to “Aliante Station Casino.” That private-equity orphan hasn’t been a Station property in some time now.
