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\n\tThe late David Atwell<\/p>\n
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\n\tThe late David Atwell<\/p>\n
\tWhen we look at the Strip, the builders get all the headlines. We read about the towering figures who transformed the Strip with Caesars Palace, Bellagio and CityCenter. They take an empty space\u2014which, given our penchant for implosions, might be relatively recently empty\u2014and create something that benefits the community. Posted by:<\/strong> Dr Crapology on March 6, 2014, 11:01 pm<\/p>\n Posted by:<\/strong> TommyC on March 7, 2014, 4:23 am<\/p>\n The late David Atwell When we look at the Strip, the builders get all the headlines. We read about the towering figures who transformed the Strip with Caesars Palace, Bellagio and CityCenter. They take an empty space\u2014which, given our penchant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tBut before those city-defining resorts were built, they had to secure the land to build upon. That\u2019s where David Atwell came in. Atwell, who died November 25 at the age of 63, is an almost-native Las Vegan. Moving here with his family in 1955, he grew up watching the city grow up around him. Armed with a degree from UNLV, he went into real estate in the mid-1970s, soon focusing on hotel and casino transactions. Among the numerous deals that Atwell helped broker, three stand out as particularly important to both his career and the current shape of the Strip.
\n\tThe first came in 1979, near the start of Atwell\u2019s career, when he put together several parcels north of Caesars Palace that housed a number of low-density buildings, including the Sage & Sand motel, Caesars Shell, Holiday Texaco, Kontiki Apartments and the Deville Apartments. He didn\u2019t have a particular use for the land in mind, but he had a buyer\u2014Caesars World, then the casino\u2019s owners. Atwell was able to sell the Perlman brothers, who then ran Caesars World, on the value of the land (Caesars was then in growth mode, with a new high-end tower at the Palace and expansion into Atlantic City and Lake Tahoe).
\n\tIt took more than a decade, but Caesars eventually decided to build a shopping mall there\u2014the first time a casino on the Strip had done so. Since its 1992 opening, the Forum Shops has consistently been one of the most profitable retail locations in the country. A 2009 study clocked the Forum Shops with average daily sales of more than $1,400 per square foot, nearly $300 more than their closest rival.
\n\tAtwell\u2019s defining deal might have been the 1987 acquisition of the Dunes casino and its golf course in bankruptcy court for Japanese billionaire Masao Nangaku. The $155 million deal was a blockbuster for Las Vegas at the time, and Atwell fended off competition from many of the city\u2019s leading developers, including Hilton Hotels, Kirk Kerkorian, Caesars World, Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson.
\n\tThe deal presaged the growing importance of international capital in Las Vegas, and while Nangaku\u2019s ownership of the Dunes was not profitable for him (he sold it in 1992 for $75 million), new owner Steve Wynn made the most of the property, demolishing the Dunes to create Bellagio. The land included in the transaction also yielded the Monte Carlo and CityCenter. Had one of the other buyers bested Atwell in bankruptcy court in 1987, it\u2019s likely that the Strip would look much different today.
\n\t\u201cThat was one of the landmark deals in town,\u201d says Sig Rogich, president of Rogich Communications Group. \u201cHe was a tenacious guy who loved what he did and worked tirelessly at it.\u201d
\n\tAtwell\u2019s last major deal, the 2007 sale of the Frontier to Elad Properties, illustrated the heights to which the Las Vegas real estate market soared. The record-breaking sale of $1.2 billion\u2014or $33 million an acre\u2014may never be equaled. Although, thanks to the ensuing recession, nothing has risen to replace the Frontier, that site stands as a monument to the power of the Las Vegas dream: Build it bigger and better.
\n\tThrough all the deal-making, Atwell remained tied to his hometown, particularly through his work with the March of Dimes and the Chamber of Commerce. Rebel fans may remember his singing the national anthem at basketball games. Through it all, he was committed to building the community as well the resort corridor.
\n\t\u201cDave knew how to bring people together to make deals that were in this community\u2019s best interest,\u201d says Jan Jones Blackhurst, former Las Vegas mayor and current Caesars Entertainment executive. \u201cHe had global reach, but in his heart he was a Las Vegan.\u201d
\n\t\u201cHe was a genius at identifying an opportunity and then finding the players to make it work,\u201d says Brett Torino, who has been developing land on the Strip for 20 years. \u201cBut his greatest genius of all was his family. And that in my book is what made the guy such a terrific individual.\u201d
\n\tAtwell\u2019s career was a reminder that, while the forces that drive Las Vegas development might be global, it takes local know-how to get the deals done.
\n\t– See more at: http:\/\/vegasseven.com\/2013\/12\/03\/real-e … vdAgr.dpuf<\/a><\/p>\n
\nReplies:<\/h3>\n
\nVery interesting article. I had never heard of the man. Thanks for posting.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nGreat read.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"