Las Vegas has no shortage of huge real estate projects, from supersized casinos on the Strip to sprawling, planned communities with cookie-cutter houses in the suburbs.
But Southern Nevada has something else of a time-honored real estate tradition: developers pitching big plans and never following through.
Over the years, developers have proposed condo towers, resorts and other huge projects that never materialized.
One idea that always seems to resurface is to build a sports arena.
Here’s a look back at a Texas developer who spent years pursuing plans to build these massive entertainment venues in Southern Nevada, with nothing to show for it.
The developer, Chris Milam, previously told the Review-Journal that he loves Las Vegas and that he “took quite a lot of abuse” over a proposed multi-venue project because people thought he wasn’t realistic.
He also said his years in Southern Nevada were “difficult for all of us. But we tried.”
Big plans
Milam surfaced in Las Vegas during the easy-money-fueled real estate bubble two decades ago.
In 2006, he reached a deal to buy the former Wet ’n’ Wild site on the north Strip for $450 million and filed plans for a neck-craning skyscraper, a 142-story casino-resort.
Australian billionaire James Packer later teamed with Milam and a New York investment firm to develop Crown Las Vegas at the site. But by mid-2008, with the economy stumbling, the developers bailed on the $5 billion high-rise project.
In 2010, after the market had crashed, Milam filed plans for the 20,000-seat Silver State Arena at the same property. The $750 million project would “light this area on fire” with economic activity, he said at the time.
That, too, wasn’t built.
In early 2011, Milam proposed a downtown Las Vegas complex with an arena and two stadiums that would reportedly cost nearly $1.6 billion. By spring 2011, he wanted the project – then slated to cost almost $2 billion – at the current Allegiant Stadium site west of the Strip.
He soon changed the location again, drawing up plans for an arena and three stadiums in the Henderson desert.
‘Bit off more than he could chew’
Milam tied up the new project site, some 480 acres of federal land south of the M Resort, in 2012 with a $10.5 million bid to the Bureau of Land Management.
He told the Henderson City Council that he had the rights to the next Major League Soccer expansion franchise; that he was in discussions with several NBA team owners; that he held talks with billionaire tech mogul Larry Ellison; and that he could guarantee 200 events per year even if he couldn’t land a pro basketball team, the city of Henderson later claimed in a lawsuit against him.
He also told council members that his sales staff was generating new business every day, that his financing was fully approved and that there was a key difference between him and his competitors.
“The rest of them don’t have the best interests of the city of Henderson in mind,” Milam said. “We do.”
In early 2013, the city of Henderson sued Milam and others involved in the project. The city claimed they made “numerous false and misleading” statements to city officials and “conspired” to acquire public land at a discount and sell it in pieces “at a substantial profit.”
Milam settled the lawsuit within a few months. According to a federal report, he agreed to pay the city $4.5 million, to have his investors replace him in the land sale process and to never do business in Henderson again.
Around that time, M Resort developer Anthony Marnell III told the Review-Journal that Milam “bit off more than he could chew.”
“I think Chris wanted to do it, but the guy has a track record of more proposed and not-built projects than anybody who has ever come to Las Vegas,” Marnell said.
More plans for same site
Milam wasn’t the only developer to draw up plans for an arena in Southern Nevada and never build it — and he wasn’t even the last one to try it on the former Wet ’n’ Wild site.
Ex-NBA player Jackie Robinson unveiled plans in 2013 for an arena and hotel project there. His plans grew in scope over the years, but he ultimately never built the project, leaving a giant hole in the ground.
Now another group, LVXP, wants to build an arena and resort project on the same site.
“Our commitment is to create a destination that captures the essence of Las Vegas and provides lasting benefits for the community,” CEO James Frasure said in a news release last year. “For me, this endeavor is more than a project – it’s a promise to uphold the spirit of innovation and enthusiasm that defines our local culture.”
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
