NIPTON, Calif. — The weathered signs still point the way to Primm Valley Golf Club, but no one is hitting the links out here in the middle of the desert.
The golf club — along Interstate 15 some 40-plus miles south of the Las Vegas Strip — closed nearly two years ago when new owners bought the site. Nowadays, the fairways are brown, trees are dying, water hazards are green, and, as seen on a recent visit, there’s an “Unsafe Water Alert” fastened to the entry gates.
The letter, dated April 10, tells people to use only bottled water and not drink from the taps at the golf club.
“Failure to follow this advisory could result in illness,” it warns.
Golfers used to play at Primm Valley. The renowned golf-course architect Tom Fazio designed the remote destination, and Las Vegas casino giant MGM Resorts International owned the club for years and used it for marketing purposes at its hotels.
The once-lush property also has water rights — an ever-valuable asset in the Mojave Desert — and the owners are betting on future development reaching the area.
But overall, the golf club, in San Bernardino County, California, has been out of business for a while. And now the nearby casino outpost of Primm, just up the highway in Nevada, could be headed for a similar fate.
Las Vegas-based Affinity Gaming told state officials in a letter dated May 5 that it will permanently close its operations at Primm’s three hotel-casino properties — Whiskey Pete’s, Buffalo Bill’s and Primm Valley Resort — and at the Primm Center gas station and Flying J trucker fueling stop in Primm.
A total of 344 employees will lose their jobs, and the businesses will close on July 4, the letter said.
An apartment complex in Primm that was built for the local workforce is also closing, and the nearby Lotto store just over the border in California is closing too.
Affinity did not own or operate the shuttered golf course. But the current owners opted to close the club while Primm itself — about 4 miles away along I-15 — became increasingly quiet.
Georges Maalouf, co-owner of the Primm Valley site, said it was an amazing golf spot and a destination in the desert.
But, he noted, it was “not a profitable course.”
500-plus acres
Primm Valley Golf Club, long labeled as being in the unincorporated Nipton area, consisted of two 18-hole courses that opened in the 1990s.
In 1999, the company now known as MGM Resorts acquired the club as part of a corporate buyout.
MGM eventually sold the course in July 2024 to real estate investor Iyad “Eddie” Haddad, according to San Bernardino County property records and Nevada business-entity filings.
Prior to the sale, the club had been operated by an outside management firm.
Overall, the new ownership acquired roughly 543 acres for an estimated $1.5 million, according to property records and real estate broker Baron Castillo, who sells land in San Bernardino County and reviewed the golf-club transaction at the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s request.
MGM declined to provide a comment for this story.
Haddad and Maalouf, both of whom live in the Las Vegas Valley, confirmed in a joint interview with the Review-Journal that they teamed up to buy the sprawling property from MGM.
Haddad said they can’t comment on the terms of the deal due to a non-disclosure agreement.
Water notice
The new owners tried to find a way to run the club profitably, but, given the distance from Las Vegas and level of upkeep required, they determined this wouldn’t be feasible, according to Maalouf.
They closed the golf club upon taking ownership, he said.
Maalouf also said there was a potable water permit for the course, but, given their decision to close the place, they let it expire.
He said they posted the Unsafe Water notice at the property. He also pointed out that no one is playing golf at Primm Valley, so there’s no reason for anybody to go there or drink the water anyway.
San Bernardino County Department of Public Health spokesman Francis Delapaz said in an email that the notice at the property is “posted on a recurring basis until the water system is brought into compliance” and is “not a reflection of contaminated water being served to the public.”
He noted that the golf operations ceased in July 2024 and that the facility is not currently serving water to people.
‘It’s an excellent location’
Haddad and Maalouf have a new vision for the sprawling property.
They figure it’s a choice spot for industrial real estate development, given the long-planned airport near Primm at the edge of Clark County.
As they see it, truckers coming in from Los Angeles-area ports can drop off their goods at the current golf club site and get back without having to stay overnight.
“Logistically, it’s an excellent location,” Haddad said.
The envisioned airport in Ivanpah Valley has been in the works for more than two decades.
Under the current timeframe, the earliest that the airport would open is 2037, according to the Clark County Department of Aviation.
Still, the owners of the shuttered golf club say they are confident the airport is coming and that the area around it is ripe for construction one day.
They figured that by acquiring the course, they picked up a big stretch of real estate “ahead of all that development,” Maalouf said.
Keeping the greens
Primm Valley Golf Club opened in 1997 with one course.
The developer, Primadonna Resorts, made a roughly $30 million investment with the project, and the second course that was built soon after at Primm Valley was expected to cost nearly the same, the Review-Journal previously reported.
Then, in 1999, MGM acquired Primadonna Resorts for about $244 million, plus the assumption of debt.
The deal gave MGM full ownership of New York-New York on the Strip, the three hotel-casinos in Primm, and Primm Valley Golf Club.
MGM reported in securities filings that it used the golf club for marketing purposes at its Las Vegas and Primm resorts, offering room and golf packages at special rates.
In 2006, MGM reached a deal to sell the three Primm resorts for $400 million combined to casino operator Herbst Gaming. The golf club was not included in the sale.
However, the economy soon crashed, and in its 2009 annual report, MGM cited “recent operating losses” with the golf club and the company’s “expectation that such operating losses will continue.”
Meanwhile, Primm itself has struggled for years and become increasingly quiet, amid ever-growing competition up the highway in Las Vegas and the expansion of tribal casino-resorts throughout California.
All told, Primm has been a “significant cash drain and management distraction of Affinity for many years,” Melissa Krantz, spokeswoman for the company, previously told the Review-Journal.
A deal to keep Primm afloat could be on the way.
Cory Clemetson, president of Primm’s landowner group and grandson of the outpost’s namesake, the late Ernie Primm, told the Review-Journal on Thursday that he hopes to soon announce a new group that would take over the soon-to-shutter businesses.
Pitching a zoo
As recently as May 2024, Nevada schools ventured to Primm Valley Golf Club to compete for a state title.
Now, Primm Valley’s website directs visitors to its “sister property,” The Legacy Golf Club in Henderson, which Haddad and Maalouf said they also own.
Maalouf said that the golf courses at Primm Valley are not using any water, but that the property has water rights that amount to 1,900 acre-feet annually. This equates to more than 619 million gallons per year.
According to a federal report from 2010, Primm Valley Golf Club used 1,741 acre-feet annually.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that the Primm area will one day be transformed into a hub of aviation and industrial uses. And, as with any real estate purchase, the golf club’s buyers may end up changing their plans for the site.
Haddad said that someone recently contacted him with an idea of turning the property into a zoo or wild animal park.
As Haddad put it, there are a lot of opportunities at the site.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
