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Credit to Darcy Spears, Investigative Reporter
El Rancho back on the Hot Seat:
PART 1
LAS VEGAS, April 24-Anyone who's lived in or visited Las Vegas over the last 8 years has probably asked this question, what's up with the EL Rancho? Over the last 9 months, our News 3 Investigators have put El Rancho owners and local government leaders on the Hot Seat. News 3 Investigator Darcy Spears answers that question.
You might say it's a miracle but this crumbling old eyesore will soon become a memory in the blink of an eye. In fact, the county says there have already been inquiries about implosion permits for this place and the questions are coming from el rancho's neighbor, who's also the new owner.
There will be cheers when the el rancho comes crashing down, burying 8 years of mystery in a pile of dust.
Last summer, employees who asked us to conceal their identities took us on the only tour anyone's ever had of the decaying property. They gave News 3 and the community an eye opening view of this eyesore, showing us just how bad the place had become since its doors closed to the public in 1991.
Can you imagine buying a $3 million condo, looking out your window and seeing this place?
That was the million-dollar question, actually, the $45 million-dollar question. 45 million dollars is the amount Turnberry executives are paying to purchase the dilapidated El Rancho property. Apparently, they couldn't imagine selling a high-priced penthouse with this in its backyard.
Now, Turnberry place residents won't have to overlook El Rancho and that makes County Commissioner Myrna Williams, whose district encompasses both properties, very happy.
Williams says, ?I think we have a miracle and I'm excited and I know lots of other people are excited and hopefully we don't hit any snags along the way.?
Williams, who just had eye surgery and still has to wear sunglasses for sensitivity, says when El rancho is imploded, she wants to be there to pull the switch.
Williams says, ?The real blight is on its way out?we'll be getting an eyesore off the strip, we'll be having a very fine property there and it'll just be great for everybody. It'll solve a lot of problems.?
The problems she's talking about are those we exposed when our investigation first began.
For example, a chemical room that could kill you, asbestos falling out of the ceilings, and faulty wiring are some of the problems we exposed.
When county inspectors took a look at the place after seeing our video, Commissioner Williams sent the county's first-ever contact with El Rancho owners.
In the letter she writes, ?I am sure you can understand my deep concern regarding this property. Foremost the safety of our tourists and workers and secondly the fact that it sits within our major strip corridor where all gaming properties continually renovate and upgrade. The property has been vacant for many years. What future plans do you have for this property and is it possible to expedite the time line for those plans??
After 8 years sitting, shuttered, our investigation and that letter led to El Rancho's sale within a few short months.
Williams says, ?I wouldn't like to think that people have to be coerced. It's a very valuable piece of property and I'm sure that they were anxious to solve their problems as well.?
The owner's problems are explained in a letter they sent back to the county.
They talk about why the El Rancho sat for so many years and what they were waiting for.
But local experts and a scorned investor don't buy it.
Escrow on El Rancho's sale could close by the end of this week, or June first at the latest.
Turnberry's not yet saying what their plans are for the property.
PART 2
Turnberry is indeed taking over el rancho but many say the sale should've taken place a long time ago.
Did it take our investigation and county pressure to light a fire under El Rancho owners' feet and would they have sold at all if we hadn't turned up the heat?
The folks at Turnberry have their hands full with the new addition to their family, the El Rancho.
Williams says, ?When you have a piece of property that's vacant for as long as that's been vacant, you end up having problems and squatters and all kinds of things and no matter how hard you try, there's always something that happens or
somebody that can sneak in.?
Plenty of vagrants were sneaking in and staying at El Rancho, that?s just one of the hazards we first exposed several months ago when some workers who asked us to conceal their identities invited us in and showed us around the decaying hotel-casino.
Inside we saw marijuana and empty beer bottles all around as well as rats, roaches and other nasty things.
Nasty should be turning to nice now that Florida-based Turnberry Co. is purchasing the property and will probably tear it down to expand their residential presence in Las Vegas.
Williams says, ?Rumors are abundant. There have not been any permits pulled. There have not been any plans turned in yet. This is just the beginning of the deal.?
A deal that was done in a few short months, after the property sat vacant for eight long years.
Why the sale all of a sudden?
The answer lies with International Thoroughbred Breeders, a New Jersey company that currently owns the El Rancho. I.T.B. answered the county's recent inquiry about their plans for the property, sent as a result of our investigation, with a letter that announces the sale to Turnberry and explains the ultimate failure to make Countryland USA, a reality.
ITB officers claim they were "unsuccessful in raising the funds necessary to renovate and upgrade the property to the standards which would be appropriate for Las Vegas."
Review-journal columnist John L. Smith who's been writing about El Rancho for years, doesn't buy it.
Smith says, ?We have now passed through a time of unprecedented growth on the strip in which interest rates nationally are the lowest they've been perhaps in the history of the strip, where money on Wall Street has been more available than ever for funding of Strip properties and the El Rancho can't get any money? It tells me something about how the place is being promoted and maybe about the owners.?
El rancho's former owners have a checkered past at best, especially Las Vegas Entertainment Network.
Since our investigation aired, they've been under scrutiny by the F-B-I and Securities and Exchange Commission for allegations of stock scams and investor fraud.
Los Angeles businessman Jack Carlton says he knows about that fraud from personal experience with L.V.E.N.
Carlton says, ?I can't say what happened to my money.? He says he lost his retirement savings to L.V.E.N. when they failed to deliver a return on his $300,000 investment in electronic bingo machines to be sold in Brazil.
Carlton says, ?It'd mean my retirement. That's the whole thing. At my age, point of retirement, perhaps I was suckered into a deal that really didn't exist but I just don't believe that.?
For all the others like Jack Carlton and anyone who may have lost money investing in El Rancho, there's one thing Commissioner Williams says they can believe, ?there will never be another El Rancho again.?
Escrow on El Rancho's sale could close by the end of this week, or the latest by June 1.
Turnberry's not yet saying what their plans are for the property.
The county plans to ask the 2001 legislature to grant them the power to condemn so they can affectively address problem properties like el rancho in the future.
Currently, only cities have the legal power to condemn.
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