Las Vegas Sun NewsCity alleges developer with arena plan only wanted cheap land
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Courtesy
Artist rendering of the proposed Las Vegas National Sports Complex in Henderson.
Tuesday
29 January 2013
11:22 a.m.
Updated
29 Jan. 2013 12:18 p.m.
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Developer Chris Milam repeatedly lied to Henderson officials about the viability of his massive sports arena complex as a way to buy cheap public land and then sell for profit to other developers, the city alleged in a lawsuit.
Milam, his lawyers John F. Marchiano and Christopher C. Stephens, land consultant Michael Ford and public relations-lobbying chief Lee Haney are accused of using a city-approved development pact to fraudulently buy roughly 485 acres near the M Resort from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for a proposed Las Vegas National Sports Complex.
Instead of following through on the project plans, efforts were made to sell the land “piecemeal” to residential and commercial developers at a “substantial profit,” says the 35-page complaint, filed Monday in Clark County District Court.
Milam deposited the balance of the land’s $10.5 million purchase price into escrow on Nov. 28 and, also that day, hand-delivered a letter to City Hall saying he was terminating the project agreement because the arena plans were not viable.
That same day, after city officials “confronted” Marchiano about Milam’s actions, Marchiano “confessed” to Henderson City Manager Jacob Snow and City Attorney Josh M. Reid that “Milam had been lying to the city” about his project intentions, according to the lawsuit.
“Haney has also tried to come clean by claiming ignorance about what Milam was doing — a claim that defies belief,” says the complaint.
City officials are seeking a judgment declaring that the development agreement remains in full force, as well as a court order that bars the defendants from selling or developing the land for any uses not outlined in the agreement. The city also is seeking unspecified punitive damages.
Jacob Hafter, attorney for Marchiano, said his client “never confessed to anything because he didn’t know of any of these issues.” He also said the group was allowed to buy the BLM land “free of any restrictions,” and either they or the city could terminate the project agreement.
According to Hafter, the group terminated it as a way to renegotiate the terms. He said they could not obtain project financing because of its onerous development restrictions, though he couldn’t cite any of them. He also said the lawsuit is “filled with hype and rhetoric.”
“This is nothing but a political stunt,” he said.
Milam, Stephens, Ford and Haney did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests for comment.
Stephens, a shareholder with the Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck law firm, is a California licensed attorney. According to the lawsuit, he “regularly engages in the unauthorized practice of law in Nevada,” including in connection with the sports arena project.
Ford, a partner with Henderson consulting firm Abbey, Stubbs & Ford, spent 25 years working for the BLM. According to the lawsuit, he has tried “to pressure” the BLM into issuing Milam’s group a land patent, thereby transferring title.
He also allegedly “threatened” Reid, the Henderson city attorney, in a Nov. 30 phone conversation, saying Reid and the city should not interfere with the land transfer and indicating there was nothing they could do to prevent BLM from handing over the ownership, according to the complaint.
The BLM has not yet transferred ownership of the 485 acres to Milam’s Silver State Land LLC. The escrow closing date was extended last month to Feb. 6.
Milam, who lives in Texas, is the CEO of International Development Management. His stadium plans have been viewed skeptically, partly because he has proposed other Las Vegas Valley sports deals that flopped. Also, no teams have said they would move to his Henderson project site.
Building a speculative U.S. sports arena or stadium — let alone a cluster of them, as Milam envisioned — is practically unheard of, given their huge price tags.
In September 2011, the Henderson City Council approved an initial project agreement with Milam’s group and voted to support the BLM land sale. The next month, the council approved rezoning the land.
Milam’s companies announced nearly a year ago that Shenzhen, China-based China Security & Surveillance Technology had tentatively agreed to finance a $650 million, 17,500-seat indoor arena suitable for a basketball team.
Once the arena was completed, Milam has said he planned to build three other stadiums that could host soccer, baseball and football contests.
Their combined price was expected to be more than $1 billion.
He told the Henderson City Council last April that the China Security financing was “fully approved” and construction of the indoor arena could begin as early as October.
Milam has allegedly said in marketing materials that even if sports facilities weren’t built, mixed-use and residential projects still could be developed.
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Milam is the biggest BS artist I have ever encountered in my long development career. He pulls a team together, gets drawings done, pulls nonsense off the web, refers to his obscure website claiming he built billions in Europe (there is no proof that he did!). He comes in to convince you that he built a AAA stadium in Texas so he can build 1, 2, 3 huge arenas here now in the Las Vegas on its Symphony Park until they run him out. Then he goes to Clark County and pitches one site they own and then another site along the 15 that can hold 3 arenas!!!--holy cow! County skeptical, does not hand him checkbook. So he goes down to sweet, naive Henderson and convinces them pretty easily to get into bed with him over this 3 arena / 485 acre BLM land swap. Hooterville wants it so bad that they do no background on Milam AND do not call Las Vegas or Clark County to ask why those bigger, smarter entities called off their deals with this guy. Now Hooterville will be in court for months while Milam tries to defend his reputation so that he can go rip off another city down the road.....
A sleezy developer...who would have thought?
The author might have also mentioned that current Henderson city attorney Josh Reid was (is still?) a partner at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the firm that Stephens is a shareholder in.
What a coinky-dink, as they say.
When I covered Clark County, Mr. Milam had one pie-in-the-sky arena proposal after another. None of his grandiose plans had feasible financing. He made the rounds to every local government in the valley. He once claimed to have locked down a deal with an NBA team, which proved greatly exaggerated. Every one of his plans evaporated. And this was after he proposed building the tallest tower in the world. Looks as though Henderson bit the bait and got bitten.
This guy Milam is a big phony and deserves to lose everything. Actually he should go to jail for lying to the City of Henderson. There is no way the federal government is going to convey the land to Milam.
Well...duh. A lot of us told you that the guy was a fraud BEFORE you decided to stupidly proceed with the sale.
Every member of the Henderson city council that voted for this should hang their heads in shame and resign immediately, having demonstrated their unfitness for all to see, but they won't, proving it beyond a shadow of a doubt. So we will need to do it for them in the upcoming elections.