A Reno developer has purchased a large parcel south of Las Vegas, with plans to destroy a defunct hotel-casino and replace it with a vast industrial park.
Tolles Development Co. paid $44.7 million for around 142.3 acres of land along Interstate 15 near Jean.
According to property records, the transaction by the Herbst family, owners of the Terrible Herbst gas station network, was completed on February 24. Jean, an isolated enclave 25 miles south of the Strip with only state prison convicts as population, is a barren wasteland.
Why Would This Make Sense?
Truckers coming in from Southern California could drop off items at the industrial park and return in one day, according to Tolles partner Cory Hunt, and the project site already has utilities hookup.
Tolles intends to break construction on its 1.9 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in roughly a year to a year-and-a-half, according to Hunt, who confirmed the deal on Thursday.
He estimates that the business park will take three to five years to complete. The last phase of the project would be built on the site of the defunct Terrible’s hotel-casino, according to Hunt, who added that Tolles hasn’t decided how to demolish the property.
Nonetheless, he stated that the creators would welcome a film team to come “help us celebrate blowing it up.”
“We’ll do it up Vegas style if we do collapse it,” he remarked.
What Will The Industrial Park Look Like?
The industrial park’s designs were authorized by Clark County commissioners last month.
The Herbsts are still active in Jean, having erected a big travel center with 96 petrol stations and a 50,000-square-foot convenience shop there in 2018. It’s directly across the highway from the town’s second gas station, a Terrible’s truck stop.
Tolles’ purchase was accompanied by conditions that essentially prevented the property from having enterprises that competed with the Herbsts in Jean.
The site cannot include a convenience store, grocery store, liquor store, coffee shop, car wash, or vehicle-fueling or charging facilities, according to the deed that documented the transaction with Clark County. It also can’t sell fuels like petroleum and gasoline that are used “for the propulsion of motorized vehicles.”
Those were “terms that we all agreed upon,” according to Hunt. Attempts to reach a member of the Herbst family or their firm on Thursday were fruitless.
A tiny airport, courts, fire station, and post office are among the government services and operations available in Jean. The only people who live there are the 240 female convicts of Jean Conservation Camp, a state jail.
How Did Jean Get the Casino in the First Place?
MGM Resorts International and the Herbst family agreed to sell the former Gold Strike hotel-casino and “associated properties” in Jean for $12 million in 2014. The transaction was completed in 2015.
Gold Strike was upgraded by the new owners, and the name was changed to the Herbst family’s main brand in 2018. However, since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, that property has been closed.
Warehouse developers in Southern Nevada have been building warehouses for years, and business has only gotten better during the epidemic, as an accelerated move to internet shopping has boosted demand for distribution space.
Residents in Sandy Valley, Goodsprings, and Sloan, all small, isolated towns outside of Las Vegas, would benefit from industrial growth in Jean, according to county staff.
The sale of the casino will also be key for the town as it would potentially bring in new jobs to the area. Without much around the area, it is a perfect spot for expansion and could lead to further growth in the future.
Last Updated on by Ryan
