Judge orders Milam to take down ‘stadium’ land sale ad

District Court Judge Susan Scann looked at the color copy of a real estate listing Thursday morning and needed only a few seconds to advise lawyers for embattled Texas developer Chris Milam to remove the ad offering 477 acres in Henderson for sale.

The listing violated Scann’s Feb. 5 order that Milam take no action regarding the vacant desert land until a legal dispute is resolved between Henderson officials and Milam, who is accused by city lawyers of a land fraud scheme to flip the advertised site currently owned by the Bureau of Land Management for residential use instead of building a professional sports complex, as he promised last year.

The city is asking Scann for a preliminary injunction that would prohibit Milam from using the land for anything except a stadium or arena if he acquires the site from the BLM. Milam has paid the BLM $10.5 million for the land; the money sits in escrow.

This week, Las Vegas’ real estate community received an email blast from the Nevada office of the Land Advisors Organization, a brokerage company, that hyped the BLM land as a “rare opportunity.” The “exclusive” listing did not mention that Milam’s current deal to buy the land from the BLM is under federal investigation and that Milam is the target of a city lawsuit accusing him of defrauding the city to get the site.

Milam’s lawyer, Terry Coffing of the Las Vegas law firm of Marquis Aurbach Coffing, said he would comply with the judge’s words. Coffing has replaced Las Vegas lawyer Nicholas Santoro as Milam’s lead counsel.

Removing the listing “is not a problem,” Coffing said after Thursday’s status hearing on the case.

During the hearing, Coffing and the city’s outside lawyer, Dennis Kennedy, verbally sparred over the scheduling of Mayor Andy Hafen for a deposition by Milam’s legal team.

Hafen was too busy today to participate in the deposition session, but will do so on Monday.

On Thursday, Coffing also filed motions asking the court to dismiss the fraud lawsuit against Milam. The documents argue there’s no legal basis for the city’s lawsuit. Milam’s lawyers argue their client was simply terminating an agreement that both the developer and the city has agreed could be terminated by either side.

The city’s legal team plans to respond to the motions next week before a Thursday hearing on the dismissal requests.

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273.