Former home of Las Vegas strip club owner sells for $6.2M — PHOTOS

One of the largest transactions of the year in Las Vegas’ luxury home market closed March 8 in Queensridge, a neighborhood embroiled in controversy about the shuttering of the community’s Badlands Golf Course.

The $6.2 million price tag gave its new owner the keys to 9501 Orient Express Court — a 22,000-square-foot home with two pools, two spas, an indoor basketball court and lazy river. After being on the market for 392 days, the five-bedroom, 10-bath three-story was listed at nearly $6.8 million when it sold.

Tom Love, of Tom Love Group, said the home sold in 2006 to his clients Kenneth and Michele Black for $14 million.

“Clearly, with Queensridge and the Badlands Golf Course being closed, that’s created some difficulties,” Love said.

The 250-acre Badlands Golf Course has been closed since the end of 2016, and Las Vegas City Council approved EHB Cos. to develop 435 for-sale condominiums at the corner of Alta Drive and Rampart Boulevard in mid-February. The original proposal by EHB called for 720 rentals at that location.

The council also is slated to consider the development of 61 custom home lots, spread across 34 acres, in an upcoming meeting.

Despite uncertainty about the neighborhood, the sale was the second largest in the valley for 2017 in the luxury homes and high-rise market, records in the local multiple listing service show. The Queensridge home’s price was just below a sale at Mandarin Oriental on a three-bedroom unit, which sold for $6,240,000 and closed on the same day as Queensridge.

The house also comes with its own controversies.

Michael Galardi, once the owner of strip clubs Cheetah’s and Jaguars, was the home’s owner before the Blacks. In the early 2000s, Galardi made headlines in a federal political corruption investigation named Operation G-String, which led to the conviction of three former Clark County commissioners and Galardi losing his clubs.

With the recent battles over the future of the development and its uncertainty, have come other opportunities for homebuyers.

Love said the buyer of Orient Express, an Asian businessman, “recognized it was an extraordinary value to get this home with all the bells and whistles at this price, and he had the appetite, and he had the wallet, to do it. I think he realized it was a great opportunity.”

Luxury Realtor Ivan Sher with the Shapiro & Sher team of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties was optimistic on the future of pricing inside Queensridge.

“I feel like the values have settled,” Sher said. “I feel like we’re in a state of flux; we don’t know what’s going on up there. People are assuming the worst, when in reality, I don’t think it will be as bad as people think it will be. Ultimately, hopefully, it will be an extreme positive for everybody.”

Sher added that Queensridge has gone on for some time now and buyers are fully aware of the situation. The development also offers buyers a lot of land and a custom home in a guard-gated neighborhood, which Sher said is difficult to find in the local market.

“I’m optimistic that the market has kind of settled in Queensridge for the pricing as it is, and it’s only going to go up,” Sher said.