Gaming giant outbid in land lease auction

Gaming giant Sheldon Adelson met his match Tuesday in a back-and-forth bidding bout with an Arizona development company that KO'd the Las Vegas Sands Corp. owner in a tense fight to lease nearly 80 acres of land west of McCarran International Airport.

During Tuesday's auction, representatives of Las Vegas Sands and Rightpath Limited Development Group one-upped each other 72 times to boost the cost of a 30-year lease from $620,000 a year -- the original high bid -- to $4.4 million a year.

Signature Flight most recently leased the property at Haven Street and Four Seasons Drive. The property will continue to be used for private aircraft. Rightpath is responsible for designing, building and maintaining a hangar on the site.

Developer Rick Burton, who did the bidding for Rightpath, said after the meeting that the company has not decided what it will do with the lease.

Las Vegas Sands submitted the highest written bid at $620,000 a year. Rightpath and Wynn Las Vegas each submitted written bids for $615,771. The Las Vegas development company Marnell Correo entered the verbal bidding war, but dropped out when the lease price topped $1 million a year.

Franklin Levy, who bid for Sands, and Burton continued battling, trying to knock each other out by boosting their bids by $100,000 at times. Levy turned to his consultants, which included political advisor Sig Rogich, before giving in at $4.4 million.

Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, who conducted the auction, said he was surprised at how quickly the lease price increased.

"People usually ask us for money; it was nice to have people offer it," Reid said.

Rightpath is a large development company based in Phoenix. It is currently building a Glendale, Ariz. Spring Training facility to be shared by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox. The complex site developed by Rightpath will also include residential, retail and restaurants as well as an 18-hole golf course.