Mizpah Hotel auction update: Winning bid tops $500,000

A San Diego investment firm was the winning bidder for the historic Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah, which went on the auction block Sept. 16. Deftco Corp., represented by Joseph F. Dau, got the long-closed hotel for more than $500,000.

"We are going to revitalize it," Dau said by telephone this morning. "We're going to try to bring it up to a good-looking hotel and casino."

Dau said he expects to spend several million dollars to fix up the hotel, which first opened in 1908.

"It's going to be a small investment for our company," Dau said. "It's not a big one but it's a fun one."

Deftco beat out Las Vegas auto dealer Jim Marsh, who has several properties in and around Tonopah. Marsh remained in the bidding up to about $350,000.

Dau told the Tonopah Times-Bonanza that he won't be involved in the day-to-day activities. Instead, the project will be handled by Danny Doiron, who has long had an interest in Tonopah. However, Dorion's last project, restoring the Belvada Hotel, which is even older than the Mizpah, was left incomplete and the building today is bordering on being a public nuisance, to the consternation of local officials.

The Mizpah is a five-story, Victorian-style hotel. Named for one of the silver mines that put Tonopah on the map, it opened in 1908 and was the state's tallest building at the time. It has 56 rooms and six suites, a 3,000-square-foot casino, two restaurants and two bars.

The hotel has been closed since 2000, struggling for many years before that as various owners tried to make a go of it. A major renovation in 1976 led to a brief period of viability but as Tonopah fell on hard times, so did the hotel.

Pumping several million dollars into the Mizpah would represent a huge economic boost to the aging mining town, which today relies heavily on retail business from motorists passing through town on U.S. 95 on their way to Las Vegas or Reno. It also is the Nye County seat.