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Of course, plenty of them flop. During the recession, the valley was littered with abandoned, partially built condo buildings, megaresorts, housing tracts and other projects, and many other plans died on the drawing board. Still, big projects once viewed as being in the middle of nowhere have found success. When developers started building The Lakes, for instance, in the mid1980s, Janet Carpenter couldn’t understand why anyone would want to live “way out there” at the housing and commercial project built around a man-made lake in what was then open desert. Five years later, she bought a house there. The Lakes, however, is just seven miles west of the Strip, whereas CoyA project marker sits in the long-stalled Coyote Springs community about 60 ote Springs is about 60 miles away. miles north of Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/staff file) But Carpenter, a broker with Signacourt records. and sought to build a facility. ture Real Estate Group, noted that In 2004, the duo signed Pardee The plans never materialized, and some people don’t mind a long comHomes as Coyote Springs’ lead buildAerojet sold the site in 1998 to two mute. er. The company agreed to buy 2,000 influential Northern Nevadans: lobShe once sold a house for a UPS acres, slated for about 7,000 homes, byist Whittemore and partner David driver who was moving from the valand had an option to buy an additionLoeb, a real estate developer and coley to Mesquite, about 80 miles northal 13,000 acres, reports said. founder of mortgage lender Countryeast of Las Vegas. He planned to keep Court filings say Pardee paid more wide Financial Corp. working in Las Vegas, which Carpenthan $100 million for land here and Despite the back-slapping at the ter thought was “the stupidest thing had an option to buy the whole projnews conference years later, not evI’ve ever heard.” ect site for $1.2 eryone wel“But I’ve seen it happen,” she said. billion. comed the Home Builders Research founder “Let’s put it this way: I’m “I think Las planned city. Dennis Smith once thought Coyote not standing in line to Vegas is movEnvironmenSprings would do well but now disbuy property there, and I ing closer to talists said it misses it as far-fetched. It’s a great wouldn’t want to be the Coyote every would harm place to live “if you’re hiding from day,” Whittesensitive areas somebody,” he said, and in his 60s, he first one in line to do it.” more said when and that it typidoesn’t expect “to see anything out Kent Lay, Las Vegas division the deal was fied leapfrog there before I’m dead.” president for Woodside Homes announced. development. Still, he said people in the 1990s “You’re only Activist groups laughed at developer Jim Rhodes 50 minutes sued to block it. for launching the 1,300-acre Rhodes away. That’s nothing. You look at the The Environmental Protection Ranch on the outskirts of town, about choices people are making. Pahrump? Agency, however, gave Whittemore 10 miles southwest of the Strip. Is that drive easy?” an award. “There are people with money Seeno’s brother Albert Seeno Jr. His project, the EPA said in 2006, who do some silly things sometimes,” also invested, buying one-third of the was “committed to preserving aquatic Smith said, “and then they turn out to development company, court records resources” and was “a model for envibe visionaries.” show. ronmentally sensitive development nnn With all the government approvals in the arid West.” needed to build, Whittemore drew “You’re kidding me,” the director of Coyote Springs, straddling the scrutiny over his deep political conthe Progressive Leadership Alliance Clark and Lincoln county lines, isn’t nections. But, he said in 2006, he’d alof Nevada said at the time. “I don’t some lush oasis that Whittemore ways face some opposition because of know why anyone would get an award stumbled upon and other developers his lobbying background and, he said, for plopping 80,000 homes down overlooked. his successful career. in the middle of the desert. Maybe “It amazes me that (he’s) inter“I think people are a little bit jealthey’ll give an award to Yucca Mounested in that area,” a Bureau of Land ous,” he said. “I am very blessed. I am tain next,” he said of the proposed Management official said in 2000, the luckiest guy in America.” nuclear-waste dump. after Whittemore laid out his plans. Loeb died in 2003, and afterward, “There’s no lake, no fishing. There’s nnn Whittemore brought in Bay Area really nothing there.” By spring 2007, with cracks aphomebuilder Tom Seeno as a partner. Previous owners figured the site pearing in Las Vegas’ housing marSeeno, whose family has owned stakes was ideal for building and testing misket, there were reports that Coyote in Nevada casinos, acquired 50 persile engines. Aerojet-General Corp. Springs was foundering. cent ownership of Whittemore’s deacquired the property in 1988 in a In late 2008 — a few months after velopment company, according to land swap with the U.S. government
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Lehman Brothers collapsed and with the financial crisis in full swing — Whittemore’s group expected home construction to start in 2010. Instead, as the economy crumbled, executives sued one another and Coyote Springs ground to a halt. In 2011, the developers sued Pardee, alleging the company had, among other things, failed to start “vertical construction” of the golf clubhouse and complete site work for utilities. In 2012, the Seenos, through various limited liability companies, sued Whittemore and his wife, Annette, alleging the embezzlement of “tens of millions of dollars.” According to the suit, Harvey Whittemore “confessed” that company money was used for, among other things, his daughter’s wedding; political fundraisers and parties; box seats for Reno Aces minor-league baseball games; high-end stereo equipment; and loans to friends. Moreover, he allegedly “withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash” from the company. At Whittemore’s instruction, the lawsuit claimed, employees always kept between $5,000 and $10,000, in $100 bills, in a safe in the office. Whittemore yanked out $315,000 in 2006 alone, the Seenos claimed. Less than a week after the suit was filed, the Whittemores struck back, suing the Seeno brothers and Albert’s son Albert Seeno III. After the economy tanked, Albert Jr. “became disgruntled about his investment” and “started falsely accusing” Harvey Whittemore of financial crimes, the suit alleged. At a summer 2010 meeting at the Peppermill resort in Reno, according to the lawsuit, Albert Jr. threatened to go to the FBI; threatened to “personally bring down every member” of Nevada’s political machine; asked Whittemore whether he believed in God and told him to “gather his flock on Sunday and pray”; and threatened the lives of Whittemore and his family. The Seenos also allegedly sent employees to the Whittemores’ homes “to intimidate them and force them to give up” jewelry, art, cars and other assets. One time, the lawsuit claimed, “a large, very ominous and burly man named ‘Ray’ demanded that Mr. Whittemore open a safe in the house.” Apparently joined by other goons, Ray told Whittemore they only wanted to see what was inside, but he “dumped everything in the safe into a bag and took it with him.” Meanwhile, a few months afterWhittemore sued the Seenos, a federal Continued on page 10