Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/198558
Poker giveth and poker taketh away, as this luxurious estate of a troubled poker pro is now on the market. Haute Property NEWS, STARS, AND TRENDS IN REAL ESTATE Old-School Inspiration WHETHER YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A HOME WITH A STORY TO TELL OR SIMPLY A MIDCENTURY MODERN CLASSIC, HISTORIC PROPERTIES ARE ON THE BLOCK ALL OVER TOWN— AND, SURPRISINGLY, AT BARGAIN PRICES. BY ANDY WANG PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAUL T. STOCUM I f you look closely, Vegas is full of history and hidden value. This is a city where it isn't hard to buy a home with a real story for much less than the cost of building from scratch. Consider the old Liberace mansion, a nearly 15,000-square-foot colossus recently purchased by British vacation-home broker and Liberace fan Martyn Ravenhill for a mere $500,000. No doubt it needs work, but the price is just a small fraction of the $3.7 million for which it sold in 2006, and many ornate details—such as the master bedroom's painted ceiling, which resembles that of the Sistine Chapel—remain. Liberace spent a fortune decorating the house, adding things like a spiral staircase that cost $75,000 to move from France and $350,000 worth of copper tile to cover one room. And while the property, which fell into foreclosure in 2010, is not in an upscale neighborhood, you'll find plenty that are, including topend homes with evocative histories and below-cost prices. Card shark Howard Lederer has won World Series of Poker bracelets and World Poker Tour titles. He's made millions of dollars at the tables but ran into legal and financial troubles as a board member of Full Tilt Poker, one of the online poker sites whose American operations were shut down by the US Department of Justice in 2011. Now the mansion and guesthouse on which he spent more than $15 million, in Summerlin's ultraluxurious Ridges development, are on the market for a combined $8.999 million. Listed by Gavin Ernstone of Simply Vegas, a broker specializing in multimillion-dollar homes (simplyvegasrealestate.com), the 99 Hawk Ridge continued on page 118 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 117-118_V_BOB_HP_Opener_Nov13.indd 117 117 10/22/13 10:21 AM