Kirk Sanford News

Sightline Payments is a privately owned company with its headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada. The management team, which includes the Vice President of Sales Diran Kludjian; the Vice President of Development Tom Sears, and the CEO, founder and President Kirk Sanford, have all come together to make Sightline Payments the proven provider of payment solutions, cash access and ticket redemption services. This track record of excellence is over a decade old, during which time Sightline has delivered its services to hundreds of millions of patrons and almost a trillion dollars in transactions throughout the gaming and casino industries.

Casino lovers and companies such as Sightline Payments LLC with Kirk Sanford would most probably be relieved to hear that the casino industry in Las Vegas seems to be recovering from its two-year collapse. In September, gambling revenue on the Strip rose by 2.8%; last year revenue was at $506.4 million, and this year it climbed to $520.6 million. The Nevada Gaming Control Board said casino income increased 4.3% in the first nine months of the year.

Steve Wynn, the CEO of Wynn Resorts explained last week that “We’ve seen the bottom in Las Vegas. I don’t know how fast it’s going to get better, but I don’t think it’s going to get any worse.” This was indeed apparent in quarterly results which were posted by Wynn Resort, Las Vegas Sands Corp and MGM Resorts International, three of the top gambling groups in Las Vegas.

If you’re interested in finding vacant land in Las Vegas and building your own home, there are many things you should know.  While the desert looks to be open and inviting, there is surprisingly little room for building at this point.  Almost 80% of the land in the Las Vegas Valley is owned by the Federal Bureau of Land Management. This leaves 20% for private owners.

Most of this land has been divided into half acre parcels, with the largest area of land available being about two and half acre parcels.  If you’re hoping to enjoy horses, you should also know that three horses are allowed for every acre of land.

Certainly, not everyone in Vegas wants to build.  Some companies, like Sightline Acquisition, LLC with Kirk Sanford specialize in the acquisition of distressed commercial and residential real estate.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, things are not looking up for the Nevada housing market.  Nevada ranks first across America in residential foreclosures and second in delinquencies for the second quarter of 2010.

As Stephen Brown, the economist who just became the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said, “The Las Vegas housing market is pretty close to a bottom.” He doesn’t expect to see residential real estate begin to recover for another three years or so.

Unfortunately, Nevada is in good company with their foreclosure rates.  RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service, reports that more than 2.3 million homes have been repossessed by lenders since the recession began in December, 2007.

Many banks have tightened their lending standards as a result of these real estate issues.  Certainly, some companies are able to help with these real estate issues. Sightline Acquisition, Inc. with Kirk Sanford, for instance, is a privately held Las Vegas-based investment fund specializing in the acquisition of distressed commercial and residential real estate. While benefiting from a depressed market, companies like this one with Kirk Sanford can, hopefully, help to breathe life into the real estate market and boost sales.

Certainly, many real estate agents, investors and companies such as Sightline Acquisition with Kirk Sanford, are interested in the changes in the real estate market in Las Vegas. Henderson is the 2^nd largest city in Nevada and the US Census says that it is the fastest growing large city in the United States.

Interesting enough, Henderson is the home to the first large planned community in southern Nevada, Green Valley. At the moment, Henderson has 25 planned communities with even more planned. It’s a wonderful location for school age children, as it has a number of great private schools. It also has one of the lowest property tax cities in Nevada. It’s also ranked as the third best place to retire in the United States.

It will be interesting to see how Henderson continues growing and to watch the real estate market in this area.

Certainly, whether you are shopping for a new house or wondering about the value of your current one, it’s helpful to know what the market will bear. Individuals, and companies such as Sightline Acquisition started by Kirk Sanford, want to know where to invest their money.

One new interesting study points to the walkability of the neighborhood. A company called ceoforcities.org has created a report showing that home values go up as the walk score in a neighborhood ascends. The walk score shows how walkable a neighborhood is.

They found, for instance, that each additional Walk Score point adds somewhere between $500 and $3000 to the value of the home. Walkability helps homeowners because it allows you to reduce your car dependency, cut transportation costs, and help the environment.

Community leaders are hopeful that the depth of the recent economic crisis in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada will motivate politicians and local government to finally take steps to assure that the economy begins the crucial, stabilizing move to diversification.

The Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies, an affiliate of the University of Las Vegas, presented a report based on the opinions of 70 local businessmen, politicians and academics. There was no question, according to the experts, that the road to diversification is the road that is needed to be taken.

It was noted that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spends about $90 million each year to promote the resort industry all over the world, but the Nevada Economic Development Commission only spends about $6 million each year attracting businesses to the area.

Kirk Sanford is one of those rooted and invested in the strength of the economy of Las Vegas and its surrounding areas. As an investor in real estate in Southern Nevada, it would benefit Kirk Sanford along with other local businesses for the economy in the region to weather the storms of economic crisis with stability and resilience.

According to the opinion of 70 leaders in the community of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada, economic diversification is an idea whose time has finally come to the area.

In a report entitled “What Happened? What’s Next? Can We Hit the Reset Button?” academics, business leaders and politicians expressed their views, coming on strong on the side of diversification as a stabilizing factor in the health of the economy.

The report was conducted by the Lied Institute of Real Estate Studies, which is part of the University of Las Vegas. The bad news is that in order to get to the goal of a healthily diversified economy, more money must be spent, especially on public education K-12 and higher education, too. Why is improved education so crucial? According to John Restrepo the principal of a consulting group, in order to attract a larger variety of businesses into the area there must be a higher quality workforce available to fill the positions new businesses would create.

As a member of the business community in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada, Kirk Sanford would certainly like to see greater diversification and stability in the local economy as well as a strong recovery nationwide.

According to the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies, which recently conducted a study based on the opinions and observations of leaders in the community of Las Vegas, diversification is the best way for the economy to cope with economic crisis in the future.

As a result of the recent collapse of the local economy in Las Vegas 70 of Southern Nevada’s business leaders, politicians and academics took another look at an idea that isn’t new, diversification of the economy.

Because the economy of Southern Nevada relies heavily on industries that rely mostly on growth-fueled industries such as construction and real estate, aside from the vulnerable industries of gaming and tourism, when the national economy staggers, Southern Nevada falls.
Relieving the pressure on these industries to provide the engine for the financial well-being of the region would be accomplished by and expansion of industry into less vulnerable areas, therefore diversification is a key goal for the future health of the Southern Nevada and Las Vegas economies.

This would be good news for all segments of the Las Vegas economy, including real estate investors such as Kirk Sanford, whose Sightline Acquisition Corporation invests in distressed properties in the area of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada.

CityCenter, Las Vegas

Kirk Sanford of Sightline Acquisition Corporation and other businessmen in the Las Vegas region are hoping that the distressed Las Vegas economy will experience a big boost today as approximately 12,000 people will be appointed to various posts at the CityCenter project.

This new development has been in the works for about four years, and at 18 million square feet and a cost of $8.5 billion the sprawling CityCenter is the largest commercial real estate project in the United States.

Owned by MGM Mirage, which also owns other casinos in the Las Vegas area such as the Bellagio and the MGM Grand, the CityCenter will include up-market hotels, a shopping center, concert facility and a casino.