Tucked away in the county’s posh coastal neighborhoods are multimillion dollar homes belonging to the mega rich,not of Orange County,but of Las Vegas.
They’re casino owners, developers and a former politician. Some are colorful characters who bring some Vegas baggage with them in the way of purported mob ties and brash lifestyles.
They’re drawn here by what appeals to everyone about OC: luxurious coastal living (which can’t be found in Vegas), as well as great shopping and restaurants.
Some spend a lot of time here, though nearly all have their primary homes in Nevada for business and state income tax reasons.
The county’s Vegas contingent raises eyebrows from time to time. But for the most part, they come here to blend in. The relaxed coastal wealth of Newport Beach and Laguna Beach,where it’s hard to tell if someone’s worth $1 million or $1 billion,provides plenty of cover.
“They can live here or vacation here in relative obscurity,” said Garth Blumenthal, general manager of Newport Beach Mercedes-Benz dealership Fletcher Jones Motorcars.
The wealthy of Vegas stick to Newport and Laguna. Like New Yorkers fleeing to the Hamptons to escape the city’s summer heat, many come here to get away from Sin City’s scorching temperatures.
“It’s a nice change for those dried-out souls to be near the ocean,” said Michael Webster, owner of Laguna Journal, an online publication in Laguna Beach.
And, like the Hamptons, Newport and Laguna offer cachet and prestige for the wealthy of Vegas.
“There’s some kind of posture to living in Laguna Beach,” Webster said.
Most of the Vegas wealthy here made fortunes on casinos or slot machines.
They include Jerry Herbst, owner of Terrible Herbst casinos and gas and convenience stores; Bruce Becker of casino operator Becker Gaming Inc.; Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, owners of Station Casinos Inc. and Ultimate Fighting Championship; Charles “Chuck” Mathewson, former head of gambling machine maker International Gaming Technology; Gary Primm, former owner of Whiskey Pete’s and other casinos in Primm, Nev.; and former Las Vegas mayor turned casino executive Jan Jones.
There also are developers who made their money off The Strip in Sin City’s real estate boom earlier this decade. They include developer Joel Laub of Astoria Homes LLC and Kenneth Sullivan, cofounder of Centra Properties LLC.
Then there are the colorful ones. They include Fred “Freddie” Glusman, former part owner of the Ritz Restaurant and Garden in Newport Beach, and Rick Rizzolo, a former operator of topless clubs.
When Glusman took over running the Ritz in 2002, it quickly became a hub for the county’s Vegas contingent. The Ritz, like Glusman’s Piero’s Italian Cuisine in Las Vegas, became known as much for its owner and patrons as the food.
The restaurant made headlines after former county sheriff Mike Carona mingled there with patrons who were backers of Carona’s campaigns. Some of them held reserve deputy badges given out by Carona. The badges since have been recalled by the current sheriff, Sandra Hutchins.
Post Drama
The drama at the Ritz brought the county’s Vegas contingent a lot of unwanted publicity. But it’s over.
Glusman, who had a brush with the law here last year, sold his interest in the Ritz.
The restaurant is quieter these days, though it retains Vegas ties.
Restaurant veteran Ray Jacobi now runs it with Glusman’s former silent partner, slot machine mogul Mathewson.
Jacobi said his friend Glusman sold the restaurant because he wasn’t making any money.
“Freddie is in his 70s, and, as a proprietor and operator, he didn’t have the energy to work the Ritz,” he said. “He’s ready to retire.”
Glusman still spends time in OC as he seeks to sell a couple of homes here.
Mathewson ran International Gaming Technology until 2000, turning the company into an industry leader. In 1986, he bought out founder William “Si” Redd, who popularized video poker and helped shape Vegas.
Mathewson’s also an investor in Woodland Hills-based Grill Concepts Inc., which owns the Daily Grill restaurants.
Others from Vegas keep low profiles, except for the occasional headline about a mansion buy or yacht issue.
Herbst, who’s also in his 70s, made news last year with his $35 million purchase of Nicolas Cage’s former Newport Bay home.
His empire includes a slew of Terrible Herbst gas and convenience stores and car washes throughout the Silver State as well as several casinos, such as Buffalo Bill’s and Whiskey Pete’s.
Herbst’s father, Ed Herbst, started the family business as an oil company and later expanded into gambling.
Jerry Herbst’s sons, Ed, Tim and Troy Herbst, run Herbst Gaming Inc., which recently filed to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Newport Beach homeowner and former stateline casino executive Primm made headlines here last year for contesting a nearly $400,000 county tax bill he received on his 145-foot Primadonna yacht.
Primm sometimes docked his yacht outside Josh Slocum’s, a now closed bar and restaurant owned by basketball bad boy Dennis Rodman. Primm owned the building.
Primm appealed the tax bill and won. Then he sold the yacht.
In 1981, Primm inherited Whiskey Pete’s casino from his father, Ernest Primm.
He expanded the business, adding Primm Valley and Buffalo Bill’s in Primm, Nev., about 40 minutes from The Strip.
Primm also built New York New York Las Vegas Hotel & Casino with Kirk Kerkorian. In 1999, he sold his properties to MGM Grand Inc., now MGM Mirage.
In 2007, Herbst Gaming bought the Primm properties from MGM.
Fertittas
The Fertitta brothers, Frank and Lorenzo, also are casino moguls who escape the desert here.
The brothers, estimated at $1.3 billion each by Forbes, own Las Vegas-based Zuffa LLC (zuffa is Italian for brawl). The company puts on Ultimate Fighting Championship, a sports competition that combines various fighting techniques.
They paid $2 million for the business in 2001. It’s now reported to be worth upward of $1 billion.
The Fertittas made their initial money in traditional Vegas fashion,operating casinos.
Their Station Casinos, founded by father Frank Fertitta II, owns Palace Station, Texas Station and Sunset Station casinos.
Los Angeles-based Colony Capital LLC also has a stake.
Fertitta II, now retired, worked his way up from card dealer.
Station casinos are off The Strip and make their profits on local gamblers. With the downturn walloping Las Vegas residents,the state’s jobless rate is 12%,fewer locals are gambling. That has taken a toll on the company, which is struggling.
Earlier this year, Frank Fertitta III paid $28 million for a home in Laguna Beach’s Emerald Bay.
Blake Sartini and Delise Sartini, his brother-in-law and sister, also have a home in Emerald Bay. Sartini is a former chief operating officer of Station Casinos and founder and chief executive of Golden Gaming Inc., which operates taverns and casinos.
The Sartinis have a stake in Station Casinos.
Emerald Bay is a draw for those from Las Vegas.
“Privacy is a big thing,” said Nancy Casebier, who sells homes in Emerald Bay for Coast Sotheby’s International Realty in Laguna Beach.
Vegas residents keep low profiles here, she said.
“Maybe their lives are so public in Las Vegas that they like to vegetate here,” Casebier said.
Their kids mix with year-round residents, she said. When Vegas people fly in for the summer, the first thing they do is sign their kids up for kayaking, tennis and other lessons.
Security is important for them, according to Casebier.
“For most of the Las Vegas people, this is a second home, or a third or a fourth,” she said. “They can go away and know their home is secure.”
People like gated Emerald Bay for its proximity to John Wayne Airport and downtown Laguna Beach. They shop at nearby Trader Joe’s and Gelson’s.
Newer people, such as the Vegas crowd, tend to build bigger, fancier Emerald Bay homes, she said.
“The newer money expects more out of their homes than the old guard,” Casebier said.
Many of Vegas’ high rollers spend much of their time in OC but call Nevada home for tax purposes, said Steve Miller, a former Las Vegas councilman who grew up in Sin City.
It’s easy for them to charter a jet to John Wayne Airport from McCarran International Airport in Vegas, he said.
Miller, a former charter pilot, used to shuttle Vegas’ wealthy back and forth.
The wealthy of Vegas come to OC to escape quality of life issues in Sin City, according to Miller.
That wasn’t the way it used to be, he said.
In Vegas’ formative years,the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s,the power people stayed put, he said.
“Our movers and shakers lived here and lavished our city with generosities,” Miller said.
But now Vegas is where the city’s powerful do business, he said, and OC is where they “live.”
Miller writes about Vegas’ powerful and the city’s reputed mobsters at Rick Porello’s AmericanMafia.com.
It was Miller’s reporting that drew attention to the Ritz restaurant a couple of years ago.
Former Mayor
Former two-term Vegas Mayor Jones has a home in Laguna Beach.
Originally from Los Angeles, Jones has the distinction of being Vegas’ first and only woman mayor.
Her former husband is auto dealer Fletcher “Ted” Jones of Newport Beach.
By the time Jan Jones ran for mayor, many already knew her as the TV pitchwoman for Fletcher Jones’ Vegas dealerships.
She’s now a senior vice president at Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which owns some of The Strip’s signature casinos including, Harrah’s Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas and Caesars Palace Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.
Perhaps one of OC’s most notable Vegas refugees is Sandy Murphy.
Murphy initially was convicted in 2000 and served nearly four years in the overdose death of her former boyfriend, casino magnate Ted “Teddy” Binion in 1998.
Her murder conviction was overturned in 2004. A conviction of stealing $7 million in silver from an underground vault buried in the Nevada desert recently was upheld by the Nevada Supreme Court.
Murphy has been trying to clear her name of all charges.
She is now making her life anew in OC.
This year, she married Kevin Pieropan, owner of Coast Gallery in Laguna Beach.
She remains a favorite of Vegas gossip columnists. Her marriage to Pieropan generated a lot of column coverage in Vegas, but not here.
SPECIAL REPORT
OC’s Wealthiest
The downturn has shaved billions from the fortunes of the wealthiest here. But the Business Journal’s annual ranking of the county’s richest shows some interesting twists, including a revised estimate for perennial No. 1 Don Bren, as well as a trio of newcomers who actually gained wealth in the past year.
