Terror as Las Vegas housing complex is overrun by Mad Max-style vagrants
An unfinished Las Vegas townhouse project that attracted vagrants who turned it into a living hell has now been bought up by new developers.
Located in the city’s downtown, the multi-unit complex had holes in the walls covered in graffiti, while weeds and trash accumulated on the four-acre site.
Only 15 homes were built of the 79 units planned for the project, and none were completed, Michael Johnson, co-owner of Trust Home Builders, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Johnson said that before his company purchased the site, the homes were “basically overrun with Mad Max-style vagrants.”
Inside the homes’ foundations were mattresses, drug paraphernalia and torn copper, Johnson said.
Despite the damage, Johnson told the outlet that most of it was just cosmetic.
“They’re in great shape, honestly,” he added.
Michael Staheli, chief executive of Cordes & Co, was appointed by a judge to take charge of the complex in September.
The complex, located on the outskirts of downtown Las Vegas at the intersection of Fremont Street and Charleston Boulevard, was covered in graffiti, with holes in the walls and weeds and trash strewn across the four-acre site.
Michael Johnson, co-owner of Trust Home Builders, said that before his company purchased the site, the homes were “basically overrun with Mad Max-style vagrants.”
One report found that ground floor windows and doors had been “forced into or broken, so that each unit was open to vagrants to come and go unimpeded.”
In a report, Staheli noted “significant amounts of personal belongings, trash, human waste and drug paraphernalia,” as well as encountering several homeless people, the outlet reported.
The ground floor doors and windows were “forced into or broken so that each unit was open for vagrants to enter and exit unimpeded,” he said.
The complex, located at the intersection of Fremont Street and Charleston Boulevard, was purchased in 2006 by Larry Davis, a developer and founder of Urban Lofts Townhomes, according to property records.
But it was never completed or filled. In 2018, Davis’ plans were approved by the Las Vegas City Council, and by 2022, house structures had been built and a construction site had been established, according to the Journal.
But in 2023, the complex was acquired by Bridge Finance, a real estate investment company, through foreclosure. In 2024, Cole Moscatel, head of Tyko Management, purchased the site for $5.2 million.
Yet in 2025, Bridge filed suit, claiming the buyer had defaulted on its debts and requested that the property be turned over to a receiver.
Bridge claimed that at this point the complex had been abandoned, including the removal of fencing and security, and claimed it had been taken over by homeless people.
In a report, Michael Staheli, managing director of Cordes & Co, noted “significant quantities of personal belongings, trash, human waste and drug paraphernalia”, as well as homeless people.
After Staheli was appointed receiver, Trust Home Builders purchased the townhouse complex for $4.8 million last month, the Journal reported.
Plans to redevelop the neighborhood are now underway, with Johnson hoping to create units with two-car garages, small backyards and prices starting around $400,000.
Johnson hopes to have homes built by summer.
