"Their balance sheet is appalling, and I have no idea who would loan this company the money to purchase the land, as it goes against almost every underwriting principle. The company brought in $378k in revenue last year and had an operating loss of $1.8 million."
They have no water rights sufficient to create a farm in the middle of the desert. They bought a town which only draws enough water for personal use and some small gardens.
It's also on the way to Las Vegas, but requires you to detour on a dirt road for a significant distance. That's not going to happen -- it's simpler for tourists to just continue on their way to Las Vegas.
Calling Nipton a "town" is a bit of an exaggeration, too. From what I'm seeing in the satellite photos, it's barely a wide spot in the road, in the middle of the desert, near what might have once been a train station. I've seen truck stops larger than this.
(And I'm not exaggerating when I say "in the middle of the desert". It's right on the edge of the Mojave National Preserve. This is not a good place for anything, let alone for agriculture.)
"They have no water rights sufficient to create a farm in the middle of the desert."
They may have no water sufficient to create a farm in the middle of the desert, but I don't think it's a problem of water rights.
As a Colorado native I have a good sense of water rights, but as a farmer in California I have been (pleasantly ?) surprised by how little restriction or ownership there is attached to water here ... it is very unlikely that the water rights are not attached to their parcels and its possible that they were never detached at any point.
All they have to do is dig a well. Maybe nothing will come out, but nobody will stop them ...
i mean if they want to have some legal weed(and gambling) there is primm in the same amount of distance from the off ramp that you would be taking anyway. 10 miles on a small road vs. 10 miles on a freeway to primm.
All the smell of a scam. The journalists at various papers that are disgorging this thinly veiled PR release as if it's news should be put on your shortlist of garbage journalists.
It's also on the way to Las Vegas, but requires you to detour on a dirt road for a significant distance. That's not going to happen -- it's simpler for tourists to just continue on their way to Las Vegas.