Dennis Hof always knew how to make headlines. Even his death didn't stop him.
Hof passed away in October 2018, just three weeks before Election Day. His name stayed on the ballot for Assembly District 36.
Voters gave him 69% of the vote anyway.
It remains one of the most unusual footnotes in Silver State political history. A candidate passed away, won a legislative seat, and nobody blinked.
That's Nevada for you.
Now the empire Hof built is changing hands again, this time by choice.
The Bunny Ranch Legacy Portfolio hit the market this week with a $33.9 million asking price.
The sale includes four licensed operating businesses and 11 real estate parcels in Lyon County.
The portfolio's flagship is the Moonlite Bunny Ranch. It's joined by the Sagebrush Ranch and the Love Ranch, three of the most recognized names in Nevada's legal brothel industry.
Longtime associates Suzette Cole and Tom Potter have run the operation since Hof's death. Cole took over as CEO, Potter as CFO.
Together they’ve kept the brand intact for nearly a decade.
“After carrying on the legacy of Dennis Hof and all of his businesses since 1992, I feel the time is right to pass on the already lit and bright torch to someone else,” Cole said in a press release announcing the sale.
Potter struck a similar note. He said the goal since Hof's passing had been making sure the business “stayed standing the way he'd have wanted.”
Whatever people think of the business, the Ranch was a fixture in the local community.
It regularly entered a float in the Nevada Day Parade in Carson City, marching alongside marching bands, veterans groups, and Nevada politicians in the state's biggest annual celebration of statehood.
The ranches also give back close to home. They are one of the biggest donors in Lyon County.
One of their dearest charities is the Lyon County Sheriff's Office's “Shop with a Sheriff” program, which buys Christmas gifts for kids from low-income families.
Then there's the tax revenue.
Lyon County has long counted its brothels among the biggest contributors to the county budget.
License and work-permit fees from the county's brothels have funded law enforcement and infrastructure for decades.
Hof himself argued for years that his businesses were the largest single source of tax revenue for the county, generating in the ballpark of $10 million a year for the local economy once fees, taxes, and tourism spending were counted together.
The location doesn't hurt the sale price either.
The portfolio sits inside the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center corridor, about 30 minutes south from Reno. That's the same stretch of Nevada now home to Tesla, Google, Microsoft, and Switch data center campuses.
Hof built his reputation over three decades, including a stint on HBO's “Cathouse.”
The Bunny Ranch sale is being handled by Bob Fredlund of Select Commercial Group and Coldwell Banker Commercial Select Real Estate.
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