If Chris Binkley’s book is about the old guard and how they shaped Las Vegas, this article from the NY Times is about how a new generation of moguls is building out their vision of Las Vegas.
MGM’s CityCenter project was discussed on NPR’s All Things Considered today. It was amazing to hear that half of the $8B budget is already paid for through residence pre-sales and foreign investments.
Have you noticed the signs along Durange Drive South, just north of 215, that read “Thanks for Visiting West Village”? Turns out real estate developers have formed a partnership to build a master planned community there complete with office space, high density housing and retail space. According to their website, the Durango Station Hotel and Casino will be part of the development.
In Business Las Vegas says that
Developers hope to bring consistency to landscape design, share market ideas, coordinate mass transit and setting development standards for the partners to follow.
The many constructions projects in and around West Village are at various stages of development. Some office parks already have “For Lease” signs posted while other projects are just now breaking ground. When completed, West Village should do much to elevate the southwest part of Las Vegas as a more modern, urban and sophisticated area to live.
This article from USA Today offers a good summary of the various construction projects underway on Las Vegas Boulevard. 2008 kicks off three years of new casino/residential/mixed-use debuts:
- The Palazzo celebrates its official grand opening this weekend and the combined Palazzo/Venetian duo should be almost as lucrative as ticket sales from the Miley Cyrus/Hanna Montana concert.
- The Maloof Brothers are adding Palms Place to their resort in February.
- The Donald opens the first of two Trump International Hotel & Towers this spring.
- You cannot miss MGM’s ginormous construction mess between Monte Carlo and Bellagio, CityCenter. It is being called the largest privately financed construction project in history.
- Steve Wynn is spending over $2B on his Encore to the very successful Wynn property.
- Fountainebleau Resorts will introduce a chic hotel and casino with “crisp aesthetics” in 2009. They own the popular resort with the same name in Miami.
- Boyd Gaming is betting big on hard-10. 2010 is when we’ll see Echelon, a sprawling resort including five separate hotels introduced on the old Stardust site.
This blurb caught my eye because it is not often that a condo gets its own press release. If you want a three-story, 5,100 square foot penthouse at the top of Sky Las Vegas and have $5.4M laying around . . . welcome home!
Here’s an excellent run-down of the real estate situation (disaster?) in Las Vegas. Prices are expected to fall another 15% with two years of supply on MLS and 48% of the inventory sitting empty. But it’s not all gloom and doom.
There is $15B being invested in new casino and residential developments along the Strip. This will generate an estimated 100,000 new jobs or +12% to the current 900,000 positions. This growth should create demand for housing and drive a turnaround in the next few years.
An exciting new community is being built not too far from where I live in Southwest Las Vegas. Sullivan Square promises to be a “city within a city” with high-rise living above shops and restaurants. The residences will be modeled after brownstones normally found in older U.S. cities like New York, Boston and Chicago.
Take a virtual tour and see for yourself!
The builders’ idea is to attract more urban and sophisticated tenants who would prefer this pseudo big-city lifestyle as opposed to the suburban sprawl that is most of Las Vegas. I am personally excited about Sullivan Square as an addition to my neighborhood. We desperately need some independently owned cafes and eateries in this part of town - establishments not part of a big, national chain. Also, with a new Station’s casino going up less than a mile away this area of Las Vegas will see lots of growth in the years to come.
Avante Homes is running a special promotion for their Mountain’s Edge community Denali. Get a free Mini Cooper when you buy a house. I guess this is their way of saying that they’re willing to knock $25,000 off a house’s listing price. Floor-plans range in size from 2320 to 3134 square feet and start in the $380,000s.
Avante Homes at Mountain’s Edge
Rainbow and Erie
(702) 921-8800
This article from CNN Money lists hot areas of the country that have experienced housing downturns - the idea being that these markets represent good buying opportunities. The Las Vegas luxury condo market is discussed and a few important facts are discussed:
- Only 10% of the condo projects that were planned actually got built.
- The condo projects that did see the light of day sold out quickly with 30% going to foreign buyers.
- Most of these condos are located near the strip and fetched prices over $1 million.
While this does mean that in a few years there will be ample units in resale it does not mean that prices are going to be any better. Las Vegas is hot (today especially at 108) and those luxury condos will appreciate with time, making them virtually inaccessible for most of us.
Nevada was listed as one of the four states with the most foreclosures in the first three months of this year. California, Arizona and Florida were also mentioned.
People who have taken out sub-prime loans, especially adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), have been clobbered as rising interest rates and weak home prices have made it increasingly difficult for them to keep up with their monthly payments.
The resetting of monthly payments on ARMs, coupled with recent increases in credit card minimum payments, makes it hard for those with fixed incomes to keep up with their debt obligations. Some argue that these folks should never have been approved to buy homes in the first place.