Tivoli Village weathers recession, embraces west side

Tivoli mirrors the European village look at Lake Las Vegas, the boutique stores of the District and urban village setting and destination point of Town Square.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS

• Brio Tuscan Grille

• Kidville

• Roc of Republic Couture

• Pesci’s Pizza

• Obika

• Vasari

• Jeff White Custom Jewelry

• Stash

• Charming Charlie

• The Dog House pet food store

• Land Rover of Las Vegas

• Leone Café

• Bobby Wheat Gallery

• Ritual Salon and Spa

• Crystal Medical Spa

• Petra - a Greek Tavern

• David Barton Gym

Las Vegas’ lone major development project off the Strip to continue during the recession is on track to open April 28 with a majority of its office and retail space leased.

Tivoli Village at Queensridge has 72 percent of its retail space and 54 percent of its office space leased, said Patrick Done, executive vice president.

About half of the retail space will be occupied on April 28 when the mixed-use center opens. Construction continues on the other space, which will open in phases throughout the summer.

The first phase includes some 225,000 square feet of retail space and restaurants and about 145,000 square feet of office space.

The law firm Kolesar and Leatham is the only office tenant to open April 28.

Other tenants of the center feature a high-end gym and a Land Rover dealership. An Irish pub, martini bar, sofa lounge and gourmet hamburger and wine restaurant are expected to open by summer.

The center was scheduled to open in late March but that was pushed back until landscaping and other exterior work could be completed in time.

It’s quite an accomplishment considering most projects in Las Vegas were either canceled or put on hold during the recession. Work at Tivoli stopped in October 2008 and a fall 2009 opening was pushed back until the office and retail market recovered. Tivoli was able to proceed because it self-financed its development.

“We’re proud to have continued this in a time of turmoil,” Done said. “We weathered the economic storm and are progressing and fulfilling our strategy to dominate the west side of town and get a toe hold when no one is able to do so. This is an important step in our process of what we are creating here.”

Construction continues on a second phase of 300,000 square feet of high-end retail and varied entertainment uses that include a movie theater. It is expected to open in time for the busy Christmas shopping season in 2012.

In March, Tivoli’s developers, Las Vegas-based EHB Cos. and Israel’s IBD Development Corp., unveiled plans for a 750,000-square-foot indoor mall south of Tivoli that developers said won’t compete against its existing project or the adjacent Boca Park retail center. Its timeline is the spring of 2015.

Tivoli is counting on the Summerlin area being underserved in retail, and interest in the open-air project to generate a lot of buzz when it opens. It will be watched closely by retail and the development community to gauge how successful it is.

The project was halted because the downturn in the economy forced retailers to hold back on expansions and wait for the economy to improve before adding new outlets. The developers hired consultants to advise them what to do and the decision wasn’t an easy one, Done said.

“I’ll tell you when the storm hit all options were on the table,” Done said. “It was to continue to build the project and not build the project but we went with the option to phase in the project.”

What drove the decision to proceed was the ability to gain a position in the Summerlin retail market before other competition has a chance to do so, Done said.

The project faces competition from the half-built Summerlin Centre once that project is resumed and complete.

“Once we made the decision to go forward, we didn’t question it,” Done said.

Retailers were under stress from Wall Street who rewarded companies for not opening stores as they did during the economy boom, Done said. The experts knew that mindset would change and that in order to grow earnings, retailers would open new outlets, even though it is fewer than before, he said.

“When we drilled down, we knew there were no other opportunities to speak of where there were shopping centers they could go and that the end of the day they would choose us,” Done said. “We knew that as it unfolded, due to the lack of competition we will be able to land tenants and fill out this space over time.” Tivoli’s opening is expected to prompt even more interest from retailers that wanted to see the end product, he said.

With the economy continuing to improve, national retailers will be even more interested in leasing space in the second phase, he said.

The complex has yet to sign a lease for its eight-screen theater that will be unlike other movie complexes in Las Vegas, Done said.

Instead of a traditional theater like there’s across the street at the Sun Coast, Tivoli’s luxury theater concept will cater to a more mature audience with its restaurant-and-table concept. It will also serve a variety of food and offer a full bar, Done said. Tickets will cost between $20 and $25, about double a traditional theater, he said.

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