Construction begins on delayed Sahara Center shopping plaza

Developer EHB Cos. has started construction on a shopping center near Summerlin, giving the west valley one of several new — yet delayed — retail hubs.

Las Vegas-based EHB said today it broke ground on the 220,000-square-foot Sahara Center at the northeast corner of Sahara Avenue and Hualapai Way. The 18-acre plaza is slated to open in fall 2014.

Expected stores include discount retailers T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods and Stein Mart, grocery chain Sprouts Farmers Market and pet-supply store Petco.

The center is being built a mile east of the Shops at Summerlin, a 1.6 million-square-foot retail and office complex near Red Rock Resort. That project, by developer Howard Hughes Corp., is expected to open in fall 2014.

Meanwhile, developers of Tivoli Village broke ground last month on the second phase of their stylish retail and office complex three miles northeast of Sahara Center.

IDB Group USA is expected to add almost 200,000 square feet of retail and 68,000 square feet of offices just north of the first phase, which opened in spring 2011 at Rampart Boulevard and Alta Drive. Construction is expected to finish in spring 2015.

The new projects will bring a boost of shopping, dining and service jobs to the west valley.

But the developments are behind schedule.

In October 2008, the Shops at Summerlin was mothballed by then-owner General Growth Properties, leaving a steel skeleton off the 215 Beltway. Dallas-based Howard Hughes, a General Growth spin-off, resurrected the project last September.

Tivoli was supposed to open in 2009 with 500,000 square feet of retail and 200,000 square feet of offices, but the recession tabled those plans, too. Developers considered mothballing the $850 million complex but chose to build it in phases instead.

They’re behind on that altered schedule, too. Last fall, Tivoli President Patrick Done told VEGAS INC he expected the second phase to open by the end of this year.

And in August 2012, when plans were announced for the project now called Sahara Center, developers said the plaza would open this year.

Asked about the delay, EHB, in a statement provided by its public-relations firm, said developers “are always optimistic and yet have to be cautious at the same time. Consumers, tenants and lenders have also all been very cautious following the economic environment they’ve been faced with the last five years. A project’s timing is always market-driven.”

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