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The Shops at Summerlin Centre was one of the most visible casualties of the real estate bust in arguably the hardest-hit market in the country.
The abandoned retail and office project sat exposed to the elements off the 215 Beltway near Red Rock Resort, a hulking, steel graveyard owned by a bankrupt company and with little hope for completion.
But now, with new owners and a new name — and as Las Vegas recovers from the worst of the downturn — the project is finally opening its doors to shoppers.
The 106-acre, 1.6 million-square-foot development, now part of the broader Downtown Summerlin project, is days from completion. About 85 shops and eateries will be up and running when developer Howard Hughes Corp. officially opens the project Thursday, spokeswoman Caryn Kboudi said. A handful of stores have opened.
There will be a light show and fireworks display Thursday night, with a street festival scheduled to run through Sunday at the open-air, urban-style suburban plaza. The four-day event is slated to include DJs, jazz bands, fashion shows and a fleet of food trucks serving up tacos, hot dogs, lobster rolls, sausage sandwiches and desserts, including alcohol-infused cookies.
Ground-up construction is almost finished, although the project remains an active work site. Construction crews on Monday were building store interiors and installing windows and signage, with trucks and heavy equipment lining the project’s roadways and workers in hard hats zipping around in carts. Other people were hauling boxes into stores or setting up product displays, and it appeared that some retailers were training staffers.
All told, the streets and parking lots have been paved and striped, and the landscaping is largely done. Many stores look ready or almost ready to open, but other retail space is nowhere near completion.
The project is essentially an outdoor mall that you can drive through and is built to look like a neighborhood, similar to Town Square south of the Strip or the District at Green Valley Ranch in Henderson.
Downtown Summerlin’s retail lineup includes Macy’s, Dillard’s, Nordstrom Rack and Trader Joe’s, as well as Banana Republic, Boot Barn, American Eagle Outfitters, Lane Bryant and the Gap.
Eateries include Andiron Steak and Sea, Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill, Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop and Five Guys Burgers and Fries.
The project is designed for roughly 125 shops and restaurants. More retailers are expected to open in coming weeks and months. Kboudi did not provide the current occupancy rate.
Filling the nine-story office tower, however, could prove far more difficult than luring retailers.
Howard Hughes, which will move its local headquarters into the building, has just one confirmed tenant so far. BusinesSuites is taking roughly 16,000 square feet on the third floor, though it plans to rent the space to other users. The company offers furnished office space with a receptionist, phone and mail service, conference rooms and other typical workplace amenities.
Las Vegas’ office market is one of the worst in the country, with empty floors and buildings across the valley and tiny asking rents. By midyear, the market’s vacancy rate was almost 20 percent, and landlords sought just $1.87 per square foot in rent, according to Colliers International.
Kboudi, however, said her company doesn’t think the office tower will sit mostly empty for some time, largely because of its location “in the heart of Summerlin.” She said she didn't know the asking rents.
“The interest has been very strong,” she said.
Last year, Dallas-based Howard Hughes resumed construction of the project on Sahara Avenue at the 215 Beltway. Previous owner General Growth Properties had mothballed the complex in fall 2008, during the national economic meltdown. The company had lined up Nordstrom, Macy’s and Dillard’s as anchor retailers.
General Growth filed for bankruptcy protection in spring 2009, sinking under $27 billion in debt. When it emerged from bankruptcy court the next year, it spun off Howard Hughes as a separate company with control over the Summerlin project, the broader Summerlin master-planned community and several other projects nationwide.
Howard Hughes obtained a $312 million loan in July from a group of lenders led by Wells Fargo Bank, to help pay for the project.
Four months earlier, Howard Hughes CEO David Weinreb bashed General Growth — though not by name — in a letter to shareholders, saying that if its management had the money and courage to stick with the Summerlin retail project, “despite how badly Las Vegas was hit by the downturn,” the mall would be a “fortress” today.
“I believe that anything really worth doing, whether in life or in business, requires persistence and perseverance,” Weinreb wrote. “Staying the course means having the necessary foresight, capital and, most importantly, courage to stick to your plan.”
The Shops at Summerlin Centre project sits abandoned in July 2009.