Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
▶ TOWN HOME
ty to buy into Fairway Hills at much lower prices is generating a lot of interest, according to Gary Mayo, group president of Toll Brothers. The project has views of Bear’s Best golf course in addition to the Strip. There will be 129 town homes with most buildings having three units and some having only two. With three units, the buildings have one town home on the first floor and two on the top. They start at 2,210 square feet and increase to nearly 3,300 square feet. All have garages.
“It has all the amenities you have in a home,” Mayo said. “They’re highly upgraded with large decks, and the location in The Ridges at under $1 million is great. It doesn’t exist other than what we have.”
Toll Brothers started the project before the recession and had closed 20 units in 2006 until it put the project on hold, Mayo said. It’s one of the “best pieces of dirt we own in the company” and decided to wait for the market to recover for the greatest return, he said. It has recovered, and that’s reflected in that 40 percent of the buyers are likely to be from out of state, especially from California and Pacific Northwest, he said.
“I think you’re seeing a repeat of what we had prior to the recession in a lot of in-migration to Las Vegas,” Mayo said. “They’re seeing it has matured, and there’s a lot of diversity in the economy. There are many drivers bringing in people who may not have come prior. You have a lot in the tech industry, and the medical industry continues to grow. That’s fueling demand in all price points.”
Some builders are seeing opportunity with older buyers.
Shea Homes is focusing its Summerlin town home project Trilogy to those 55 and older since many want to downsize with their children no longer living with them. There will be 354 town homes with most in the form of duplexes and a small number of triplexes, said Kyle Tibbitts, Shea’s general manager in Las Vegas.
More than half will be duplexes side-by-side and vertical ones will have one unit occupying the first and second floor and second unit on the third floor accessed by an elevator.
Construction has started and the models will be completed in early 2018, Tibbitts said. They range from 1,500 to 2,800 square feet and prices start in the mid-$400,000s, and will exceed $700,000 in some cases.
There will be a clubhouse and resort swimming pool and culinary studio among the amenities, Tibbitts said. The project is drawing a lot of interest from local residents, including those who already live in highend homes in Summerlin.
“When you wake up every day at a resort it’s a lot easier to maintain,” Tibbitts said. “We find a lot of people are looking for a great lifestyle and not have to worry about home maintenance. They want to spend their Saturday enjoying life than maintaining their lawn. They want to be able to travel on a whim and not worry about their house.”
At lower price points, William Lyon Homes is building Affinity, 485 units in four communities on Charleston Boulevard at the 215 Beltway. It includes the most affordable at the mid-$200,000s to the high $400,000s, according to Kim Chitwood, vice president of sales and marketing. They range in size from about 900 square feet to about 2,500 square feet.
CalAtlantic’s Santa Rosa town home development off the Far Hills exit of the 215 Beltway in the Paseos village has units priced from under $300,000 to more than $400,000. It’s part of the company’s strategy that made it one of the top two town home builders in Las Vegas during the last five years, according to Dana Rogers, the division president for Las Vegas. The project is a nod to Summerlin’s intent to have more affordable housing in the master plan, he said.
“Summerlin hasn’t done this is quite a while,” Rogers said. “If you’re trying to find a single-family new home in the $300,000s in Summerlin, you can’t find them. There’s a market for it.”
The units feel like single-family homes and just because it’s at a lower priced point than traditionally seen in Summerlin, it has an upscale feel, Rogers said.
Some town homes have balconies and optional rooftop decks, and there’s plenty of amenities that make it attractive such as an outdoor cabana with television homeowners can program with their phone. At the center of the village is the 12acre Paseos Park with walking trails, play areas, basketball courts, and picnic ramadas.