Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
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has ever listed was in Seven Hills in Henderson. The pool was 100 feet long — three times the normal size — and was featured on HGTV’s “Pool Kings.” The home sold for $5.6 million. The home had a cascading waterfall and rope from the second floor of the home that people could use to swing into the pool, Routh-Silberman said.
“The house was fabulous to start with, but that pool sold that house,” Routh-Silberman said. “The pool has a wet deck, spa, sunken fire pit and swim-up bar. It had it all.”
Kasama pointed out the new listing this week of a $25 million home in Country Club Hills that public records show is owned by Steve Wynn. It has a hotel-style pool on the estate.
Kasama also mentioned the pool on the roof at One Queensridge Place condominium homes in the west valley. She called it a mini-Caesars’ Palace resort pool and spa with statues, marble tile and that’s “completely over the top. They are paying almost $2,600 a month in dues there. Those are the types of amenities people are looking for.”
The Penthouse at Palms Place is also a “statement pool” that goes with such a property, Kasama said. “You’re out on the balcony and the pool extends out with a glass bottom so when you’re swimming you can see through it down to the Strip,”
Kasama said. “They have great lighting, and it’s pretty incredible.”
Not every noteworthy pool in Las Vegas, however, is outdoors. The famous Underground House, designed as a bomb shelter, has a 6-foot deep pool, spa and barbecue area.
Some even take the water outside the pool.
A home built by a Canadian investor overlooking DragonRidge Country Club in MacDonald Highlands, has a pool that connects the front of the house to the rear by going under the foundation. It was built by Sun
West Custom Homes.
Sun West Custom Homes also designed a 5,900-square-foot pool with a spa, cold plunge pool, putting green and outdoor kitchen in the hillside community of Ascaya in Henderson. The home’s called Villa Azul or Blue Home and has a sit-in sunken area inside the pool with water all around.
“It’s important to me as a designer of custom homes, I like to use the pool as an extension of the house,” said Dan Coletti, Sun West’s own
POOLS
er. “It’s about the tranquility of the water and bringing it in closer to the home. It adds a certain ambiance to the home.”
Coletti said, however, that pools are recreational as well so it’s important to blend the two together. Some people like to swim laps or play volleyball, he said.
“The balance for me is that it functions really great for people if you’re having a backyard pool party,” Coletti said. “In reality, most people don’t use their pools everyday, and you want it to look good year-round but yet function when you have a party.”
Coletti said he’s never had a customer of his multimillion-dollar homes who didn’t want a pool. The only question he asks them is if they are “big pool people,” whether they swim laps and the ages of their children.
“It’s been quite a while since I put in a slide,” Coletti said. “People say
they will only use it for a couple of years and what will we do with that slide later. And, customers who like to swim laps, will say let’s make the pool wider than deep.”
While most luxury buyers live in gated communities that have a community pool, Coletti said they still want privacy and the ability to “take a dip whenever they feel like it and do it quickly.”
That doesn’t mean people want deep pools for diving but rather go for the shallow look that might be only 18 inches in some places and 3 to 6 feet in other places — 4 feet for swimming laps. They just want to see the water and don’t need it for swimming, Coletti said.
“They only need so much area to be swimmable, but they love the way the rest looks outside the master bedroom,” Coletti said. “That’s what I do a lot of times.”
As for the price, Coletti said his pools start at $150,000, and some go as high as $750,000.
A $12 million Mediterranean mansion under construction in Southern
Highlands by a Beverly Hills developer plans to start construction this summer on a $1 million, two-level infinity-edge pool with grotto,waterfall and swim-up bar according to Bob Barnhart, owner of Luxurious Real Estate and the listing agent.
“Having a pool like that is extremely important,” Barnhart said. “People are looking for that resort-style and indoor outdoor living and megamansion. (They) want a resort-style pool with it. Everyone uses that term lightly for that pool. If you are going to do a $10 million
to $12 million property, you have to have the pool to go along with it.”
Going without a pool in a luxury home is a mistake, builders and Realtors said.
Ernie Domanico, the founder of luxury builder Domanico Custom Homes said he tried to talk a friend out of building a 5,000-square-foot home without a backyard pool in a golf-course community. That would make it harder to sell the home one day, he said.
“A pool is a must in the luxury market in Las Vegas whether it is summer or wintertime. It doesn’t matter,” said Domanico who recently built the home of former NBA player Jordan Farmar in Southern Highlands for $3.5 million with a pool. “You don’t put a $70,000 swimming pool in a $3 million house. It needs to be at east $125,000 or up. The last ones we have been building are $180,000 to $300,000 pools. I don’t know anyone that wants to build a home of $2.5 million to $3 million in Las Vegas that doesn’t want to have a pool.”