Summerlin land values climb to $518,000 an acre

Courtesy of Faiss Foley Warren Public Relations

This 2008 file photo shows Summerlin’s Vistas village, an 800-acre European-inspired village that features community parks marked with 48-foot clock towers at its northern and southern entries.

Land values soared in Summerlin last year, with developers commanding higher prices for property amid the opening of the community’s long-delayed retail center.

Howard Hughes Corp. sold 280 acres of land in Summerlin, which runs along the western rim of the Las Vegas Valley, for $145 million — $518,000 an acre — in 2014.

That compares to 316 acres for $112.5 million — $355,000 per acre — in 2013, according to an announcement today.

The vast majority of deals involve homebuilders buying raw land for subdivisions. But Howard Hughes also sells high-priced lots for custom homes in communities such as the Ridges, one of the wealthiest and most exclusive areas of Southern Nevada.

Last year, the company sold 9.5 acres of custom lots in Summerlin for almost $12.3 million, or $1.29 million per acre. That compares to 5.3 acres of custom lots for $4.8 million, or $908,000 an acre, in 2013.

Leasing at Downtown Summerlin, the 1.6-million-square-foot shopping and office project that opened in October, edged higher in recent months. But a fair amount of space remains empty, especially in the office tower.

The retail portion, comprising most of the property at Sahara Avenue and the 215 Beltway, is 72.5 percent leased, according to today’s announcement. That’s up from 69 percent last fall.

The nine-story office building, slated to open April 1, is 27.6 percent pre-leased, up from 25 percent last fall. That includes Howard Hughes taking 12.4 percent of the tower for its own offices.

The 106-acre mall, formerly known as Shops at Summerlin, sat for years off the Beltway as an abandoned steel skeleton, after previous developer General Growth Properties halted construction in fall 2008 during the national economic meltdown.

Howard Hughes, a spin-off from General Growth, resumed construction in 2013 after taking control of the mall and the broader, 22,500-acre Summerlin master-planned community.

The Dallas-based developer disclosed the Summerlin land sales and leasing updates in an earnings report today.

Howard Hughes posted $31.9 million in fourth-quarter profit, up from $18.6 million a year earlier, but lost $23.5 million for all of 2014, down from a $74 million loss in 2013.

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