Developer says Shops at Summerlin retail center back on track with first anchor tenant

Courtesy Photo

A rendering of the Shops at Summerlin which are set to open fall 2014. The Shops at Summerlin will feature over 125 stores and restaurants in an open-air shopping environment with pedestrian thoroughfares and engaging storefronts.

The Shops at Summerlin, a stalled retail hub that embodies Las Vegas’ building bust, is back on track for construction with an anchor tenant.

Developer Howard Hughes Corp. said Wednesday that Macy’s will be the first anchor at the planned retail district formerly known as the Shops at Summerlin Centre. The deal confirms the restart of the mothballed project in northwest Las Vegas, developers said.

Macy’s was slated to be a tenant at Summerlin Centre before construction on the project stopped four years ago. The retailer now plans to build a two-level, 180,000-square-foot store, with a scheduled fall 2014 opening.

“This milestone confirms that the Las Vegas economy is recovering, with Summerlin leading the way,” Kevin Orrock, vice president of master planned communities for Dallas-based Howard Hughes, said in a statement.

The retail district near Red Rock Resort will have more than 125 stores and restaurants with open-air pedestrian walkways and outdoor dining, Howard Hughes Corp. said. It will be a part of a 106-acre, 1.5 million-square-foot development that will include hotel and retail space and a nine-story office building, the developer said.

The Shops at Summerlin is slated to open in late 2014. The project is expected to provide roughly 1,700 construction jobs and 2,000 permanent jobs when fully open.

Construction of the Shops at Summerlin Centre began roughly four years ago under then-developer General Growth Properties. Planned retail tenants included Macy’s, Nordstrom and Dillard’s.

But work stopped in October 2008 amid the national economic meltdown, and the project’s steel skeleton has been exposed to the elements ever since.

Chicago-based General Growth filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2009, sinking under $27 billion in debt. When it began to emerge from bankruptcy more than a year later, the company spun off Howard Hughes as a separate, publicly-traded company with control over Summerlin Centre and several other projects.

Howard Hughes had dropped hints that the Summerlin center would re-open. Company executives recently gave a presentation to analysts and investors with a slideshow that had renderings of the project under the words “coming soon.”

Macy’s also said Wednesday that it plans to expand its presence at Fashion Show mall with a new two-level, 105,000-square-foot Macy’s Men’s Store. That store is slated to open next spring.

Macy’s already operates a 201,000-square-foot store in the mall.

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