development:

Sales of land, homes in Summerlin continue to surge

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

Summerlin land and home sales keep surging as Las Vegas’ home construction business rebounds from the recession.

Howard Hughes Corp., developer of the 22,500-acre master-planned community, sold $24.3 million worth of land to homebuilders in the three months ending June 30, up 80 percent from the same period last year, the company said today.

Most of the sales were for “super pad” sites, or raw, undeveloped land. The company sold 55.2 acres of super pads last quarter at $370,000 per acre, up from 16.5 acres at $225,000 an acre a year earlier.

Meanwhile, homebuilders sold 179 new houses in Summerlin last quarter, up 35 percent from a year earlier.

Summerlin, which runs along the western rim of the Las Vegas Valley, has roughly 100,000 people in 40,000 homes. It is the largest master-planned community in the region.

The sales results were announced as part of Howard Hughes Corp.’s second-quarter earnings. Although it booked $147 million in revenue, up 57 percent from a year earlier, the Dallas-based developer lost $76.6 million last quarter, compared to a $34.3 million profit a year ago.

The company attributed the results to securities-related “warrant” losses.

In its report, the developer also put a price tag on its plans to finish the formerly mothballed Shops at Summerlin retail hub.

The company said it began construction in May on the 1.6 million-square-foot project and had spent about $17 million in development costs through June 30. It expects to spend $390 million total and to arrange project financing by the end of this year.

Former owner General Growth Properties mothballed the partially built project in October 2008 amid the national economic meltdown, leaving a steel skeleton off the 215 Beltway near Red Rock Resort as a daily reminder of Las Vegas’ building bust.

The Hughes corporation, a spin-off from General Growth, announced last September the project was back on track with Macy’s as an anchor store. A few months later, it said Dillard’s also will locate there.

Both retailers were supposed to have stores there before the project, then known as the Shops at Summerlin Centre, was mothballed. Nordstrom also planned to have a location there.

The development is now slated to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2014.

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