NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) - Developers planning a 15,000-home community in North Las Vegas told city council members they hope to have shovels in the ground before the end of the year on one of the largest housing developments to come to southern Nevada since the recession.
The North Las Vegas City Council first approved plans for the 2,600 acre Park Highlands master planned community in 2006. But the economic crash and several bankruptcies kept the project located near Aliante Parkway north of the Las Vegas Beltway from ever materializing.
The project’s rocky history has resulted in eight different companies owning parcels of land in the development.
A representative for those companies told the council on April 16 that a plan was in place that could see construction start in late 2014 or early 2015.
The plan presented to the council would split the Park Highlands development into two separate master planned communities instead of one.
The two communities would be completed in separate phases, with the first comprising 4,000 homes on a 600 acre parcel.
An amended development agreement will be presented to the North Las Vegas City Council next month and if approved, construction on the first phase would begin within a year, attorney Bob Gronauer said.
A second phase consisting of 11,000 homes built on 2,000 acres would be developed later, he said.
Altogether, the project is expected to cost $3.2 billion over 15 years of construction.
The announcement was heralded by city officials as a sign of North Las Vegas changing fortunes after years mired in an economic malaise.
North Las Vegas grew rapidly to about 225,000 residents and became the fourth-largest city in the state, before falling hard when a housing boom crashed amid the Great Recession of 2007.
The city was one of the most severely hit in the nation by foreclosures and bankruptcies. It endured city employee layoffs and budget cuts as home values depreciated and its tax base withered.
If successful, the Park Highlands development would be the largest to come to southern Nevada in years.
“The regional significance is great,” Mayor John Lee said. “Wall Street, investment bankers are coming back into this valley saying, ’We believe in this region again.’
“I’m just glad that they’ve chosen North Las Vegas to plant their flag in the ground.”
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Information from: Las Vegas Sun, https://www.lasvegassun.com
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