Saturday, October 02, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

New York developer plans $60 million condo project for South Strip

An artist's rendering shows the $60 million condominium project Loft 5 plans to build on Las Vegas Boulevard South. RENDERING COURTESY OF LOFT 5

A New York developer plans to build a $60 million, 272-unit midrise condominium project on Las Vegas Boulevard South at Pebble Road, a rapidly growing corridor of urban resort lifestyle.

Gian Matteo Lo Faro, principal partner of Loft 5, said he's taking the best elements of similar condo projects in New York, San Diego and Los Angeles and rolling them into this design.

"The more I got into the local housing market, the more I realized there was an opportunity to do something exciting, an urban project at a mid-price point," Lo Faro said Friday from New York. "We thought we'd do something that's affordable luxury."

Prices for the loft units start in the mid-$300,000s, comparable to other condo developments in that area such as Amland's Park Avenue and Gemstone's Manhattan.

Luxury residences range from penthouse lofts with private sky decks to multilevel lofts with 20-foot ceilings and private terraces.

Groundbreaking for the first of eight five-story buildings is scheduled for January, with a grand opening set for April 2006.

Jones & Greenwold is the architect of record and Poggemeyer Design Group is doing the landscaping. No general contractor was named.

Jeremy Aguero, principal of Applied Analysis, performed a market study for Loft 5 and found that the price of real estate on the South Strip, as it's being called, is quite significant.

The area has a total of $2 billion in aggregate development under way including South Coast casino, the Town Square project by Turnberry Associates and Centra Properties and several time-share projects.

Although Las Vegas development has shown signs of slowing, it hasn't shown any signs of reversing, Aguero said.

"People who got land early are able to take advantage of a kind of arbitrage in that industry," he said. "These guys put the pieces together, the land and the financing, and that will give them an advantage."

Loft 5 is being built on 10 acres, with another five acres available for a second phase.

"What drove us here is simply the hot market, an up-and-coming market," project designer Richard McCann said. "Our desire was to do something a little different."