$800M UnCommons development continues to grow, adds event space
Nestled down in the belly of Spring Valley in southwest Las Vegas, UnCommons sits as a unique real estate experiment for the city.
The $800 million, 40-acre mixed-use development, south of the Las Vegas Beltway, east of the soon to open Durango hotel-casino, has just unveiled the latest addition, a 5,000-square-foot conference and event pavilion called The Assembly, which is scheduled to open in September.
UnCommons already has more than 40 residents who have moved into the planned 830 apartment units, which are divided into three towers, and the final phase of construction is set to start next year after initially breaking ground in 2021. When completed, UnCommons will include roughly half a million square feet of office space, more than a dozen food and beverage options, and two retail stores.
There are six office tenants who have already moved in, including Draft Kings and CBRE Group Inc., with such companies as Deloitte and Newmark on the way for a total of eight when completed. Six of the food and beverage locations are open, including Urth Caffe and Teaspoon with Amari, an Italian restaurant and wine shop, the latest addition. Two retail tenants are already open, a luxury candle maker and a hair salon.
Amalie Zinsser, the director of community and belonging at UnCommons, said UnCommons is partially building upon the success of Town Square, of which Jim Stuart of Matter Real Estate Group — who are spearheading UnCommons — was involved in separate to the company. When Town Square, at 6605 Las Vegas Blvd. South, was first announced in the early 2000s, the open-air mixed-use, retail-focused project was met with mixed reaction. The project saw a high number of restaurants with traditional mall tenants.
With UnCommons, Zinsser said the idea was to take Town Square and bring the same concept to a more residential-based project, in what they are calling “work, live, harmony.”
“The idea was to make something more walkable, where you could say meet someone for a coffee, and then also meet someone for a drink later,” she added. “And so making everything more accessible because in Vegas we tend to not really have anything like that here.”
Zinsser said the biggest hurdle when planning a walkable community in a place like Las Vegas is the desert heat.
“The heat’s not fun,” she said, “however, the architect, Gensler, they brought in a lot of materials that were kind of a nod to the desert. So it’s desert-focused and Las Vegas-focused, so we want people to feel like this is their home, let’s be proud of it. So the wood, the concrete, the native plants, it’s all geared towards Las Vegas.”
UnCommons’ tight geography also plays into this, as moving between buildings, say from a parking garage to an office space, or into one of the restaurants around The Quad, someone walking is only spending seconds in direct sunlight. Each building is equipped with shade and cover along its walkways.
One of the anchor office tenants, Draft Kings, has also offered a unique experiment when it comes to workers relocating to the area, added Zinsser, as big-city employers are bringing big-city tendencies.
“It’s all about amenities. You have people moving here from Draft Kings, they’re based out of Boston and they’re moving a chunk of their people here, and Boston folks are really used to being able to walk to get their coffee,” she added. “I would say, there was a point in time, say maybe 10 years ago, that you wouldn’t walk to anything here in Las Vegas, but with the new demographics moving here from larger cities, that is changing.”
The question is, what do the first initial residential tenants think of UnCommons?
“They’re so excited,” said Zinsser, “they already feel part of the community, and with The Assembly opening, it will bring a lot more programming to the space.”
The Assembly is a unique addition to any mixed-use development, a space that can host talks, community events, weddings and even serve as a hub for office tenants that have already moved into the area, including Morgan Stanley and CBRE.
Heather Vincent, community events lead at UnCommons, said this isn’t necessarily a counterpoint to the Strip and its globally known, massive convention industry, but rather a small-scale community alternative, boiled down to a succinct statement.
“You don’t have to park you car at the valet at the Wynn, and then walk three miles to get to your meeting.”
Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.
