Blue Heron remains aloft with custom features

Tyler Jones picked a terrible time to build a custom-home neighborhood in Las Vegas.

Selling luxury homes in the teeth of this city's worst housing downturn could have been the death knell for his upstart company, Blue Heron. Larger builders have gone bankrupt.

Yet there stands 32-year-old Jones, showing the 8,900-square-foot model home at Marquis Las Vegas, an eight-acre enclave near Sunset Road and Tomiyasu Lane, in the neighborhood of Wayne Newton's 40-acre estate and Mike Tyson's former home.

In a weak economy and tight credit market, Jones has managed to sell 12 of 14 homes priced from $1.2 million to $5 million. Six are under construction.

"We're different in that we're not out there buying 100 acres," said Jones, a Las Vegas native who studied architecture at the University of Colorado. "We launched this community at the bottom of the market, so we were able to adjust our pricing before we started selling. I've seen these other luxury communities where they shot themselves in the foot by not adjusting prices."

The model home, featured as The New American Home at the 2009 International Builders Show in Las Vegas, is the centerpiece of the community. It's a "net zero" home, which means the home creates more electricity than it uses through energy-efficient building technology such as photovoltaic panels, insulated concrete walls and tankless water heaters.

Traffic through the model picked up in January. People are starting to see the "light at the end of the tunnel," Jones said.

Financing is probably the biggest issue facing homebuilders nationwide. From home mortgages to acquisition, development and construction loans, the housing finance system is "a mess," he said.

Most of Blue Heron's buyers have to qualify for jumbo loans and put 20 percent down.

Las Vegas had 78 single-family home sales exceeding a million dollars in the last six months, not including new homes, so there's still money out there, Jones said.

"There's not as much demand, but people are buying," he said. "I'd rather be selling what we're building here than $150,000 homes. It's so unique and extraordinary. People come to the model home to see what we can do and it really excites them because they've never seen this before."

Two buyers at Marquis are from the United Kingdom and two others are doctors. Jones said he listens to his clients and gives them exactly what they want.

"We write the contract and build the home, so buyers are starting from scratch," he said.

Blue Heron, founded in 2004, built 23 luxury loft homes at Stone Canyon near Buffalo Drive and Charleston Boulevard. The company also developed 22 Parkside and Stone Canyon South.

Jones said he's been able to create enough demand for Blue Heron homes that financing hasn't been an issue for him. Blue Heron developed a business relationship with local banks such as Bank of Nevada, based on the success of past projects.

"This is a horrible real estate market," Jones said. "As long as we make it, we'll be prepared for anything. It's a good lesson for us. We started Blue Heron in 2004 and you could not make a mistake. I've seen it top off and hopefully we're hitting bottom. In six years, we've seen both extremes, so I feel I got a good education through that. Of course, I haven't gotten a lot of sleep."

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.