Downtown Las Vegas getting $20M apartment complex in 2023

Developer Sam Cherry is underway on another downtown Las Vegas housing complex.

Cherry held a project kickoff event Monday for a five-story, 84-unit apartment project at the southeast corner of Stewart Avenue and 11th Street. He has already broken ground and expects to open the roughly $20 million project in January.

This marks Cherry’s second shareDowntown-branded rental complex, and it is slated to feature ground-floor retail space, a common area kitchen, a gym, a courtyard area and a viewing deck.

Mayor Carolyn Goodman took part in Monday’s event, tossing one of her mayoral poker chips — and one from her husband, former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman — into the building’s foundation.

The Fremont Street area got a huge boost of commerce over the past decade from the late former Zappos boss Tony Hsieh, who bankrolled bars, restaurants and other businesses and became one of downtown’s biggest property owners.

The neighborhood has also grappled for years with blight, including vacant lots and boarded-up buildings, though Cherry, chief executive of Cherry Development, said demand for downtown is strong.

“You see blight, I see opportunity as far as improving a neighborhood,” said Cherry, who added his project was designed with “safety in mind,” including making it well lit and providing residents with secure access.

The units will be small — just 480 square feet each — and are slated to rent for $1,100 per month, Cherry previously said. The property is also walking distance from popular Fremont Street spots such as food and retail destination Fergusons Downtown, Vegas Test Kitchen, and restaurant and coffee bar PublicUs.

Hsieh, through a side venture originally called Downtown Project, assembled a massive portfolio of real estate holdings in the Fremont Street area that became part of his probate case after he died in November 2020 from injuries suffered in a Connecticut house fire.

Mayor Goodman told the Review-Journal on Monday that there has been interest in Hsieh’s properties and that there are plenty of properties outside his estate for prospective developers.

Pointing to Cherry’s project, she also said, “We need at least 10 more of these as soon as he can do them.”

Cherry opened the four-story, 63-unit shareDowntown apartment complex in the city’s Arts District in 2020. Those apartments are also 480 square feet each, and the building is fully leased and has a waiting list, Cherry said last week.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.