Summerlin developer sells ‘Back Bowl’ land for $100M

Summerlin’s developer sold a big land tract on the edge of Las Vegas for more than $100 million, after a builder drew up plans for hundreds of houses on the site.

Howard Hughes Holdings sold 240 acres roughly 2 miles southwest of the Tropicana Avenue-Hualapai Way intersection for around $100.4 million, property records show. The sale closed in early September.

Clark County records and Nevada business-entity filings indicate the buyer was Hearthstone, a Southern California firm that invests in homebuilding projects, including through land-banking programs with builders.

Pulte Homes secured approval last year for project plans on the site that called for more than 400 houses in a guard-gated community. The builder has an option to acquire the lots from Hearthstone, Clark County records show.

All told, the land sale is among Hughes Holdings’ biggest in recent years in Summerlin.

The Texas-based developer sells land to homebuilders in the master-planned community, which spans 22,500 acres along the Las Vegas Valley’s western rim and boasts 130,000 residents, as well as parks, trails and community centers. The company has also built hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects in Summerlin’s commercial core off Sahara Avenue and the 215 Beltway.

The developer’s namesake — Howard Hughes, the famed aviator, business tycoon and recluse — acquired the land mass now known as Summerlin in the 1950s.

Hughes Holdings, Hearthstone and Pulte did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Pulte’s project site is known as the Back Bowl, according to plans filed with the county, and is just south of The Summit Club, a wealthy residential enclave that has drawn such buyers as movie star Mark Wahlberg.

The homebuilder’s 231-acre project site, as approved by Clark County commissioners in August 2024, is located in a small valley. The site is bordered to the east by a county-owned ridge and encompasses the ridge to the west and the valley floor, records show.

Pulte, whose Atlanta-based parent company PulteGroup is among the biggest homebuilders in the nation, has plenty of projects in Southern Nevada.

It’s also no stranger to this pocket of Summerlin.

In late 2021, Summerlin’s developer sold 216 acres off Town Center Drive and Tropicana for $135 million, after Pulte and luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers teamed up with plans to develop the site.

The builders are still selling homes in the community, called Ascension.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.