Ground breaks for new ultraluxury country club community

Ground has broken on the Summit Club, a 555-acre ultraluxury country club community.

The Howard Hughes Corp., which is developing Summerlin, and Discovery Land Co. of Scottsdale, Ariz., plan to build about 250 homes near Tropicana Avenue and Town Center Drive, just south of The Ridges, in the foothills near Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

The community is expected to open late next year. It will offer lots for custom homes priced at $2 million to $10 million, the most expensive in the Las Vegas Valley.

The private golf community will feature a Tom Fazio 18-hole course and a two- to three-story clubhouse.

Steve Adelson, a Discovery Land partner, said the community was named the Summit Club not just because of the elevated property that overlooks the Las Vegas Valley, but to hark back to the Rat Pack days when service and elegance wrapped the neon like a white linen glove.

“Service was paramount. It was all about the lifestyle,” Adelson said of the glory days of Las Vegas. “We are all about having a private community that is unique to the market place.”

He said a temporary sales office will be established this month at 1980 Festival Plaza Drive, Suite 480. Next year a sales office will be on-site.

The developer will offer predesigned homes and homes in the clubhouse, ranging from $2 million to $12 million.

In Summerlin, the median price of a new home in May is $519,950, compared with $279,900 citywide, according to Home Builders Research.

Adelson said most of the early inquiries about the community have come from Las Vegas residents. Discovery Las has built 19 resort communities in the United States, Mexico and the Bahamas.

The club will have “farm-to-table restaurants,” a fitness center, spa, indoor basketball court, kids center and organized activities such as wellness programs, clubs, hikes and mountain biking.

Discovery Land is known for making golf fun with themed events and“comfort stations” that offer candies, desserts, ice cream sandwiches, Kobe beef sliders, fresh fish off the grill, healthy snacks and salads.

“We couldn’t be more excited to be in Las Vegas,” Adelson said. “It’s a great niche.”

Summerlin President Kevin Orrock said the project is “off and running.”

He called the project a “shot in the arm” in Las Vegas housing market’s the recovery.

Orrock said Discovery Land is “very selective” in the markets it chooses to enter.

“I think it’s another statement that Las Vegas is coming back, and coming back in a big way,” he said. “It’s a very significant project for the valley, and specifically for Summerlin.”