Summit mansion sells for $18.95 million

A Summit Club home that set the mark in October as the second highest sale in Las Vegas at $18.75 million has been sold again eight months later for $200,000 more than the owners paid.

While the lower-priced end of the Las Vegas housing market has slowed with higher mortgage rates and fear of a recession, those homes at the luxury level continue to trade hands at a strong, albeit slightly slower pace.

Forrest Barbee, corporate broker for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, reported there were 137 luxury sales of $1 million and higher in June through Wednesday. That number won’t be finalized until July 5. That total is expected to be down from the 170 luxury sales in June 2021. There were 218 sales in April and 178 in May.

The Summit Club home acquired in October by a California tech entrepreneur and his wife, Jonathan and Nicole Cronstedt, sold for $18.95 million to Kevin Elder, according to Clark County property records.

The background of the buyer of the Summit Club home isn’t known. The Summit Club, which represented the buyer, is not commenting, and the seller’s agent, Ivan Sher of the Ivan Sher Group with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Nevada Properties, said he didn’t know.

Crondsted, whose LinkedIn page said he’s a resident of Capistrano Beach, California, lists him as former president and current board director at Kajabi, a provider of integrated marketing automation and digital education, enabling experts and media personalities to create, market and sell their content online.

The previous owner was Peter Kravitz, principal at Province, a financial services firm in Henderson.

The uber-luxury resort community in Summerlin is expected to be the leader in high-end sales in the future, given the homes under construction there worth tens of millions of dollars, according to Realtors. The highest price paid for a home in Las Vegas was $25 million last summer in MacDonald Highlands in Henderson.

Last summer, a home in the Summit Club sold for $17.5 million, then representing the highest ever paid per square foot in valley history at $2,248.

In July 2021, a wealthy buyer with ties to the California tech industry paid a record $36 million for 4.47 acres to build an estate in the Summit Club, which has attracted the likes of Vegas Knights owner Bill Foley, Raiders owner Mark Davis, singer Celine Dion and billionaire entrepreneurs from across the country.

The two-story property has five bedrooms and eight baths and measures 9,427 square feet. It was built in 2019 by Growth Luxury Homes and sits on a lot measuring 26,572 square feet with golf course views.

“It’s a great home,” Sher said. “It has a Santa Barbara exterior and eclectic interior. It has a separate guest casita and the only way you can get to it is with an outside staircase or internal elevator. One of the garages was converted to an indoor basketball court. It’s in a great location. If this home were in The Ridges or anywhere else, it wouldn’t get anywhere near that price outside of the Summit.”

Sher said the property is “majestically perched within The Summit Club with city, mountain and golf course views.” It has “timeless design elements, a grand great room with gorgeous natural light, dramatic wood-beam ceilings and exquisite views. The architectural use of arches throughout the home adds to the richness of the interior, while black iron doors and window frames bring a definitive feel of security and comfort.”

The home’s kitchen has appliances from Hestan, La Cornue and Thermador.

The master bedroom is a “decadent retreat resplendent with a spa-like bathroom that includes a private outdoor terrace with an outdoor shower,” Sher said.

The home also features a secluded private apartment. This space includes its own stairs, elevator, living room, bedroom, bathroom and laundry.

The entire upper level is devoted to entertainment, with a game room, lounge, bar and golf simulator, Sher said.

“It’s timeless,” Sher said of the home. “Two of the three homes that sold in The Summit are not modern. One we sold for $15 million was much more stylistic and traditional than modern and contemporary. It’s very California. This is Montecito. These two homes are getting top dollar. There’s a third off-market home that sold for $17 million that was contemporary.”

Steve Escalante, senior vice president of business development with Growth Luxury Homes, called it a beautiful home and that they’re proud of what they created.

“This home is an authentic Spanish-style of house from the design, architectural design time and interior design team,” Escalante said. “They really came together to create that authenticity of that style here in Las Vegas. We definitely enjoy taking on world-class projects that are not only unique but respect the design architecture of what the client wants.”

Growth Luxury is building a 1930s-style art deco home in the west valley that when completed in 2023 will be one of the most expensive homes ever built in Las Vegas, Escalante said.

“It’s a 40,000-square-foot world-class estate,” Escalante said. “Think ‘Great Gatsby.’ It’s very authentic with a lot of detail. In order to execute that, it’s a sourcing thing from 18 to 20 different countries from stone and detail to furniture. We’re very attuned to eras and styles with regards to our architect and design teams. We enjoy doing projects like that. There’s never been an estate built like this in Las Vegas.”

Escalante said the home’s owner is an international buyer but said he couldn’t provide any more information than that.

Sher said his Summit Club sale happened during a time when people are questioning the market, but this shows that properties are selling. There are concerns about inflation, declines in the stock market and the potential for a recession that has slowed Las Vegas sales overall.

“Even though the market has changed and things are different, the market is still robust and strong,” Sher said. “We’re still in such a great market. If we take our eyes off the road for a minute and look at things going on around us, it’s easy to get scared and look at interest rates and the stock market. It’s still active with fantastic sales like this happening. Yes, there are challenges, but it’s an indicator that the sky isn’t falling. It’s a beacon of light that we are still in a market we haven’t seen for years. There’s still a lot of action from California buyers and even local ones.”