Royal entrance at Queensridge

Frank Pankratz has spent the better part of the past two years poring over design details, financial statements and sales figures for One Queensridge Place, two 18-story luxury condominium towers near Alta Drive and Rampart Boulevard in the Queensridge community.

Now the president of Executive Home Builders, developer of the $250 million project, is ready to move into his eighth-floor, 5,000-square-foot condo with wife, Diane.

"We have seen our home evolve through every stage of its design and development and it is truly like seeing our dreams come to life," Pankratz said. "It's perfect for our lifestyle. The kids are gone, the amenities, the great location."

The first residents were expected to close escrow and begin occupying their million-dollar condos earlier this month. About 85 percent of the 219 units are sold, Executive Home Builders Chief Executive Officer Johan Lowie said.

Pankratz said One Queensridge Place will define vertical living in Las Vegas with its art nouveau-inspired architecture and the developer's passion for detail that encompasses the signature design. It's within walking distance of dining, shopping, gambling and golfing.

On the opposite corner, Executive Home Builders has begun work on The Village at Queensridge, a 30-acre, mixed-use development of 700,000 square feet of office, retail and restaurant space and 340 condos in 18 buildings up to 10 stories.

Diane Pankratz said buying at Queensridge was her doing. They had just finished building a 6,300-square-foot retirement home in Scottsdale, Ariz., when they looked at each other one day and said, "We're outta here. We're going back to Las Vegas. There's more action," she said.

Unhappy with the selection of golf-course homes in the area, most of them two stories with a pool, which Diane didn't want, she settled on the high-rise condo.

"I'm from a big city, so we're used to living in condos," she said.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas economist Keith Schwer said One Queensridge Place probably attracted wealthy residents from the upper-end west side of Las Vegas Valley.

"We had an inkling because of the demographics," he said. "You have older people with extra money and accumulated wealth and people in their prime income-earning years."

Tom Spiegel, a Las Vegas investment businessman, is moving from his single-family custom home in Queensridge to a 6,400-square-foot penthouse suite at One Queensridge Place.

Because he travels about four months out of the year, Spiegel likes the "lock-and-leave" idea of not having to manage a pool and yard or maintain his home.

"Number two, I like the security at the tower. I had my car stolen two months ago right out of my driveway," he said.

Spiegel said he doesn't know what other Queensridge residents think of the towers, but he doesn't find them at all intrusive.

"They don't look as big as they are," he said. "I actually drove around the streets to look at every angle and you're looking at the narrow side."

Although the resort corridor has the heaviest concentration of mid-rise and high-rise condos, the suburban areas of Las Vegas have shown increased condo development, real estate consultant John Restrepo said in his second-quarter luxury condo report.

As prices for development along the resort corridor continue to escalate, developers of mid-rise and high-rise projects will invest elsewhere in the valley, he said.

Restrepo reported seven units at One Queensridge Place for sale on the Multiple Listing Service in August and they were listed as still "under construction." Overall, there have been no closings for this project, he said.

"Until a project has actual closings and resales, those contracts don't count," Restrepo said. "I shouldn't say they don't count, but they're a soft indicator of demand. The true indicator is how many actually close and later on how many go to resale and what percentage."

Resales won't come on the market for a while because of a "hold period" in the purchase agreement that prohibits Queensridge buyers from selling their units for one year after closing escrow.

Morton Davis and his wife, Kristina, lived in Summerlin for four years before purchasing a 12th-floor unit at Turnberry Place near the Strip five years ago. They're ready to return to their old neighborhood.

"Queensridge is an upgrade and it's closer to our friends," Davis said. "We like the area better. All the shopping centers are new, all the streets are new and there's not all this construction."

Davis said his fourth-floor, 3,100-square-foot unit at Queensridge Place "cost a bundle," something north of $2.3 million. It's a lot more than he paid at Turnberry, where the unit is delivered as a "gray shell."

The Queensridge unit comes with all appliances, floor coverings and built-out, 43-foot his and hers closets, he said.

Davis is set to close escrow in the next couple of weeks, but said he's in no hurry because his Turnberry condo hasn't yet sold. It's been on the market for a while with competition from units in Turnberry's fourth tower that were bought on speculation.

Andrew Woodtli, commercial real estate vice president of New York-based HSBC Bank, said he was looking for a "unique project with a strong and dedicated development team" when he closed on $250 million in construction financing for One Queensridge Place in January 2006.

"The initial challenge was educating lenders on the demand for high-rise projects not located on the Strip," David Stepanchak of George Smith Partners, who structured the financing with HSBC on behalf of Executive Home Builders, told the Review Journal in January 2006. "Once banks evaluated the strength of the local market, they responded enthusiastically and broadly."

HSBC, which has nearly 400 branches, mostly in New York and Florida, joined several other financial institutions, including PB Capital and Bank Leumi, both of New York, in providing the loan.

The city of Las Vegas in July 2004 approved four towers and 385 units on the 20-acre site. Original plans called for a third 18-story building and a 14-story building.

Perini Building was the general contractor at One Queensridge Place; JMA Architecture Studios worked on the design.