UFC starts construction on new global headquarters in Las Vegas

With the signature octagon behind them, Ultimate Fighting Championship officials moved dirt Tuesday morning to begin construction of a 180,000-square-foot global headquarters along the 215 Beltway in the southwest valley.

All of UFC's nearly 400 employees, including international workers based in Brazil, Singapore, London and Toronto, attended the 11 a.m. groundbreaking on 24 acres off the 215 Beltway near Jones Boulevard.

UFC bought the land for $7.8 million. Lorenzo Fertitta, chairman of Zuffa LLC, UFC's parent company, said he did not know how much the campus-style headquarters will exactly cost to build and declined to offer an estimate.

But Fertitta did say UFC is financing it through cash and loans from a consortium of banks.

Fertitta expects UFC's new corporate base to open in March 2017.

UFC Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Epstein said the combat sport promotion and media organization can sell 5 acres of the 24 to generate money. The beltway's southwest valley area has become a popular location for companies to build new spots.

The scope of UFC's future headquarters will dwarf the size of its current base, a 20,000-square-foot office building off Sahara Avenue just west of Interstate 15. UFC uses seven or eight sites in the Las Vegas area for its various mixed martial arts operations, Fertitta said.

"We have people literally on top of each other," Fertitta said in an interview after the groundbreaking. "Having everyone under one roof is a big accomplishment."

The project's contractor is Bentar. KGA is the architectural firm.

The new headquarters is consistent with an organization valued at more than $1 billion, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue.

Its southwest valley location off the beltway is also a convenient geographic location for UFC, which stages big fight show events at venues such as the MGM Grand Garden Arena and needs access to McCarran International Airport. The new headquarters is also in between Summerlin and Henderson.

Not only will UFC's new base serve as its business headquarters, Fertitta vowed the campus will include the most modern training, rehab and workout education facilities in a 40,000-square-foot athletic center for the organization's 570 fighters.

One of UFC's most famed fighters, Chuck Liddell, who turns 46 on Dec. 17, noted, "It's like a lab to see what's working best."

Liddell was among a group of former and current UFC fighters, who included Joanna Jedrzejczyk, 28, the organization's strawweight (115-pound) division champion. "I'm very happy that we have a training center that has everything."

Besides Liddell and Jedrzejczyk, other UFC fighters attending were former UFC interim heavyweight champion Minautoro Nogueira, No. 1 flyweight contender Joseph Benavidez and former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin.

The groundbreaking had a field trip feel to the event as UFC rented big buses to transport workers to the site. It's a rare day that UFC's worldwide staff comes together in a single location, and Fertitta promised his employees a party Tuesday night that would be the most "wild Christmas party they have ever been to."

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com Find him on Twitter: @BicycleManSnel