What’s that building being constructed near Ikea in Las Vegas?
Ikea’s newest neighbor in Las Vegas is coming out of the ground.
Luxury health club chain Life Time is building a new location in the southwest valley that is now taking shape. As seen this week, construction crews had tilted up the walls of the three-story building.
The Clark County Building Department previously issued a commercial building permit, valued at $29 million, for the new club, records show.
Life Time spokeswoman Natalie Bushaw said this week that the facility, at the corner of Durango Drive and Sunset Road, is scheduled to open in late 2026 and that it has a waitlist for interested members.
Life Time’s Durango location, as it’s being called, is across the street from Ikea, the popular furniture chain and Swedish meatball slinger.
The 130,000-square-foot fitness club will include pickleball courts, pools, dozens of workout classes weekly, group training, and a “full hydrotherapy suite” with a sauna, steam room, whirlpool and cold plunge, according to its website.
Bushaw said it will also feature dedicated recovery space with cryo and hydro massage and other treatments; “Alpha” programming, which according to the company consists of 12 weeks of high-intensity daily training; and a newly designed outdoor bar area.
Minnesota-based Life Time boasts more than 180 health clubs across the U.S. and Canada. Locally, it has a location in Summerlin and another in Henderson, where it also built a high-end apartment complex next door called Life Time Living.
Its project site in the southwest valley was slated under prior owners for a multi-tower project called Sullivan Square. During the mid-2000s real estate bubble, Las Vegas and Irish developers teamed up on the venture, but ultimately, like numerous other high-rise condo proposals in Southern Nevada from that era, Sullivan Square was never built.
The developers left behind a vacant lot with an excavated portion that, according to a former listing broker, was roughly 30 feet deep.
Life Time eventually purchased the 15-acre site in fall 2019 for $14 million. Clark County commissioners approved its project plans in early 2020, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic upended daily life and devastated the economy, including the health club industry.
Work crews later filled the crater on Life Time’s site with dirt, and the company broke ground on its project earlier this year.
In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal in April, Life Time founder Bahram Akradi attributed the yearslong wait for the project to the company managing its balance sheet “through the ravages of COVID.”
Life Time slowed development and focused on its finances, he said. But the company was in its best shape ever and “basically expediting our growth again,” he added.
Overall, the company reported $148.2 million in net income for the first half of this year, up almost 91 percent from the same stretch in 2024.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
