Progress unveiled: Downtown Summerlin project on track for Oct. 9 opening

The Howard Hughes Corp. has set its sights for Oct. 9 as the opening date for its 1.6 million-square-foot retail and dining experience to be known as Downtown Summerlin.

Clark County Commissioner Susan Brager said she couldn’t wait and neither could her constituents in District F.

“Whether I’m at the park, the movies, just walking on the street, people literally stop me and say, ‘When? When will we have shopping?’ … I tell them, ‘It’s coming. It’ll be here in October,’ ” she said. “They love the sound of the word ‘October’ right now.”

Announced retailers include Macy’s and Dillard’s, both to be dominant features in the complex, as well as Nordstrom Rack, True Religion, Victoria’s Secret, Michael Kors, Sephora and Boston Proper. Restaurants are to include Sushi Loca and Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill. A Trader Joe’s grocery store and five-screen Regal Cinemas also are planned. The names of more stores and eateries are to be released as contracts are signed.

Once built, the project is expected to employ 2,000 workers.

Tom Warden, senior vice president for community and government relations for Hughes Corp., said the 2008 financial crisis did Hughes a favor by stopping the original Shops at Summerlin project in its tracks.

“It turns out that the economic stall that this project went through with (General Growth Properties) was a good thing in the sense that the design now is more evolved,” Warden said. “And it is much more of a new urbanist, really well-put-together site. So, it’s been painful to wait this long for something that everybody wanted, but in the end, it’s going to be a better regional retail center.”

He said three changes that were made during the economic downturn were going from a single linear street design to two streets, for more of an “urban street grid.” A marketplace was added at the southern end, which is ancillary to the fashion segment. The marketplace had not been in the original plan.

“It was a different design,” Warden said. “We took the Dillard’s and turned it and moved it up and created the marketplace at the end.”

A dining park was designed where freestanding restaurants encircle an outdoor courtyard space.

“All of that plays into the active outdoor lifestyle of Summerlin,” Warden said.

Another change: the nine-story office building, which was just getting its glass exterior walls in May and will see retail on its ground floor, was tweaked to include a pass-through between the streets.

Hughes gave the media a hard-hat tour May 15. Inside the project, streets were dirt, and caution tape was strung up between cones. Buildings had partial skin on their exterior walls. The interiors were shells with exposed steel beams. There were no windows or internal walls. Pallets of supplies waited to be unpacked while construction workers in reflector vests completed wiring or dug up dirt with Bobcats.

Skeletal escalators on the east side led from the dining park and drew the eye up into the main entry building closest to Red Rock Resort, 11011 W. Charleston Blvd. That casino operation recently announced $35 million in upgrades, part of which will address access to Downtown Summerlin.

“This 400-acre center, as magnificent as it is, is just the beginning,” Warden said, explaining how the easternmost part of the property would have urban living.

“Not a one will be a single-family, detached home,” Warden said. “It’ll be higher density, so we anticipate people will really (latch) onto this. You can walk out your front door and have all your neighborhood services in front of you … with this (Downtown Summerlin) down the block, what’s not to like?”

He suggested many who buy the condominiums also will work in Downtown Summerlin and, with all of the center’s amenities, might not even have need for a vehicle.

“There will, literally, be people who do not get in their car for days on end,” Warden said.

The housing will encompass roughly 6,000 acres. Construction is set to begin this fall on the first segment, which will offer 124 units. The scheduled opening date is spring 2015.

David Weinreb, CEO of Hughes, said Las Vegas was a high priority for the company.

“Summerlin is one of our most important communities in our portfolio,” Weinreb said. “It’s a major focus, this 22,000-acre development. In context, that’s about the size of Manhattan.”

Property manager Andrew Ciarrocchi was asked what needs to be done to make sure everything runs smoothly so Hughes can hit its Oct. 9 opening date.

“At this point, it’s just staying very involved,” he said. “We have a tremendous construction crew putting this thing together, but if I’m not involved in the beginning, then I don’t know where everything is buried later on. So, you have to … be part of the leasing process and know what (types of stores) will succeed and work with our leasing team to make sure those kinds of retailers are brought in.”

He said some upscale restaurants were planned to complement the mix it already had secured.