School namesake the pioneer for master-planned developments valleywide

The namesake of Fine Elementary School, 6635 W. Cougar Ave., changed the face of the Las Vegas Valley forever.

Mark Lawrence Fine is responsible for developing the area’s first master-planned community, Green Valley, in the 1970s, and Summerlin in the 1990s.

His former father-in-law, Hank Greenspun, selected Fine to lead the project of developing the thousands of acres of land he had purchased south of McCarran International Airport. The area would be named Green Valley, after the Greenspun family, although “it wasn’t green, (and) it wasn’t a valley,” Fine said.

The only developed land in that area was Paradise Valley County Club, present-day Wildhorse Golf Club, near Warm Springs Road and Green Valley Parkway, which was a project by Greenspun and Wilbur Clark, who owned the Desert Inn.

“The idea was to try and build an environment that had all the quality of life people wanted,” Fine said.

Groundbreaking started in 1977, Fine said, with the first development being a 5,000-square-foot commercial center at the corner of Green Valley Parkway and Sunset Road. It housed the offices of Fine’s company, American Nevada Company, and the first Green Valley Grocery.

Fine traveled around the country studying what few master-planned communities there were at the time, but he also drew on his experience as a kid. Fine was born in 1946 in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. His upbringing there would influence his work in Green Valley, he said.

“I had a lot of resources to draw from,” Fine said. “It was a great suburban community. Trying to bring that suburban feel to Las Vegas was part of my inspiration. Growing up in a planned community you can see as a child the things that make a difference.”

The Fine family moved to Arizona while he was in high school, and he graduated from the University of Arizona in Tucson with a degree in real estate administration. Fine moved to New York City and worked in real estate finance on Wall Street. He would marry Susan Greenspun and have two kids before moving to Las Vegas in 1973 to work with Hank Greenspun on Green Valley.

“Green Valley was a very slow, very tough process,” Fine said. “People didn’t know what a planned community was. ... You were just trying to fight for your market share. We had to fight for it every inch of the way.”

Fine said development also started slowly because, in part, Henderson was not seen as an attractive place to live. Homes did not start selling quickly until the mid-1980s.

“In those days, a lot of people didn’t necessarily want a Henderson address,” he said. “Through building the community and parks and creating events, it differentiated us in a way that overcame any negatives. ... People today say Henderson without hesitation.”

In 1990, Fine was hired by the Howard Hughes Corporation to develop Summerlin, named for Hughes’ grandmother, Jean Amelia Summerlin.

“When we did Summerlin, we’d already proven the value of a master-planned community,” Fine said. “There was demand for it on the west side.”

The first development was the Hills, made up of primary homes — for about 95 percent of the market, Fine said — and luxury homes. Lummis Elementary School and Becker Middle School were the first schools built in the area. The Hughes Corporation later would donate land to build The Meadows School.

TPC Summerlin was built in the Hills South with housing, followed by TPC Canyons, which was renamed TPC Las Vegas.

By 1994, Fine said, Summerlin and Green Valley were the two fastest-selling master-planned communities in the country. Fine also had his hand in education in Southern Nevada.

In 1983, he helped created the Clark County School District’s School-Community Partnership Program, which connects local businesses with schools. He would serve as the program’s first chairman and has donated time and money to various schools and other educational projects.

His son, Jeffrey Fine, was the one who nominated him to the school naming committee in 2006.

“I think my dad is one of the unsung heroes of the town,” he said. “... When he came here, there were very few master-planned communities in the country. There wasn’t a template for what one should be. He was effectively the one who implemented and started and fathered the idea of master-planned communities. I think the city is much better for it.”

Fine is still active in real estate, though not nearly as much as before. After his work on Summerlin, he advised developers of other master-planned communities, including Eldorado Heights in North Las Vegas and Mountain’s Edge in the southwest valley.

Fine, 67 and a Summerlin resident, said he is busy “being a good grandfather” these days.

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 702-224-5524.