Builder tries California concept in local market

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Developer George Hedley is selling office and warehouse space in Henderson for $175 to $200 a square foot, the same product he has to sell for $250 a square foot in Orange County, Calif.

Hedley, chief executive officer of Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Hedley Construction and Development, is building Hbizctr at Whitney Mesa Drive and Mountain Vista Street, a business center with flexible office and industrial buildings.

The first phase is complete and the second phase is under construction. Brooks Construction is the general contractor.

The design is similar to Hedley’s Hbizctr in Southern California.

“Same thing, different numbers. It’s all relative,” he said.

Small-business owners can buy or lease “flex” buildings, which means the ratio of office-warehouse space can be easily reconfigured. Prices range from $1.17 million for 5,000 square feet to $4.6 million for 25,000 square feet.

Hedley started looking at Las Vegas two years ago and found three suitable sites for his product, two in Henderson and one in North Las Vegas. He was paying $7 to $10 a square foot for the land, maybe $12 a foot in Henderson, he said.

Now it’s hard to find anything under $20 to $25 a square foot.

“You can find $5 (a foot), you’ve just got to keep driving,” Hedley said. “Everybody says land is so expensive. No it’s not. You’ve got to know where it’s going and I’ve seen it. I can feel it, the cars, the houses.”

Hedley remembers when land went to $30 a square foot in San Fernando Valley and people said, “No way. That’s stupid. This is 10 years ago. We’re down in Orange County and you can’t even find industrial land that starts at $30.”

Hedley said brokers here warned him he couldn’t charge more than $150 a square foot, that people wouldn’t pay it. But that’s for what he calls a “contractor’s building. What about medical, electronics, dot-com companies, software engineers? Where are these guys going to go? They need buildings.”

The office portion of Hbizctr offers an open floor plan with a kitchenette and executive washrooms. It comes with a refrigerator and microwave.

Warehouse space features 12-foot-by-14-foot roll-up doors, three-phase, 200-amp electrical service, fire sprinkler system, skylights and 16- and 20-foot ceiling heights.

FOOD CHAIN: Ron Opfer of Coldwell Banker Premier Realty is representing Florida-based Healthy Fast Food in selecting sites for expansion in Las Vegas. Healthy Fast Food owns Evos, a fast-food chain that opened a location in Henderson last year and plans to open 10 more locations in the next few years.

FOR SALE: The Walgreens drug store on the Strip at Convention Center Drive is being listed for sale by Lane Jacobs of Marcus & Millichap at $45 million.

LAUTH OFFICE: Indianapolis-based real estate developer Lauth has begun construction on Montecito Point, a six-story, 187,000-square-foot office building in northwest Las Vegas. Construction cost is estimated at more than $50 million. Completion is expected in summer 2008.

The office is in Montecito Town Center, a mixed-used development featuring retail, housing, medical and recreation. Lauth is going for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification on the project.

SCHOOL BUILDER: Core Construction of Las Vegas was ranked seventh in the nation for construction of K-12 schools with $183.6 million in revenue from 2006 billings, according to Building Design+Construction magazine.

In the last three years, Core has completed ground-up construction or renovation of seven schools for the Clark County School District and is contracted to build three more this year.

INDUSTRIAL DEAL: Pool & Spa Investors Group has bought three industrial buildings in the Alto Business Park, 2818-2826 Marco St. Each building was 4,800 square feet and cost $475,000