High-rise project with hotel rooms, apartments eyed for Water Street

Water Street, a once-sleepy corridor now lined with restaurants, breweries and other businesses, could have a high-rise in its future.

Strada Development Group filed plans with the city of Henderson for a 22-story project at the southeast corner of Lake Mead Parkway and Water Street. The tower would occupy just over 2 acres of land and feature 110 hotel rooms and 225 apartments.

Its project, The Waterfalls, would also include meeting rooms, offices and other commercial space, and a restaurant and sky lounge on the top floors.

Strada hopes to break ground in mid-2023, co-founder Tom Wucherer said this week.

The tower would mark a dramatic entrance to a commercial corridor that city officials long sought to revitalize. It would also sit up the street from The Watermark, a seven-story mixed-use project by Strada that is nearing completion.

Wucherer said the new tower would let the firm “bookend” Water Street, and because The Waterfalls would be closer to busy Lake Mead Parkway and freeways, it made sense to build bigger.

Southern Nevada has a long history of developers drawing up big plans and never following through, especially for high-rises. The Waterfalls site itself was earmarked years ago for City Tower, a never-built project that was supposed to have condos and commercial space, according to news reports and city records.

Wucherer declined to say how much The Waterfalls would cost to develop. He noted it’s not on the Strip, and his firm won’t spend Strip prices for it. Still, he figures the high-rise is the “right size for the market.”

Water Street used to be a quiet place with limited foot traffic, but more food-and-beverage outlets have opened lately, and more people have been heading there.

Some bigger real estate developments have also taken shape, most notably Lifeguard Arena, the practice rink for the Silver Knights minor-league hockey team, and The Watermark.

Las Vegas-based Strada broke ground last year on The Watermark, a $53 million project that will feature 151 apartments and two levels of commercial space.

The firm is looking to finish the building by the end of this year or early next year, Wucherer said.

This year, Wucherer’s group isn’t the only one that has looked to bring new hotel rooms to Water Street. Developer Joe DeSimone also filed plans to build a hotel in the parking lot of his downtown Henderson casino, The Pass.

There is also one less competitor nearby.

Station Casinos parent Red Rock Resorts announced in July that it would demolish the shuttered Fiesta Henderson, as well as two hotels in North Las Vegas that have also been closed since the onset of the pandemic, and sell the three sites.

The 224-room Fiesta Henderson is about a mile and a half from The Waterfalls site.

Of course, building a high-rise is no easy task. But if one takes shape on Water Street, it would bring a towering project to an area that, in the not-too-distant-past, didn’t have a whole lot to look at.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.