$60M apartment complex to be built near Strip

After building and then selling two upscale apartment complexes near the Strip, developer Jonathan Fore is set to construct another one.

Fore told the Review-Journal he plans to break ground in May on a seven-story, 184-unit rental complex on Harmon Avenue just west of Interstate 15, behind The Martin condo tower.

The roughly $60 million project is slated to feature ground-floor retail space that Fore aims to fill with two restaurants, as well as a resort-style pool and a sky lounge.

The real amenity, Fore said, is being able to walk to the resort corridor. Connected by the Harmon Avenue overpass, the property is about a half-mile from the CityCenter complex on Las Vegas Boulevard.

“It’s all about the proximity to the Strip,” said Fore, managing partner of Fore Property Co.’s Western region.

Apartments are expected to span from 693 to 1,381 square feet, with rent prices ranging from $1,600 to $3,000 per month, the developer said.

Clark County commissioners approved project plans in November.

The planned groundbreaking comes after Las Vegas’ rental market heated up last year with fast-rising rents and shrunken availability as people sought more space during the pandemic amid widespread work-from-home arrangements.

Landlord purchases, which had dropped sharply in 2020 amid devastating job losses and other turmoil sparked by the coronavirus outbreak, have since rebounded, with investors paying top dollar for Southern Nevada apartment complexes lately.

As part of Fore’s project, he plans to demolish an existing building on the site that has been home to Royal Pacific of Las Vegas, a screenprinting and embroidery shop.

Royal Pacific President Scott Dortch told the Review-Journal this week that his company is moving to a nearby building that his landlord on Harmon recently purchased.

Dortch’s shop has been on Harmon for about seven years, and its lease ended at the end of 2021, he said, adding that the landlord had an option to not renew the rental agreement and has been “very accommodating.”

Dortch, who has more than 40 employees, said he expects to be open for business in the new location on Polaris Avenue no later than March 11.

Southern Nevada has seen a surge of apartment construction over the past several years, though development has been heavily concentrated in the suburban outer rings.

A small but growing number of urban area projects have also taken shape. Among them, Fore built Lotus, a 295-unit complex in the Chinatown area, and Jade, a 287-unit project near the Rio.

He sold Lotus, on Spring Mountain Road a mile west of the Strip, for $76.7 million in fall 2018. The sale amounted to $260,000 per unit, more than double the market average that year.

He sold Jade for $124.5 million this past December. That deal amounted to nearly $433,798 per unit, more than double the market average last year, according to figures previously provided by the Nevada State Apartment Association.

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