Industrial project in North Las Vegas’ Apex lands first tenant

A sprawling new industrial complex in North Las Vegas landed its first tenant before any buildings have taken shape, another sign of the fierce demand for Southern Nevada warehouses.

VanTrust Real Estate announced last week that it started construction on the first two buildings in Vantage North, a 4.5 million-square-foot logistics and distribution project it’s developing in Apex Industrial Park. It pre-leased one of the buildings to Saddle Creek Logistics Services, which will occupy 580,000 square feet, according to a news release.

Saddle Creek, a warehousing and distribution firm that serves retailers, manufacturers and other clients, is expected to occupy the building in fall 2023.

Southern Nevada’s industrial real estate market has grown substantially over the last several years, and it heated up even more after the pandemic hit. The public health crisis accelerated people’s shift to online shopping, fueling demand for distribution space.

Industrial vacancies are at all-time lows, landlords keep buying buildings, and developers continue to launch more projects, especially in North Las Vegas.

Last quarter, Southern Nevada’s industrial vacancy rate was just 1.3 percent, and more than 8.3 million square feet of space was under construction, according to brokerage Colliers International.

More than half of that construction was in North Las Vegas.

Apex, off Interstate 15 at U.S. Highway 93, has been around for decades. It offers thousands of acres for potential projects, but for a long time, construction activity was scarce amid a dearth of infrastructure.

However, utility service has been expanding to Apex, and over the past year or so, investors have been buying land and pushing ahead with construction plans in the remote industrial park some 20 miles northeast of the Strip.

The increased activity in Apex also comes amid higher land prices and a depleted availability of project sites in the northeast valley’s Las Vegas Motor Speedway area, a popular warehouse construction spot in recent years.

VanTrust purchased its roughly 350-acre project site at the southern edge of Apex for almost $45 million in March 2021.

Vantage North’s first two buildings are expected to span more than 1 million square feet combined and be completed in November 2023.

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