Record price fetched for ‘gray-shell’ condominium

A week after a home in Summerlin’s Ridges village posted a record sales price per square foot for single-family homes in Las Vegas, a 2,985-square-foot penthouse at Sky Las Vegas, a condominium tower just north of Circus Circus on the Strip, claimed an all-time high of its own.

The $2.7 million penthouse on the 42nd floor of the 45-story tower commanded $904.53 per square foot — a local record for a condominium sold in a “gray-shell” state, without flooring, wall coverings, appliances, lighting and other interior-design elements.

Most units in Sky Las Vegas are running at around $650 per square foot.

Why the high price for the penthouse? The view, which Ezra said is “arguably one of the best” on the Strip. The unit looks south down Las Vegas Boulevard, past Mandalay Bay to McCarran International Airport, and its view spans east toward Nellis Air Force Base. The home’s owner will be able to see the planes landing at both sites, Ezra said.

Also, the luxury market has a dynamic that’s separate from the rest of the residential sector, Ezra said. The select handful of consumers who can plunk down millions on a third or fourth home aren’t generally subject to the economic highs and lows that affect buyers of less-expensive properties.

Bruce Hiatt, broker-owner of Luxury Realty Group and a resident of Sky Las Vegas, said the penthouse’s price surpasses the $901 per square foot one of his clients received in May for a finished, three-story suite at the top of Sky Las Vegas. He said prices are jumping quickly inside the tower because of the development planned in the area, from Turnberry Associates’ Fontainebleau across the Strip to the 26-acre project that Kerzner International Holdings and MGM Mirage will build on the southwest corner of Sahara Avenue and the Strip. And until CityCenter opens next to Bellagio in 2009, Sky is the only condominium tower with a Las Vegas Boulevard address, he said.

“People buying into Sky have a vision of the billions of dollars in infrastructure coming in around them,” Hiatt said.

The condominium’s buyer is an “international jet-setter who owns property all around the world,” including in San Francisco and Hawaii and on the East Coast, Ezra said.

“For a lot of wealthier buyers who own in key cities such as London and New York, Las Vegas is now on the map,” Ezra said. “Until they own something in Las Vegas, specifically on and around the Las Vegas Strip, they haven’t really kept up with the Joneses, so to speak.”

Ezra said the buyer will upgrade the home with high-end features such as marble floors. The improvements should take about six months, he said.

Finishing the unit could cost $300 to $500 per square foot, Hiatt said.

ON THE WING: Florida restaurant chain Hurricane Grill and Wings will open a 2,300-square-foot store at Southern Highlands Marketplace, a Territory Inc. development at the southeast corner of Cactus Avenue and Southern Highlands Parkway. The restaurant, which will employ about 20 people, is scheduled for completion in September. Five other Hurricane Grill and Wings locations are under construction in Las Vegas, with an additional 30 restaurants expected to open within three years to five years.

GOING UP: Construction is under way on the Sandy Valley Senior Center, a 3,100-square-foot building for meetings and activities in Sandy Valley, about 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas. JVC Architects designed the $1.7 million center, which B&H Construction is building. The project is scheduled for completion in March.

APARTMENT BUY: RW Selby, a Los Angeles investment firm, bought the 180-unit Courtney’s Bay Apartments in the Silverado Ranch area for $27.7 million, or $153,889 per unit. RW Selby has renamed the property Bacarra Apartment Homes. Christopher Bentley, president and broker of The Bentley Group Real Estate Advisors, represented the seller, Atherton-Newport of Newport Beach, Calif.