Construction starts on Symphony Park luxury apartments

Southern Land Co. (SLC), a privately held full-service development company headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, broke ground on the first residential development at Symphony Park in downtown Las Vegas. Earlier this month, a groundbreaking ceremony, headlined by SLC CEO Tim Downey and Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman, included the unveiling of the project’s name: Auric Symphony Park. At the ceremony, Myron Martin, president and CEO of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, welcomed Southern Land Co. to the Symphony Park neighborhood and accepted a $5,000 donation for arts education and outreach programs at the Center.

The luxury, mid-rise apartment community is SLC’s first project in the Las Vegas market.

It is on six acres north of Donald W. Reynolds Symphony Park, the open-space park near The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, one of two landmark Symphony Park anchors.

Opened in 2012, the $550 million Smith Center has become Southern Nevada’s center of cultural arts with more than 2 million tickets sold to date.

Considered Las Vegas’ premier development site, Symphony Park is home to the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, housed in an iconic Frank Gehry-designed building and one of the nation’s leaders in clinical research for neurodegenerative diseases.

Plans for Auric Symphony Park include 324 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom for-lease apartments with approximately 21,000 square feet of ground level retail and restaurants, and a parking garage with 444 spaces. Apartments and resident areas will feature market-leading finishes, and the project will offer a robust amenity package, which includes a resort-style pool with two-story cabana, rooftop bar, pet park and grooming, resident lounge, top-notch fitness center and business center.

The 480,000-square-foot, five-story mid-rise community was designed by Southern Land Co. and Dallas, Texas-based GDA Architects and embodies an elegant design that compliments the rich architectural style that has become a signature of Symphony Park. General contractor is Martin-Harris Construction.

“The name, Auric, was chosen by Southern Land Co. for its depth, energy, and distinctiveness. According to Downey, the name relates to the aura of a thriving community like downtown Las Vegas and the Symphony Park area, and is derived from the Latin, ‘aurum,’ meaning gold, which fits the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas.”

“We have long been looking at the Las Vegas market and believe this is the ideal time and project to make our mark here,” Downey said. “We appreciate all that Symphony Park brings to Southern Nevada with landmark facilities like The Smith Center and Cleveland Clinic and the area’s vibrant surroundings, and we are excited to be part of developing such an important area of the city. We are confident Auric Symphony Park has been designed to meet the growing need and demand for luxury apartment living in downtown Las Vegas.”

Symphony Park is surrounded by the valley’s second largest employment center comprised of multiple downtown hotel-casinos; major entertainment attractions and museums that make up downtown’s vibrant tourist economy with annual visitation to the area now topping 19 million; Las Vegas Premium Outlets North, one of the country’s most successful outlet shopping malls spanning 540,000 square feet; World Market Center Las Vegas, a 5 million-square-foot showcase for the home and hospitality contract furnishings industry undergoing a 350,000-square-foot expansion; headquarters of Zappos.com; federal courthouses and multiple legal offices; and office towers. The city of Las Vegas is completing one of two planned parking garages on the site that will add more than 1,000 parking spaces for surrounding development. The city also has provided matching monies for initial fundraising efforts for a modern art museum at Symphony Park.

“Downtown Las Vegas is the place where the city got its start more than 100 years ago,” Goodman said. “It is now a thriving mecca of hospitality, business activity and innovation, especially within Symphony Park. There has never been a more exciting time for new development in the heart of the city, and we are thrilled to welcome Southern Land Co. to Las Vegas.”

Southern Land Co. is responsible for more than $3 billion a year in ground-up multifamily development nationally. It also builds more than 500 single-family homes annually. For details, visit www.southernland.com.