Freeways raise real estate values

Friday, June 18, 1999 | 11:06 a.m.

It used to be that Las Vegas' boomtown mentality would draw companies to almost any office and industrial location in town.

But that's changed.

Now, companies are being more selective about where they locate and most are looking for freeway frontage. That has boosted the value of property along the Las Vegas Beltway by about 10 percent, a panel of experts concurred.

A panel of brokers analyzing office and industrial projects in Southern Nevada on Thursday also concluded that today's market is experiencing some bumps, especially with a new phenomenon -- big companies that are moving out.

The panel included Kevin Higgins and Brad Peterson of CB Richard Ellis, Dan Doherty of Colliers International-Las Vegas, Dean Willmore of Industrial Property Group, Chuck Witters of Lee & Associates and Philip Robbins, president of the Southern Nevada Certified Commercial Investment Member Chapter.

The panel addressed members of the Southern Nevada Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.

Big O Tires, which operates a 300,000-square-foot distribution center in Henderson, leaves in October. Levi Strauss has one of its Henderson facilities on the market in its strategy to consolidate facilities. And Rite Aid is closing a 271,000-foot center at Cheyenne and Lamb in North Las Vegas in September and moving its work to California.

All of these centers are near freeway interchanges.

"When I first moved here, companies were just trying to get established here," Doherty said. "Within the past couple years, they've been most interested in easy access to a freeway."

He said he expects infrastructure to develop along Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Jean.

Panelists agreed American Nevada Corp. should realize some immediate benefits of freeway access in July. That's when an interchange at Green Valley Parkway opens on the newest stretch of I-215.

American Nevada is developing at that location its Green Valley Corporate Center, a 90-acre office park geared to offer several different types of office space.

Included are a complex of office buildings, a technology park and versatile "flex office space" that can accommodate offices with some light industrial uses. There are also 1 million square feet dedicated to hotels and restaurants.

The Greenspun family controls both American Nevada and the Las Vegas Sun.

On the downtown office front, panelists were divided over the impact of the Pauls Corp.'s plans to develop a 140,000-square-foot office facility at Fourth Street and Lewis Avenue.

Pauls has expressed interest in meeting with the newly seated Las Vegas City Council to develop an office on the site of the failed Sun Plaza. The Pauls project would be half the size of Sun Plaza, which was planned by American Nevada and Nevada State Bank.

Panelists split over whether the Pauls project would compete with the earlier planned Opus Corp. project on 178 acres west of downtown presently owned by Union Pacific Railroad. Opus is looking to start with a 150,000-square-foot office building.

Some panelists felt there could be some competition between the two projects, but others said they believe professionals who need to be close to courts or government centers downtown would be drawn to the Pauls project.