Las Vegas investments set

Friday, Aug. 17, 2001 | 10:47 a.m.

A New York real estate firm that focuses on commercial development in inner-city communities plans to invest more than $100 million in West Las Vegas projects.

UrbanAmerica of New York has acquired the Nucleus Plaza shopping center and is partnering with Las Vegas-based Nucleus Investments and New Orleans-based KSJ Development Corp. in developing two office buildings and two other retail centers in West Las Vegas.

Nucleus Investments President John Edmond said his new partners are working on acquiring basketball great Magic Johnson's Magic's Westland Plaza and plan to expand the shopping center.

UrbanAmerica is also working with Nucleus Investments and KSJ Development to build a retail center at Simmons Street and Vegas Drive and two office buildings totalling 110,000 square feet at Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards.

Businesswoman Jacqueline Young, who is familiar with the plans, said UrbanAmerica is making an initial investment of $50 million in the Las Vegas Valley projects and plans another $50 million investment over the next five years.

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