Mountain Spa looking to partner on luxury project

Grace Leong

Thursday, Feb. 28, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

The Mountain Spa luxury home project in far Northwest Las Vegas -- stalled because of litigation, a failed hotel deal and the economic slowdown -- says a joint venture with a major home developer is now among its options.

Mountain Spa, a 637-acre project near Floyd Lamb State Park and owned by Aladdin resort developer Jack Sommer, said sales of model homes and home lots still haven't resumed. They were stopped in September when the company decided to reconsider its development strategy.

Plans to develop Mountain Spa as a luxury resort modeled after La Quinta Resort & Club, a five-star golf residential community in California, were initially hampered by a decision by hotel chain Ritz-Carlton in 2000 not to develop a five-star resort at Mountain Spa.

Then came the economic slowdown in 2001 and lawsuits with Mountain Spa contractors.

Megan Jones, Mountain Spa's spokeswoman, said a recent settlement of several lawsuits filed last year by its contractor, subcontractors and a lender over alleged unpaid work for six model homes clears the way for the company to "do anything with the property including a possible joint venture with a home developer."

"As to who develops the project and how it'll be developed, that's still up in the air. It could be developed either as higher-density housing which means smaller lots and smaller homes; or semi-custom housing, which allows buyers to bring in their own contractors and architects to build homes that are within housing development regulations, of course," Jones said.

"Mountain Spa is most concerned about getting the homes built. Since the resort backed out, the lots for homes have to be redrawn because land was set aside for the resort property," she said. "As soon as the land lots are redrawn, and that's expected to be within the next month, then construction can resume."

The existing model homes each sell for between $500,000 and $1.4 million, while the estate lots sell for between $150,000 and $1 million. Mountain Spa is legally entitled to sell lots for up to 1,873 homes.

Michael Mushkin, Mountain Spa's attorney, said litigation has been settled with contractor Johnson Communities of Nevada Inc., subcontractors Kennington Plastering Nevada and Quality Wood Products Ltd. and lender Construction Lending Corp. of America.