High-rise condo complex approved

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.

The area around the Strip could soon have a new high-rise.

A Chicago-based development company won Clark County Commission approval Wednesday for a 210-foot, 24-story, 255-room project at Flamingo Road and Koval Lane.

The tower is billed as a hotel-condominium, in which visitors could own rooms or the developer could rent rooms, but staying more than 30 days at a time would violate county rules.

Robert Sherman, the Las Vegas architect for developer Diversified Real Estate Concepts, said construction could begin in a year to 18 months, and the project could be opened in three years. He said the project will cost $60 million to $80 million.

The County Commission seconded an earlier approval from the Clark County Planning Commission. Garry Hayes, an attorney representing a resident living near the project, appealed the Planning Commission's approval.

Hayes said he represented James Kay, a resident of Park Towers, an existing high-rise condominium near the intersection. Hayes said the recent history of county land-use planning in and near the Strip has favored "up and not out" construction, putting towers into the sky rather than eating up a lot of space on the ground.

"Certainly there is a good argument for that," Hayes said. But "the issues related to parking, related to traffic, related to (views from the surrounding properties) need to be addressed before we go ahead with these massive, massive projects."

He noted that Park Towers has fewer than 90 units on 3.8 acres, while the new project would have more than 250 units on 1.7 acres.

Attorney Jay Brown and land-use consultant Greg Borgel, however, told the County Commission that the project had the support of the Park Towers homeowners association and of Irwin Molasky, the developer of Park Towers, after the Diversified Real Estate Concepts made a number of concessions to address their concerns.

"The developer took the Park Towers residents' concerns very seriously," Brown said. Concessions included lowering the number of units from 334 to 255 and the height of the project from 293 feet to 210 feet.

Attorney Mark Fiorentino, representing the Park Towers homeowners association, told the commission that the group has withdrawn its objections to the project.

Similar projects could be coming to the neighborhood. Oscar Nunez, an owner of several Las Vegas condominiums, and Diversified Real Estate Concepts are seeking county approval for a 16-story, 185-foot tower on 2 acres at Albert Avenue and Koval Lane, the site of Nunez's French Villas apartments.

The developers propose replacing the 40-year-old apartments with retail businesses, offices and 269 condominiums.