Developers to tee off on fourth golf course

Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2004 | 10:48 a.m.

While golf courses that count on daily round play have faced economic struggles in Southern Nevada, resort operators at Lake Las Vegas are counting on the area's residential component to make its new Tom Fazio-designed course a success.

Officials with Transcontinental Properties Inc., master developer of Lake Las Vegas Resort, announced Monday that they will build their fourth 18-hole course on the north shore of the man-made lake in east Henderson. The cost of the project was not disclosed.

Ground will be broken early next year on Rainbow Canyon with play expected to begin by late 2007.

"There will be lots of canyons and mountainous areas that will integrate right into the golf course," said John Herndon, director of golf at Lake Las Vegas Resort. "From some of the higher elevations of the course, players will get some spectacular views of of the Rainbow Garden Geological Preserve and Lake Mead as well as Lake Las Vegas."

Herndon said the new course will cover more than 300 acres in the mountains on the northern shore of the lake and the par-71 layout will be more than 7,000 yards long.

Fazio, one of the premiere golf course developers in the industry, designed and built the Shadow Creek Golf Course in North Las Vegas for casino executive Steve Wynn. He also designed the two courses on the California-Nevada border near Primm. All three are now operated by MGM Mirage.

"I have always thought that some of the most creative people in the world practice their trade in Las Vegas," Fazio said in a news release announcing plans for Rainbow Canyon.

Herndon acknowledged that maintaining a golf course is an expensive proposition but said that the resident memberships for the new course will make it economically feasible.

"It will be part of the destination resort, and the residential component, as well as existing and future hotels, will supply rounds," Herndon said. "It won't be exclusively private, maybe more semiprivate. If we operated in a pure daily fee basis, it wouldn't make economic sense."

Guests of the resort's Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Resort and the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas also will have access to the new course.

Officials said it is too early to determine what it will cost to play at the course and how much memberships will run.

A spokeswoman for 3,592-acre Lake Las Vegas Resort said about 1,000 people live in existing residential areas at the resort. That is expected to double by next year and swell to 6,000 to 7,000 residents by build-out in 2015.

Lake Las Vegas already has three other golf course, two of which operate semiprivately and one that is exclusively private. Golfers can play the resort's oldest course, Reflection Bay Golf Club, and the recently opened Falls Golf Club near the resort's entrance.

The SouthShore Golf Club is for the exclusive use of resort residents.