Townhomes come with lofty expectations

Dan Kulin

Friday, Aug. 19, 2005 | 8:58 a.m.

Rows of brightly colored townhomes will make their debut in downtown Las Vegas early next year as a Houston developer known as the Tin Man brings his signature metal covered homes to a vacant lot at Carson Avenue and 11th Street.

Mayor Oscar Goodman said he hopes the homes, which will cost about $300,000 each, will be affordable to the teachers, nurses and firefighters he has said are losing affordable places to live with the rising home prices in the Las Vegas Valley. The mayor also said he hopes the influx of residents into new downtown homes will bring more people to the nearby downtown entertainment and arts districts.

"In today's terms this is very affordable," Goodman said of the prices of the 30 townhomes planned for a little more than 1 acre on the 1100 block of Carson Avenue. "It's great that the people living here can walk out of their homes, have a martini and then go to the entertainment district."

A bar is across the street from the development, which is called the Eleventh Street Lofts.

Goodman added that if ethics rules allowed him to invest in the city's redevelopment areas, he would invest in the townhomes.

"Maybe I can get some straw men out here and we can make a buck," Goodman told the crowd gathered for the ceremonial groundbreaking

The townhome project comes from Houston developer Larry Davis, president of Urban Lofts Townhomes, who is referred to by some as the Tin Man, a reference to the metal homes his company has built in Houston, Atlanta, and now in Las Vegas.

Davis said Las Vegas' rapid growth, along with city official's efforts to revitalize downtown, attracted him to the area.

Also, the lack of density restrictions -- the number of homes allowed on an acre of land -- in the city's redevelopment area, allowed for more homes to be built and the project to work out financially, Urban Lofts Townhomes Vice President s Frank Robertson said.

Davis is also planning to build another 71 metal-clad townhomes on about 2.7 acres at 1980 Fremont St., just east of Bruce Street, and said he is looking for more land to build on.

"I'm desperately trying to find other sites to build on because of our long waiting list," Davis said.

Robertson said the company has 240 prospective buyers waiting for the townhomes to be finished.

Some townhomes in the Eleventh Street Lofts complex should be done by March or April, and construction on the Fremont Street project should get under way within the next few months, Davis said.

Davis touts his townhomes as a product for the 21st century. The two-story townhomes are covered with galvanized metal that has the paint baked onto it. The metal reflects the sun unlike brick, which retains heat, and is stronger against the elements than stucco, he said.

"You never have to paint it, just get a hose," Davis said.

The Eleventh Street Lofts will have two-car garages and range in size from an 1,800-square-foot, two-bedroom unit to a 2,000-square-foot unit with two bedrooms and a study. The homes will range in price from around $290,000 to about $320,000, Davis said.

Charles Fox, owner of the Bunkhouse Saloon, a bar across the street, and four nearby motels, said the townhouse project can do nothing but good things for the neighborhood.

"I couldn't wish for a better thing," he said. "We're going to get decent, hard working people moving in."

Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly, whose ward includes the project, credited Davis for "thinking outside the box." He called the homes another example of the renewed popularity of downtown with developers.

"Five years ago I had all this land in my ward and nobody was knocking on my door," Weekly said. "Today I can't keep up with it."