Builders mull attached dwellings

Jennifer Shubinski

Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.

Citing demand and land prices, homebuilders that previously shied away from attached housing in Southern Nevada are entering the market or are planning such a product for the future.

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers will enter the attached-product market for the first time in Las Vegas with its introduction of condominiums and townhomes at Lake Las Vegas later this year.

Other homebuilders have entered the attached market within the past year or are looking into it.

"We do have some intent to move forward with some attached product," said Brad Burns, Centex Homes division president. "Eventually, yes, we will be involved in multifamily housing."

He said it probably won't happen within the next two years, but an addition to the company's local product line is expected. The company has built attached housing in Las Vegas in the past.

"Part of the reason we stopped was some insurance constraints," he said.

He said insurance rates and availability are more reasonable now.

National homebuilders in the past shied away or stopped building attached products and condominium developments in Las Vegas as the threat of litigation became more certain and as the cost for liability insurance for such products increased.

Condominiums were considered risky ventures for Southern Nevada builders because of their tenants-in-common ownership structure. Attorneys have said condominium defect suits often involve large claims because of the common ownership of portions of each building.

But since Legislation passed that made construction defect lawsuits less of a wild card and as homebuilders came up with new ways to build and insure products, more homebuilders have entered the attached home market.

Pulte Homes opened town home and condominium complexes in North Las Vegas and the northern part of the valley last year and has plans to open a 310-unit condo project this year and a 140-unit condo project in 2006. The homebuilder built attached products in the Las Vegas Valley several years ago.

"The biggest thing was the insurance issue, but with the change in legislation and we figured out a way to insure the trades," has made the product more viable again, said Lynn Galindo, Pulte Homes vice president of strategic marketing.

One reason more builders are turning to attached projects is because of land availability and land prices, said Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research Inc.

"It's just harder to find the land that would be conducive to what they've done in the past," he said.

Burns said land constraints are a big reason the company is looking to get into attached products. He said the company's Lake Las Vegas division, which is a separate division from the company's Las Vegas Valley division, does build attached products.

Beazer Homes started building a unique attached housing product last year called the "quartet."

Two two-story homes are attached at the garage and share a common driveway. The name quartet comes from the grouping of two sets of the attached houses grouped together in a pod type arrangement.

The homebuilder is virtually sold out of its community near Alexander Road and Cliff Shadows Parkway, but it is actively selling a quartet community at Grand Teton and Grand Canyon drives, Jeannette Murphy, Beazer Homes marketing manager said. The company also plans to open a quartet development in Henderson around April.

New market entrant Ryland Homes has its eye on attached housing for down the road, said Sandy Rose, in the company's sales and marketing division.

She said land issues and trends within the community are prompting the homebuilder to look at possible attached products.

"We are looking to keep up with the times and changes of lifestyle," she said. "Las Vegas is a hot place, and it has a huge second home market."

Gary Mayo, vice president and division manager, said the company has been looking at building a luxury-attached product in the Lake Las Vegas area for a number of years.

"Our market research tells us the time is right in Las Vegas," he said in an interview with In Business Las Vegas, a sister newspaper to the Las Vegas Sun. "We've been looking at Lake Las Vegas for a few years and with everything else that's going on out there right now, it's bringing a different perspective to Lake Las Vegas."

Toll Brothers, which builds attached products in other markets, chose to build an attached product at Lake Las Vegas because it is more of a resort-style community than a primary-home community, Mayo said.

Toll Brothers will build about 80 high-end town homes and another 350 condominium units along the Falls golf course. The communities are expected to open sometime in the fall, Mayo said.

Pricing has not been set, but units will range from 1,200 square feet up to 3,200 square feet, he said.