Site work begins on condo towers

Jennifer Shubinski

Thursday, March 31, 2005 | 10:56 a.m.

Work has started on Spanish View Tower Homes, a future complex of three condominium towers in the southwest part of the valley.

Blasting has been taking place on the 15-acre site to break up caliche (a hardened layer of soil), allowing work crews to dig two-stories below ground for a parking garage for the three towers.

Plans are for Spanish View Tower Homes, to be built near the Las Vegas Beltway and Buffalo Drive, to include three 18-story towers with a total of 405 custom units ranging in size from 2,500 square feet to 9,500 square feet. The project is expected to cost $660 million, said Rod Yanke, the developer.

When the excavation is complete concrete work will begin on tower one. That is expected to be in about 45 to 60 days, he said. The first tower is scheduled to be done in June or July 2006. The entire project is expected to be complete by the end of 2007 or the beginning of 2008.

"Once we top out tower one, then we will start tower two, which will be about six months after tower one, then six months later we'll start tower three," Yanke said.

Because 75 percent of flights from McCarran International Airport would fly over the planned development, noise reduction measures are included into the building to make the units virtually soundproof, he said. The "outdoor" pool also will be enclosed.

"We have basically soundproofed the units," Yanke said. "So when you are inside the unit, it is basically like a sound studio, there is no noise from the outside."

A side benefit is that the project will be energy efficient, transferring in less heat from the outside, he said.

The units are larger than many condo units now being sold throughout the Las Vegas Valley. Yanke said each unit can be customized to meet the needs and desires of the buyer.

"Our units are basically homes, no studios," he said. "What makes us different is the custom approach. If the client wants to move a wall, we do that for them. Same thing with the plumbing; it's a real custom experience."

Prices for the units range from $835,000 to $6.3 million.

The first tower of 135 units is 42 percent reserved, said Jeannine Cutter, real estate agent with Prudential American Group Realtor, the agency selling the condos. Reservations will be converted to contracts within the next two to three weeks, she said.

"Our clientele is a mixture of empty nesters and snowbirds and individual investors," Cutter said. "There also are young professionals, 40 and up, a lot of doctors and two families with children."

Yanke said he has built custom homes in the Las Vegas Valley since the mid 1970s and before that he was a plumbing contractor in Southern Nevada.