LOOKING IN ON: REAL ESTATE

Brian Wargo

Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007 | 7:08 a.m.

Buyers of million-dollar condos at the 45-story, 409-unit Sky Las Vegas, set to open on the Strip this spring, are already complaining about their views.

The Clark County Planning Commission has blessed the Maxim, a 300-room resort with 1,860 condominiums just south of Sky Las Vegas. Sky residents are calling the project too dense for the 8-acre site on the west side of Las Vegas Boulevard, north of Circus Circus Drive.

Sky condo owners want Clark County commissioners, who will have the final say on Wednesday , to reject the development as proposed. They claim it will leave them in the shadow of a kind of perpetual eclipse and without the mountain and Strip views they expect.

"It looks like a wall of towers," said Bruce Hiatt, a real estate broker who bought a condo at Sky, as did some of his clients. "My clients are outraged, and they are sending letters left and right (to commissioners) protesting this and demanding a public hearing and sitting down and talking, because it's almost like putting a wall in your face."

Residents said they realize they aren't entitled to views, but that it's just not neighborly for a next-door developer to block views and sunlight.

Attorney Chris Kaempfer, who represents Maxim, said views and sunlight can't be guaranteed and losing them is an inescapable consequence of growth.

"Clark County commissioners have taken the position that views, especially on the Las Vegas Strip, are not a protectable interest," Kaempfer said.

Centex Homes, a national homebuilder that announced last week its first-ever quarterly loss, has pulled out of its deal to build a 2,200-acre master-planned community in Henderson.

Centex's announcement has prompted the owners of the property, LandWell Co., to talk with other homebuilders and developers about acquiring and developing the former industrial site east of Boulder Highway.

In November 2004 Centex announced its plans for a master-planned community on the site and in December it opened an information center.

But with a slowdown in the homebuilding industry nationwide, including Las Vegas, Centex decided to drop its option to purchase the land. Centex's decision has no bearing on LandWell's ongoing work to revitalize the site and prepare it for residential and commercial development, said Mark Paris, president and chief executive of LandWell .

As many as 30,000 people are expected to live in the yet unnamed community that will include single-family homes, apartments and condos totaling about 12,000 units. LandWell has invested more than $60 million in the project.

The property holdings of MGM Mirage grew by 25 percent in 2006-07, maintaining its large lead as the biggest taxpayer in Clark County.

The appraised value of the gaming company's land, buildings and equipment is listed at $11.5 billion, according to tax roll certifications by the Clark County assessor's office. It is followed by Harrah's Entertainment , a distant second at $5.4 billion. General Growth Properties, which developed Summerlin and owns malls, is third.

MGM Mirage has held the distinction as the largest taxpayer for most of the decade. The top five remained the same and there was a slight adjustment between six and nine. Wynn Las Vegas moved from eight to six with its appraised value jumping 73 percent to $1.9 billion.

"At one time it used to be Nevada Power (fourth on the list) as the highest taxpayer, but with all these mergers and megacasinos with MGM Mirage and Harrah's, the whole configuration of the list has changed," Clark County Assessor Mark Schofield said.

There was a newcomer to the top 10. Olympia Group came in at No. 10, up from No. 25 a year ago. Its holdings grew with the acquisition of 2,675 acres of federal land in North Las Vegas for $639 million in November 2005.

More detailed versions of these reports are in the current issue of In Business Las Vegas, a sister publication.