Chic, urban … and deserted

Shell of Henderson condo project symbolizes bust

Leila Navidi

Vantage Lofts, promoted as a visionary project bringing stunning views and new architecture to the suburban valley, sits unfinished a year after its scheduled opening.

By Mike Trask (contact)

Thursday, April 17, 2008 | 2 a.m.

New houses, new look, bad blood in Henderson (12-15-2007)
Housing market downturn hits new low (2-19-2008)
Vegas boom going upscale (4-08-2006)

At the end of Paseo Verde Parkway in Henderson, past the apartment complexes, the nice homes and the occasional dirt lot, sits something half-finished.

It’s the Las Vegas housing boom, manifest in the boxy, off-white form of Vantage Lofts. Just look south as you drive past Gibson Road on Interstate 215. You’ll see it sitting there, boarded up.

Vantage Lofts was proposed in 2005, a period one real estate analyst referred to as one of “irrational exuberance,” when it seemed nothing could fail in Las Vegas. Banks were lending and buyers were buying, lured in Vantage Lofts’ case by the promise of a sweeping view of the Strip — for those who could afford it.

“If you had the money, why not?” said real estate analyst John Restrepo, principal of Restrepo Consulting Group.

Now, a year after the $160 million Vantage Lofts was supposed to open to great fanfare, becoming a symbol of the changing Las Vegas architecture, it is a symbol of something else — a building market gone south.

The door to Vantage Lofts’ sales office, shuttered since early this year, has been replaced by plywood. No workers move beyond the chain-link fence, where a vacant off-white hulk — with an exterior that more closely resembles an office or storage building than a swanky condo complex — stands out starkly against the mountains.

The condos — priced from $400,000 to $1.6 million — appear nowhere close to being ready for poolside lounge parties. And for the time being, there will be no “breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains and legendary Las Vegas skyline below” that the sales brochures promised.

Only the developers know how many of the units have sold and what will happen to the hefty deposits if construction is permanently stalled.

Vantage Lofts is — or perhaps was — an innovative project for the Las Vegas Valley. Its urban architecture was, depending on your taste, either a spectacular move away from the red roofs and stucco seen in most every neighborhood or a style that clashed with everything around it.

But even during the boom, real estate analysts suggested only 25 percent of the 79,000 condos being promoted throughout the valley would actually be built over the following five years. Today it seems doubtful that Vantage Lofts will be among them.

“People were talking about whether all these projects would get finished,” said Dennis Smith, a real estate analyst and the president of Home Builders Research. “I’m not surprised.”

Vantage Lofts is being built by Slade Development, a longtime Las Vegas company run by Stacy Slade and his sons, Chad and Justin.

They posed for pictures during the project’s heyday, enjoying the hype of being leaders in the trend toward the urbanization of the suburbs.

“I finally caught on to his (Justin Slade’s) vision,” Stacy Slade told Sun sister publication In Business in 2006. “There are so many factors of growth in the valley — the size of the city and the kind of employment ... (that) lend itself to more urban living.”

Two years later Stacy Slade did not return calls to discuss the project’s future, though last month in published reports he blamed the sagging market for slowing sales. But he also said he expects the project to be completed.

Slade Development originally planned for the condos to open in early 2007. It was a bad sign, though, when the sales office did not open until June 2007.

In July the company was touting the opening of model units in October. There were delays, Stacy Slade said at the time, because of lending changes, a shortage in subcontractor labor and issues with the city concerning design and engineering components.

Now the project’s fate is unclear.

Restrepo said condo projects such as Vantage Lofts will find their footing once lenders and developers work together to adjust financing. After all, nobody makes money if a building sits empty.

Restrepo didn’t sugarcoat the situation, using a real estate idiom for when things go sour.

“Everybody,” he said, “is going to have to get a haircut.”

Discussion: 8 comments so far…

By BT

4/17/08 at 8:26 a.m.

Suggest removal

It sounds like the Slades are blaming everybody else but themselves. Poor management and no control on spending got them into this mess more than anything. They have always been more concerned about appearances, and once the money started running out the ship started sinking fast. Bad news for the buyers that trusted them and the employees that worked for them that got laid off.
By mikeg

4/17/08 at 8:34 a.m.

Suggest removal

Ah schadenfreude. Glad I didn't have a deposit on that one!
By Sjr

4/17/08 at 10:37 a.m.

Suggest removal

I moved to far southeast Henderson 7 years ago. When we'd have to go "into town" we'd take Horizon Ridge Parkway north. As the road rounded Black Mountain, there was the most spectacular view of the valley below, so impressive at night, a ride we'd take visitors on it was so grand. Gradually, houses crept further north, until about the only view left was near Gibson. I remember our first 4th of July here parking at Gibson and Horizon Ridge viewing the fireworks on the Strip, it was one of the few things I really liked about living here.

Then that awful building started to take shape and, in order to give everyone's view to those who could afford $400K to $1M to see it, those lofts appeared. We'd tell ourselves that, eventually, the project may be impressive. As it sits there now, I can see the new taste in architecture looks more like something a child would make by piling boxes or building blocks one on top of the other. It's a hideous building, the view is gone, and now we get to see this monstrosity that will never look good until nature or bulldozers grind it back into desert. I hope that time may not be far off when someone makes that trashy looking crackerbox disappear. The only blessing for the place not being completed is all the additional traffic not being generated.

I gave up long ago trying to figure out the City of Henderson's planning department, or whoever in town approved all this overzealous building, but someone at City Hall was surely led down the primrose path when they approved this monstrous behemoth.
By 702GRP

4/17/08 at 3:04 p.m.

Suggest removal

We take our hat off to Slade Development for being innovative and aggressive with improving their community. Most people, especially the doubters and critics, don't have the courage to take on ambitious projects such as this. It's hard enough to develop projects of this nature, let alone in a slow economy. We love the contemporary design and hope to see this project cross the finish lie!
By prowler98

4/17/08 at 4:31 p.m.

Suggest removal

As one of the Subs on this Project, and as a Native Las Vegan, it kills me to see the brakes being put on this Project. Stacy, his Sons, and the entire Slade Family, have been building a better Nevada for years, as well as working in the Public Sector for very little $$$. These guys are more honest than most Contractors I've dealt with in my 30 Years of business, and I look forward to completing this Project for them.
By mikeg

4/17/08 at 5:50 p.m.

Suggest removal

Hmm...I'm liking the Over on years to completion.
By BigStack

4/18/08 at 8:38 a.m.

Suggest removal

The project needs to go bankrupt, get bought out of bankrupsy at a discount, and then completed at a price point where it will actually sell.
By tarheel123

4/19/08 at 8:42 a.m.

Suggest removal

Having been a part of the project for the past 4 years I feel that it is a all too familiar shame that the group that proposed and developed the project will not be the one to complete it. I also find it very funny that everyone wants to take shots at the family when the times get tough. Folks we live in Las Vegas in case you have not noticed.... and vacant lots that provide views eventually become retail centers and yes sometimes even homes, wow imagine that... building something on a vacant lot, what kind of world are we living in. Read the papers, when groups like the mighty Focus and Prudential are falling victim to this horrible economic slump due to the overwhelming speculation that many people who are not even from this great city caused, to rip on a family who is a third generation resident for trying to bring some diversity to our city seems a bit unfair, regardless of how badly managed and poorly ran others think it was.