Summerlin: Past and present

Courtesy of Faiss Foley Warren Public Relations

Today, Summerlin is home to more than 95,000 residents. Pictured is The Vistas village of Summerlin, an 800-acre European-inspired village that features community parks marked with 48-foot clock towers at its northern and southern entries. The village is one of more than a dozen villages currently located in the Summerlin community.

By Amanda Finnegan (contact)

Monday, Aug. 18, 2008 | 3:54 p.m.

West of the Strip, at the edge of Red Rock Canyon, sits an area that fewer than 20 years ago, was nothing more than empty desert. The area is now known as Summerlin, a Las Vegas suburb, and one of fastest growing master-planned communities in America.

Since the first family moved into Summerlin in 1991, the 22,500-acre community has become home to more than 97,500 residents.

The original 25,000-acre land mass was purchased by billionaire and aviation mogul Howard Hughes Jr. in 1952 as one of his many ventures in Las Vegas. The area, first known as Husite, encompassed land from the western rim of Las Vegas and extended into Red Rock Canyon.

Hughes purchased the land for only a few dollars an acre and envisioned it as a future aviation center, according to Tom Warden, senior vice president of community and government relations at The Howard Hughes Corporation.

When Hughes died in 1976, his heirs were left with the empty land but saw the potential for a master-planned community. The name was then changed from Husite to Summerlin after Hughes’ paternal grandmother, Jean Amelia Summerlin.

After deciding it would be inappropriate to build within Red Rock Canyon, the early planners of Summerlin traded the 5,000 acres adjacent to the Canyon for 3,000 acres south, which is now known as Summerlin South. Red Rock Canyon later became a National Conservation Area in 1990.

The once considered worthless land would become a community of malls, business parks and million dollar homes.

In 1990, The Howard Hughes Corporation began private-expense construction on Summerlin Parkway, a road that would connect Summerlin to the rest of Las Vegas. 1993 marked the opening of Summerlin’s first public school, Lummis Elementary.

Along with other projects, construction began on The Tournament Players Club at The Canyons in 1994 where a young Tiger Woods won his first PGA Tour in 1996.

Adding to the Red Rock Canyon experience, the Red Rock Resort opened in Summerlin in 2006.

“A lot of people move to Summerlin to be close to Red Rock [Canyon],” Warden said, “Mountain climbers, hikers, people who appreciate the desert wildlife. A tremendous amount of people appreciate the Canyon’s proximity to Summerlin.”

Today, Summerlin is broken down by 400-some acre neighborhoods of homes and apartments with names like “The Garden” or “The Mesa.”

The Ridges, which opened in 2000, is nestled in the mountainside adjacent to Red Rock Canyon. It is the most expensive neighborhood in Summerlin, with custom homes ranging from $500,000 to over $9 million. The Ridges was named the third most exclusive gated community by Forbes.com in 2003.

Sun City, Summerlin’s retirement community, was also finished in 2000. The adult village currently has close to 8,000 homes.

Summerlin’s neighborhoods include more than 100 village parks, a trail system throughout town, nine golf courses, over a dozen houses of worship, medical facilities, and 22 public and private schools.

And 9,000 acres have yet to be developed.

The latest development plans include building a downtown Summerlin area in the 4,000 acres surrounding the Red Rock Resort.

“When we started this, people wanted a more suburban lifestyle. But there has been a very strong shift in recent years towards ‘new urbanism.’ People like the idea of a vibrant, pedestrian friendly environment with recreation, dining, retail and jobs all within walking distance of an urban residence,” Warden said.

The Howard Hughes Corporation expects that Summerlin will reach its build-out by 2030, with a projected 200,000 residents and 80,000 homes.

Though 20 years ago, growth was hard to find in the once empty desert west of the Strip, Summerlin is no short of it in 2008.