Las Vegas Sun

March 30, 2024

real estate column:

Effort will look at diversification of Vegas economy

What do you want to be when you grow up?

That’s normally a question a teacher or parent asks a teen or a child looking to her future.

Now, a group of business leaders, academics and politicians are asking that about Las Vegas and trying to provide some insight about what the region can do to live up to its potential.

That discussion and strategy session will be part of a white paper that’s expected to be made public in the next 30 days. It was developed out of a roundtable held in August that was sponsored by the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at UNLV.

The recession has been a wake-up call to Southern Nevada and seen as an opportunity to help develop a vision and hit the reset button, says John Vorsheck, who is chairing this year’s white paper.

“The theme was what do we want to be when we grow up, and gaming has always driven the local economy and been No. 1,” Vorsheck says. “But that economy is totally focused on excess income or free spending, and we are seeing what the other side of the coin looks like right now.”

That has put the focus on the valley placing more of an emphasis on diversifying the economy so there won’t be the extreme peaks and valleys and uncertainty and depression that many are feeling today, Vorsheck says.

“We have always been a one-trick town for the most part,” Vorsheck says. “The other thing we had was construction because we were building at such a high rate. Now some people think it will be another 10 to 12 years before we have another major casino. If that is the case, what else are our opportunities to attract business and diversify?”

Vorsheck says there has been a lot of discussion about diversification in the past but given what has happened to the economy, maybe this is the best chance to make some more inroads. There was a lot of interest from the dozens of leaders who participated in the breakout sessions, he says.

For this to work, however, Vorsheck says there needs to be a champion of that cause — someone who has private sector experience and public sector insight — who can help develop a master plan for Southern Nevada, he says.

Vorsheck says he’s soliciting names and suggestions on who can be the region’s cheerleader for diversification. It needs to be someone who understands the gaming industry but sees the importance of developing other industries with great potential — such as natural resources, he says.

“That person has to have an understanding of the opportunities and challenges of the gaming industry and understands their business and understands the challenges outside of it. We are looking at who has a strong enough influence to bridge the gap between gaming and community involvement,” Vorsheck says. “We are not looking at it as competition but one vision, and it will take a strong individual to get that done. And it needs to be someone who is constantly beating that drum.”

Hopefully, whatever insights are learned from the roundtable, it will be used by political leaders and others to develop a road map and improve the region’s future, panel members say.

“One of the recurring themes of all of our sessions was how does Las Vegas — considering the new economic, social and political realty we are in today — reinvest itself,” says John Restrepo, a local economist who served as a moderator. “We have lacked a community visioning process.”

That means taking another look at improving the educational system, changing the tax structure and take other steps that affect how the region evolves, Restrepo says.

Condo sales market

Dennis Smith of Home Builders Research says of the 426 new home closings in August, only seven were apartment conversions in an ongoing reflection on how that market has dried up.

The seven sales occurred in three communities, Big Horn at Black Mountain, Village Green at Las Vegas County Club and Trailside.

That’s quite a decline from 2005 to 2006 when there were 750 to 1,000 apartment closings a month, Smith says. The reason is that single-family homes were then unaffordable to many first-time buyers.

In other real estate news:

• John Vorsheck, regional manager of Marcus & Millichap, says the brokerage firm had $136.6 million in sales between July 2008 and June 2009. That’s down from $574.8 million in the same period a year earlier. The firm didn’t respond initially to an In Business survey of commercial brokerages and wasn’t included. The firm would have ranked No. 5 on the list behind CB Richard Ellis. The firm ranked No. 3 a year ago.

• Cassie Catania, managing broker of Prudential/IPG Commercial Real Estate, reports that her firm had $53.9 million in lease and sales volume between July 2008 and June 2009 — $30.5 million in leases and $23.4 million in sales. That compares with $99.9 million from July 2007 to June 2008 — $53.9 million in leases and $46 million in sales. That would have put the firm in seventh place on the list if it had responded to the survey and was included.

Brian Wargo covers real estate and law for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4011 or at [email protected].

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