An exterior view of shareDOWNTOWN @ Fremont East, apartments from Cherry Development at Stewart Avenue and 11th Street in downtown Las Vegas, Monday, April 1, 2024.
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Cherry Development’s first substantial project was a residential high rise in downtown Las Vegas more than two decades ago, which CEO Sam Cherry said was the first of its kind in the city.
The company went on to pursue similar projects, until feedback from the community set it on a different path.
“We saw when we were building the high rises — they were condos — and we heard loud and clear from people that were working in the retail space, on the ground floor, working in the area, that they’re being priced out,” said Cherry, who grew up in Las Vegas. “And that wasn’t the product that we wanted to really build.”
The solution was shareDowntown, apartments with a price point in line with workforce housing, Cherry said, particularly people working in the bars, restaurants, retail shops and casinos that make up the heart of downtown Las Vegas.
With downtown’s walkability, another goal of shareDowntown was to provide people who work in the area with the ability to save on cars, gas or commutes, and instead “live, work (and) play” by walking from their apartment to wherever they need to go, Cherry said.
“That’s really what drove us to this product,” he said. “And we’re very specific on our units and our amenities.”
Because these apartments are “urban infill projects,” meaning they’re built on small pieces of land or half-acre lots in downtown areas, Cherry Development is limited by space when it comes to the amenities it provides tenants.
But, Cherry emphasized, whatever shareDowntown properties may lack in amenities, they make up for in community.
The shareDowntown properties encourage residents to participate in twice-monthly community events — one in which they all gather to eat food, purchased from a local business, hang out and listen to music, and another in which they all go out together to a local business.
“So we might go to a new restaurant or a new bar or we might do a tour at the Mob Museum,” said Cherry, who added he’s seen friendships formed through these events. “So we try to focus it on a business in downtown, get them out of their units, interacting with the local businesses that are there and, again, have that sense of community with their neighbor.”
And though the shareDowntown properties may not have a swimming pool or jacuzzi, he said, they still have coworking spaces, courtyards, gyms and common areas.
He also hears from residents that they appreciate not just the resident events, but also the complexes’ proximity to downtown amenities like Symphony Park, the Smith Center and more.
“It really has a wide variety of amenities and jobs in the immediate area,” Cherry said, noting that downtown’s inevitable growth is one of the reasons his company chose to build within it. “There’s a lot of infrastructure in downtown that, again, is just going to keep growing for many, many years to come.”
The first shareDowntown building debuted in the Las Vegas Arts District during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cherry said, adding that the 63-unit, multifamily complex is 100% leased out.
The second, 84-unit building — which, just like the first, featured retail space on the ground floor — opened in the Fremont East area last year. And now, Cherry Development has brought the shareDowntown brand to Las Vegas’ Historic West Side, with the building slated to open by 2026.
“We’re looking at the Historic Westside and we know it’s going to be a catalyst to future projects — from us, but really from other developers as well,” Cherry said. “And we think that once people see, really, the building starting to go vertical, it just brings a different level of attention between the lenders and architects and brokers and to see that this will be viable in this area.”
Las Vegas City Councilman Cedric Crear said the latest shareDowntown development, which is the first condo project in the core of the Historic Westside in 70 years — with 104 units of workforce housing, 16,000 square feet of retail space and an adjacent food hall — is “great.”
“To have that there in our community is great,” he told the Sun. “I mean, we desperately need it. And we’ve got a great builder and a great partner. So we’re looking for amazing stuff that comes out of that facility and, plus, it’s gonna spark other development.”
In addition to a number of other ongoing, multimillion-dollar projects downtown and in the Historic Westside, the city is also partnering with the College of Southern Nevada for the development of a workforce development center, which will be directly across the street from the new shareDowntown complex.
“So there’s a lot of moving parts that are taking place,” Crear said.
Unlike the previous two shareDowntown properties, which Cherry said contained studio apartments, the Historic Westside project will offer all one-bedrooms. Additionally, Cherry Development has entered into a rent covenant with the city, which will ultimately prevent rental rates from fluctuating too greatly from one year to the next.
The latter agreement, Cherry said, fits perfectly into the model of what the development company is trying to do with shareDowntown housing.
“It’s an important project,” Cherry said of the Historic Westside project. “For me, on a personal level, it’s one of the most important projects that I’ve ever worked on. We want to level up with everything we do.”
