Question of the Day - 29 May 2005

Lake Las Vegas is a huge master-planned development in the southeast corner of Las Vegas Valley, roughly 20 miles from the Strip. (You take I-215, a.k.a. US 93/95, south toward Boulder City and get off at Lake Mead Blvd., a.k.a. NV 146, at Fiesta Henderson. Drive roughly eight miles to the entrance to Lake Las Vegas, on the left.)

The total property covers nearly 3,600 acres and includes a 320-acre man-made lake that abuts Lake Mead. As far as commercial development goes, Lake Las Vegas has two hotels, the Ritz-Carlton and Hyatt, and one casino at the Ritz, called Casino MonteLago. Behind MonteLago is an outdoor shopping district called MonteLago Village, where there are also a couple of low-rise condo buildings. The Hyatt also has an 18-hole golf course on the grounds.

Residentially speaking, Lake Las Vegas currently hosts 1,000 homes; another 1,500 are in some stage of being built. When the build-out is complete in 2012, there’ll be slightly fewer than 10,000 houses in the community, which will rival Summerlin for size and wealth.

In addition, three more hotels are planned. None have yet been named. One will have 400 rooms and a 90,000-square-foot convention center. Ground will be broken for it next year, with a completion date of 2008. The two other hotels will be small boutiques of 150 and 200 rooms. In 2012, with all the hotels, plus the additional planned condos and timeshares, there will be up to 4,000 hotel rooms at LLV. Also planned is a high-end office park.

Finally, several five- to eight-acre "peninsulas" are currently for sale for $3 million an acre. Lake Las Vegas management envisions compounds that will afford maximum privacy to corporations and high-net-worth families on retreat.

Thanks to contributing expert and golfing aficionado Ken Van Vechten for some additional information regarding Lake Las Vegas. The Reflection Bay Golf Club is open to anyone and is not owned by the Hyatt Regency, although holes seven through nine play by the hotel. There’s also a second course known as the Falls Golf Club and ground was just broken on a third public course designed by Tom Fazio, at the north end of the development. A fourth course, SouthShore, is within the tony SouthShore development, which more closely rivals/exceeds Southern Highlands when it comes to top-drawer golf/lifestyle living than anything in Summerlin. And an interesting little fact about LLV is that all the water coming in from the Las Vegas Wash is actually piped under the lake for conveyance to Lake Mead, in keeping with the edicts of the basin’s water-adjudication plan; the little lake is actually fed like everything else in the area, with extractions from Lake Mead.