DEVELOPMENT: Northwest passage

On a map, Matt Werner traces his finger in circles where new master-planned communities will soon rise from the desert floor in northwest Las Vegas.

Detailing plans for the Montecito Town Center, a 220-acre, mixed-used master plan near the junction of Interstate 215 and U.S. Highway 95, Werner explains how the retail complex, currently the center of a relatively sparsely settled area, one day will become a node of activity for a trade area of nearly a million residents in northwest Las Vegas.

Work begins next month on the first phase of the Montecito Town Center, one of two projects by the Montecito Cos. within the greater Centennial Hills Town Center, a commercial corridor that includes the already complete Centennial Center and several auto dealerships.

Werner said companies and professionals -- national retailers especially -- typically want to know they will have sufficient business traffic before they move to the area. Centennial Hills has been an exception.

"As far as retail and other commercial growth, the northwest is ahead of where many other parts of Las Vegas were at this stage of development," Werner said.

A community consisting of ranch estates, an animal sanctuary, orchard and state park less than a decade ago, the area referred to as Centennial Hills has undergone rapid urbanization.

"If it separated from the city, Ward 6 of Las Vegas would be the fastest growing city in the country," said Michael Mack, city councilman for the ward that encompasses the Centennial Hills Town Center and surrounding communities.

Mack, who has played an active role in attracting national retailers to the area, said the development time line has been compressed, but that planning has been in place since the city annexed the area last decade.

With Interstate 215 linking the corridor with Summerlin to the south and North Las Vegas to the east, including the Aliante master plan, which will have about 7,500 homes and 20,000 residents upon buildout, Centennial Hills Town Center is planned to become one of the city's major centers of commerce and employment.

While many of those residents have yet to move to Southern Nevada, much less to the area, Werner said confidence in continued growth is strong enough that commercial developers have begun work in anticipation of needed services. Fewer than 200,000 residents live within five miles of the site, but that figure is expected to grow to 900,000 as surrounding parcels are developed over the coming decade. Much of that growth has an even shorter time line.

"We tell retailers there will be people in the area in six months," Werner said.

Immediately to the west he points to a medium-density residential tract where the first subdivisions of an eventual 6,500 homes are under way.

Even more residents are expected by the time Montecito Marketplace, the first phase of the project, opens for business in mid-2005 as a Smith's supermarket-anchored shopping center. While an already-open supermarket nearby draws low traffic, Werner said residential areas yet to come online already demand planning for additional services.

Tracing a finger across the map along the recently completed Interstate 215 to the west, he points to Cliff's Edge, a 1,100-acre community by Focus Property Group, which will bring an additional 7,000 homes to the region.

Further on the horizon, both physically and chronologically, nearly 10,000 homes are expected to be built on a parcel straddling Route 157, the road to Kyle Canyon. The parcel, currently controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, is expected to be sold at auction later this year.

Additional services elsewhere in Montecito Town Center are in varying stages of development. A sports park complex on the northeast corner of the parcel is already open.

Universal Health Services has acquired a parcel for a new 400-bed hospital. The facility and its services are expected to create about 2,000 jobs in the area.

The first tenant in Montecito Crossing, a Kohl's department store, opened last year in the southwest portion of the master plan. Other tenants expected include Petsmart, Mimi's Cafe, Old Navy and Home Goods.

"Montecito Crossing, where Kohl's has opened, will be a soft goods, service-oriented type of retail," Werner said.

To the east of Kohl's, Richmond American Homes has announced it will build 198 courtyard-style homes. Across the street from the homes, two office parks and a private school, the nonsectarian Centennial Academy, are planned -- both firsts for the area.

A final 40 acres has been designated for mixed uses combining residential and commercial uses -- something that has been proposed previously in Centennial Hills, but never materialized.

Werner said plans for the mixed-use parcel would be flexible and would depend upon how the area develops. An "urban village" project by Carina Corp. recently was announced for a 40-acre parcel about a mile to the north.

"Those types (mixed uses) are sexy. People like having a place for those types of things," he said.

No timetable has been set for either the mixed-use or office components. Mixed-use parcels are rare in the Las Vegas Valley, and office parks usually lag years behind other other types of development.

Local economist and real estate consultant John Restrepo believes the office lag will be a brief one in northwest Las Vegas because of its location along two freeways and the relatively high household incomes of nearby housing.

"Summerlin developed its office base in the mid-1990s when it was still fairly young and it grew without a freeway," Restrepo said.

"As those areas grow demographically, portions of those planned areas will grow as office parks along the transportation corridors," he said. "As long as you have a good quality residential development base, you will have retail and office because people like to work near where they live."

Some of that, he expects, will include mixed-use parcels similar to one under way in Green Valley Ranch featuring high-end apartments built over restaurants and shops.

"If you look at Henderson around Green Valley Parkway and (Interstate) 215, that's what the northwest will look like in 10 years -- or less," Restrepo said.

Across U.S. 95 at Azure Drive and Tenaya Way, Montecito is also developing Tenaya Village Center and Automall. The 60-acre piece includes pads for auto dealerships, retail outlets, a mini storage complex, restaurants, offices for sale and lease. The storage facility and several retail tenants are expected to open later this year.

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