Summerlin festival called `double-decker success'

Thirteen was the lucky number for Summerlin's All-You-Can-Eat Ice Cream Festival with record attendance of more than 12,000 at the 13th annual event held recently at The Gardens Park.

According to Tom Warden, vice president of marketing and community relations for The Howard Hughes Corp., developer of Summerlin, the event raised about $20,000 for Nevada Ballet Theatre, a professional ballet company whose headquarters and training facilities are located in Summerlin.

"Ice cream and ballet are not typically synonymous," Warden said. "But in Summerlin, at the All-You-Can-Eat Ice Cream Festival, the two are like a double-decker cone. Ice cream and ballet have become a September tradition for Summerlin. We are pleased so many Las Vegans chose to join us for a day of fun, food and culture."

In addition to performances by students of the Academy of Nevada Ballet Theatre, festival-goers participated in ballroom and hip-hop dance classes led by the academy's faculty. The festivities also included carnival games, face painting and balloons, while cones, sundaes and root beer floats were served on an all-you-can-eat basis.

Tony Prey, general manager of the Albertson's in Summerlin, which donated more than 750 gallons of ice cream and scores of cases of toppings for the event, said the event is among the best in which the store is involved.

"... The event is so well attended and is so well received, we are happy to be part of it," Prey said. "Plus, the cause is a good one."

Other highlights included two ice cream eating contests, each lasting three minutes.. Winners included 19-year-old Ryan Heald and 39-year-old Rob Leonard, who finished entire half-gallons in the allotted time. Heald and Leonard each won an Ice Cream Junkie trophy and a dining gift certificate for two.

Summerlin is unfolding in villages along the western edge of the valley. The community is home to eight golf courses, 100 parks, 105 completed miles of trails, 17 public and private schools, houses of worship, shopping centers, medical facilities, cultural facilities, business parks, and nearly 100 model homes.

Houses, townhomes and condominiums are priced from the mid-$100,000s to more than $700,000. Custom lots ranging from one-half acre to three-quarters of an acre are priced from the high $300,000s to nearly $1 million, and predesigned custom homes are priced from $1.5 million. Apartments offer monthly rents starting from the high $700s.

To visit the community's home finding center, travel west on Sahara Avenue, past Hualapai Way, to Town Center Drive and turn north. Or, take Interstate 215 to Sahara and head north.

The center is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Real Estate home