Las Vegas Business Press :: News : Tivoli Village picks up construction

Tivoli Village picks up construction

Mixed-use development that slowed in December back with less-ambitious plans

BY TONY ILLIA

Construction work recently resumed at Tivoli Village at Queensridge, a mixed-use development in southwest Las Vegas, after slowing down in December in response to the economic crisis. The project last month recommenced vertical construction at the northeast corner of Rampart Boulevard and Alta Drive. Hardstone Construction, a subsidiary of Executive Home Builders, is the project's general contractor.

"We slowed construction dramatically last year when the economic storm hit," said Tivoli Village Executive Vice President Patrick Done. "We decided to phase the project, putting the right amount of space online starting in late October 2010."

The redesigned retail, office and entertainment complex is being developed by Las Vegas-based Executive Home Builders, along with IDB Development Corp., Israel's leading holding company, and Great Wash Park LLC. The team took advantage of the market downturn to seek more competitive construction pricing. Although the project will now open a year later than initially scheduled, it is expected to cost less than its original $850 million price tag.

CRAIG L. MORAN | LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Work continues on Nov. 4 On the Tivoli Village at Queensridge mixed-used development. Tivoli is one of the few projects still under construction during the recession.

"The pricing for the new development is appropriate for where the market is today," Done said. "In some sense, this environment is saving us money."

The 370,000-square-foot devel-opment, on 29 acres, initially calls for eight buildings up to four stories tall with o ground-level shops that line narrow cobblestone, pedestrian-friendly streets. Baltimore-based Development Design Group created the project's old world feel with glass store fronts, limestone and marble facades, a clock tower, pilasters, domes and statues.

The complex rests atop a two-level, 3,400-space underground parking garage with direct escalators and elevators into Tivoli Village. The garage is complete. Wells Cargo Construction was the contractor. Tivoli Village buildings have double-level retail and restaurants topped by 140,000 square feet of Class A office space. CB Richard Ellis' Randy Broadhead and Brad Peterson are the leasing agents. Office inventory is 29 percent pre-leased.

The project's retail space, which is being marketed internally, is 50 percent pre-leased. Phase one will have 40 to 50 shops, ranging between 500 to 25,000 square feet. There will be six to seven restaurants that serve as development anchor tenants.

A second phase will have a Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinema. The eight-screen, 38,000-square-foot Australian-based luxury movie-theater has reclining armchairs, waiters and a full-service bar. There will also be a 12,000-square-foot Grand Lux Cafe, from the creators of The Cheesecake Factory, in the second phase. Construction of the next phase will overlap with the first, with work finishing in late 2011 or early 2012.

Tivoli Village had once included plans for 42 upper-level condominiums as well as three 18-story condominium towers combining for 300 residences along the property's northern edge overlooking the Angel Park golf course. Those plans are on hiatus until residential market conditions rebound.

Tivoli Village remains one of only a handful of projects still under construction during a deepening recession that has deferred, delayed and canceled several local development plans.

"For a construction perspective everything is coming to a halt, with only two other anchored shopping centers actively under way," said Brian Gordon, principal of Applied Analysis, a Las Vegas-based business advisory firm. "Projects that were well under way before the downturn hit are more likely to move forward as the economy recovers."

Contact reporter Tony Illia at tonyillia@aol.com or 702-303-5699.

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