Crown Jewel Of Queensridge
Executive Home Builders to develop Village at Queensridge mixed-use center outside Las Vegas.
Coleman Wood

The Village at Queensridge, an $850 million, 700,000-square-foot mixed-use development, will be located in the heart of a 1,000-acre master-planned community in suburban Las Vegas when it opens in fourth quarter 2008.

Just outside of Las Vegas in the desert suburb of Summerlin, locally based developer Executive Home Builders (EHB) is developing a mixed-use center unheard of in Las Vegas. The project is called The Village at Queensridge, a 30-acre mixed-use development that serves as one of the crown jewels of the much larger 1,000-acre Queensridge master-planned community.

But instead of a typical mixed-use center, EHB wanted to build a development for residents that more closely resembles three city blocks transported to the desert than just another shopping center.

“Our goal is that we wanted to create this corner to be the mecca of Las Vegas for locals,” says Eli Applebaum, executive vice president of EHB’s commercial division. “Everybody knows Vegas is the Strip — and the Strip is terrific — but the Strip is not a local marketplace.”

The $850 million center is located at the intersection of Rampart Boulevard and Alta Drive on a tract carved out by erosion from neighboring culverts, creating the perfect environment for The Village. A 2.5-level, 4,000-space parking structure will serve as the base of the center — an ideal situation for shoppers seeking to avoid parking in the hot Nevada sun. On top of the structure will sit The Village of Queensridge, a combination of 340 luxury condominiums and 700,000 square feet of commercial space spread across 18 buildings. The commercial component of the center will be divided into 380,000 square feet of retail space, 200,000 square feet of office space and 120,000 square feet of restaurant space. Condos in The Village will range in size from 1,400 to more than 3,300 square feet.

The center itself will be unique from other mixed-use centers in that it will not have an anchor tenant.

“Do Florence and Rome need to have an anchor? No, because the location and the place is the anchor,” says Applebaum.

The Village will seek to distinguish itself by being a destination center, not just another strip center where people come in, do their shopping and leave. EHB will use stonework from its quarries all over the world to build the center, giving the architecture a more aesthetically pleasing look. Artwork, ruins, aqueducts and other elements will give the feeling that the center evolved over time much like an Old World city center.

As part of the Queensridge master-planned community, a park and trail system is also being designed that will wind through the community from just north of The Village to the Red Rock recreational area 10 miles away.

But the architecture will not be the only draw. EHB has already signed several restaurants to the center, many of which are sidestepping the Strip and making their first appearance in the market at Queensridge. Already signed on are upscale steakhouse and seafood restaurant Mastro’s Ocean Club; chef Roland Passot’s restaurant Left Bank; Mermaid Inn; Prohibition, a restaurant concept out of New York City; and Sacramento, Californina-based Mikuni Japanese Restaurant.

On the retail side of things, clothing store Tommy Bahama has already signed on for the center, as has Kidville, a kid-friendly center that offers indoor playgrounds, preschool classes, a café, a salon and boutiques for children up to 5 years old. Negotiations are also underway with a grocery store, and The Village at Queensridge will also contain a farmers market. The unique tenants, as well as the design of the center, are keeping with the idea that people will come to the center and stay much longer than they would at a traditional shopping center.

“People will want to come here again and again, because there’s so much to do, so much to see and the experience is so great,” says Frank Pankratz, president of EHB.

Vertical construction has already begun on the center, with completion expected in fourth quarter 2008. As part of the Queensridge master-planned community, a park and trail system is also being designed that will wind through the community from just north of The Village to the Red Rock recreational area 10 miles away, providing people in the community with a way to walk or cycle to the center.


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