From the conversion of offices into condos and the growing prospect of the sale of the Hughes Center by the end of the summer, there’s a lot going on in commercial real estate in Las Vegas to start 2026.
Four leading experts outlined prospects for office, industrial and retail during the February luncheon of the Southern Nevada chapter of CCIM at The Orleans.
The panel included Chris Lane, Colliers executive vice president of the industrial division; Hayim Mizrachi, CEO of the MDL Group speaking on the office segment; and Chris Waldburger, associate vice president ROI Commercial speaking on retail. Cassie Catania-Hsu, a managing director at CBRE, the brokerage for the Hughes Center sale, moderated the panel.
Mizrachi said in September he served on a panel discussion with the different market sectors and there was a lot of complaining about vacancy rates and absorption for industrial. It was different for office in 2025.
“It was a very dynamic market across leasing, sales and condo conversions,” Mizrachi said.
Mizrachi said while condo conversions aren’t popular in Phoenix, Salt Lake City and other markets it’s popular in Las Vegas probably because there’s a history in the valley and buyers are available.
“Not everything can be converted,” Mizrachi said. “That’s a big misnomer, but if it can it’s too compelling not to.”
Mizrachi said they closed a seven-day escrow in February of an office building they listed in September 2024. His firm was recommending $250 to $275 per square foot while the owner wanted to list it for $400 per square foot.
“We said we will do that only because there’s not a lot of supply (in that area) and call us every month upset that someone didn’t buy it at $400 a foot,” Mizrachi said. “From September 2024 through the end of 2025 we averaged one tour per quarter and a handful of low-ball offers. We got a real offer of $340 a foot in November 2025. At the end of January, out of the blue, came a beautiful offer of $365 a foot and seven-day escrow and got it closed. This property was on the market for a higher number and this (owner-user) buyer met that high number and unrealistic expectations. That’s how 2026 has been so far.”
Mizrachi said when comparing 2026 to last year the decisions are coming quicker and hoped it stayed that way.
Catania-Hsu told the audience the Hughes Center remains on the market and has generated more than a dozen offers, which she called huge. Buyer interviews are underway.
“All of them have some form of debt and cash at various levels,” Catania-Hsu said. “You are seeing some that are true buyer plays and maybe half have some sort of redevelopment component one way or another.”
Some eight or nine of the bidders have some tie to the community, Catania-Hsu said. She predicts a deal could close in August or September.
Mizrachi said the Hughes Center said once that deal goes through there’s no overhang that would be considered an albatross in the Las Vegas marketplace
“Given that many offers, it’s likely to transact,” Mizrachi said.
“I think that will say a lot about our market and say a lot about our community,” Catania-Hsu said. “The amount of looks is higher than the amount of offers, but it says a lot when you have people looking at it from various perspectives.”
The goal at the high end is $250 million.
“We all agree that there’s a lot of capital on the sidelines waiting to deploy but the question is when buyers are willing to transact and sellers are willing to sell,” Catania-Hsu said. “That’s been the name of the game for quite some time.”
Lane said 2025 turned out to be “an average year” for the industrial market with 5.1 million square feet of absorption, vacancy rising to 9.2 percent. The lowest in history was just over 1 percent while the highest exceeded 16 percent.
“We went from 1.6 percent to 8 to 10 percent overnight,” Catania-Hsu said. “It’s largely because of a post-COVID supply hit all at once.”
Lane said companies were right sizing in 2025. A lot of them had extra space during the pandemic, and there’s a lot of subleasing on the market. Construction has slowed with 5 million square feet underway at this time.
“This is the first time since 2015 that we’ve had no new construction in North Las Vegas,” Lane said. “Working through the inventory that we have. Vacancy rose up due to the excess inventory and is starting to come down and should level off in the middle of this year.”
Waldburger said the difference between the retail sector and the office and industrial sectors is that they didn’t have any major spikes or drop outside of 2021 in the aftermath of the pandemic.
“We have been increasing steadily since 2022ish,” Waldburger said. “We spent a lot of time last year getting our arms around the approval process and development process, and now we’re in a situation where it’s stabilizing and we are able to move forward.”
Lane said the industrial market has been active so far this year with a lot of tours and proposals. It’s a faster start than in 2025 and, hopefully, a lot of them turn into signed deals and absorption increases, he added.
Catania-Hsu said in 2026, “this was the craziest January I can remember in a long time.”
“The darlings at the dance for several years have been multifamily and industrial,” Catania-Hsu said. “It sounds like at the end of last year and beginning of this year we’re hearing a lot more optimism from lenders in the market saying we will look at retail and we will look at office. Lenders are going to look at more deals. They are still chasing opportunities and value add, but the name of the game so far is quality locations. That is nice and a change from the prior 18 months.”
