The Howard Hughes Corp., developer of the Summerlin master-planned community, sold two parcels totaling 37 acres in The Cliffs village to Woodside Homes and Lennar.
Woodside Homes built Summerlin’s first neighborhood, Panorama Pointe, in The Hills village in March 1991, and Lennar has been building in Summerlin for nearly 20 years.
Woodside Homes plans to build 72 single-family homes from 2,500 to 3,200 square feet in its new Skystone neighborhood by the end of the year. Lennar plans to build 73 homes from 3,100 to 3,800 square feet in its new neighborhood, Jade Ridge, by the first quarter of 2017.
The homebuilders join Toll Brothers as the first homebuilders in The Cliffs. Toll Brothers is developing Regency, a luxury age-qualified community with models scheduled to open in early 2016.
Peggy Chandler, senior vice president of Summerlin, said these are the first of many more parcel sales to homebuilders in The Cliffs, Summerlin’s first village in nearly 12 years.
“Given the improved economy and a growing demand for housing, along with the unique design aesthetic of The Cliffs created by its stunning geography, homebuilders are excited about this opportunity,” Chandler said in a statement. “The Cliffs’ ‘rugged contemporary’ design standard will provide homebuyers with a home that offers indoor/outdoor living, spectacular scenery and a Summerlin address that includes the community’s hallmark quality of life created by its robust offering of amenities.”
Nestled along the base of the Spring Mountains, just south of Bishop Gorman High School, The Cliffs will include both single-family and multi-family homes in several price points and styles. The 450-acre village, Summerlin’s 20th, will be home to 11 planned neighborhoods encompassing more than 1,700 homes.
Unwanted glare of publicity
A Las Vegas restaurant and an Oscar-winning actor got 15 minutes of unwanted fame when they were linked in a supermarket tabloid late last month.
The National Enquirer said Las Vegas resident and “Leaving Las Vegas” star Nicolas Cage was spotted at The Cracked Egg eating a plate of huevos rancheros. The item was headlined ‘Down & out in Las Vegas.’
An ‘eyewitness’ told the publication that Cage eats at The Cracked Egg several times a week and doesn’t like to draw attention to himself. The piece went on to paint Cage as a down-on-his-luck actor who had run through his millions, thanks in part to a costly run-in with the IRS.
The National Enquirer said that the diner caters to blue-collar workers, and the priciest item on the menu is chicken tenders with gravy and eggs at $12.95.
“We get all kinds of people in here,” said a manager at the restaurant, on West Charleston Boulevard. “We get everything, so I wouldn’t necessarily say blue collar.”
Cage, who lives across West Charleston in the swank Queensridge compound, often eats at The Cracked Egg.
Both the actor and the restaurant probably could have done without that media exposure.
China’s CIA suspicions
A “highly confidential report” cited by The Guardian said Beijing believed U.S.-owned casinos in Macau were working in league with the CIA.
The report, according to Gaming Today, is approximately 5 years old but was discovered recently by the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley. The Guardian said it was among a collection of Sands documents filed with a Las Vegas court, which was hearing a civil action brought by Steven Jacobs, a former head of Sands’ Macau casinos, who has alleged wrongful dismissal.
The British newspaper said the report did not say the Sands had ever been complicit in U.S. intelligence behavior, only that the Chinese officials believed that was the case.
Though Sands spokesman Ron Reese was not available for comment, The Guardian said Reese’s response to its questions was that whatever Beijing officials might have been thinking, the report “sounds like an idea for a movie script.”
Beijng had reason to believe that billions were being gambled away in the Macau casinos by Chinese government officials who did not make salaries big enough to support that kind of activity, The Guardian reported.
The publication said Beijing wants Macau to become a high-end, all-purpose travel and tourism destination, but it has been apparent for some time that the government would prefer less emphasis on the gambling.