Summerlin mansion sets record with $14.5M sale for 2020

An estate in Summerlin set the record at $14.5 million for the highest-price resale of 2020 as the luxury market continues to be on fire.

The mansion that measures 14,464 square feet sits on 1.65 acres in the exclusive Promontory Pointe neighborhood in The Ridges and reflects the price appreciation in the luxury segment since the Great Recession.

Built in 2009 by luxury builder Sun West Custom Homes and lived in by Sun West owner Dan Coletti, the home was bought in 2012 for $8.5 million by Sam Nazarian, the former owner of the SLS casino in Las Vegas who later sold it in 2015 to James and Sherrie Lynn Hale.

Realtors aren’t disclosing who the new buyer is, and the sale wasn’t posted yet on the Clark County system. The deal closed Tuesday, they said.

The Ivan Sher Group with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties said its firm represented both the buyer and the seller. Sher holds the record in Las Vegas at $17.55 million for being the listing and buyer’s agent for a Summerlin mansion bought by magician David Copperfield in 2016. He also represented the buyer and seller in that transaction.

This week’s sale falls short of the $16 million paid in 2019 for the Spanish Hills home built and briefly lived in and sold by Harmony Homes founder and Spanish Hills developer Jim Rhodes. The Promontory Pointe home was previously listed for $15.9 million before selling at $14.5 million.

In 2020, the two highest previous sales were $11.25 million for a MacDonald Highlands mansion owned by gaming icon Diana Bennett and $10.15 million for an elevated mansion in The Ridges in Summerlin.

The Promontory Pointe mansion with two stories and a basement can only be entered after passing three gates in the Ridges before a fourth gate at the home itself. It has six bedrooms, nine bathrooms and a 10-car garage.

“It’s iconic,” Sher said. “It’s a home that sits on its own peninsula with dead-on Strip views and golf course and mountain views. It has a backyard that you can’t find in Las Vegas.”

The property’s listing agent, Anthony Spiegel, a broker salesperson with the Ivan Sher Group with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties/Luxury Collection, said there are a lot of homes in Las Vegas that are grand and expensive but not livable. This home is comfortable, he said.

“The beauty of this home, and the reason it reached this valuation was because it didn’t try to be something it wasn’t,” Spiegel said. “It didn’t try to be overly intricate and flamboyant and have all the bells and whistles that people think are cool. You can entertain in it. It has a comfort and coziness to it and Frank Lloyd Wright organic sensibility to it. It has rich wood, millwork and stone, beautiful water features, great grounds that are level lot versus elevation changes.”

The basement has a gym and spa facility, Spiegel said. The main level has the living room, dining room, family room, game room, breakfast nook, kitchen, office, theater and two bedrooms. The upper floor has four bedrooms.

The yard has a miniature golf hole with a tee box and green. It has a resort pool that Spiegel said “is as nice of a pool in all of Las Vegas.” Most of the pool is covered.

“It’s like a lagoon-like pool that wraps around the rear of the home and abuts the home,” Spiegel said. “It allows you to access the pool from different rooms of the home. Then there’s a detached Jacuzzi wading pool as well. It’s probably one of the largest private pool systems in the city and certainly the only with true coverage that allows you to enjoy it without direct sunlight. There’s a water feature with a wall of water like a fountain that goes directly in the pool.”

There were 596 luxury sales for 12 months of 2019, and that total was already surpassed at the beginning of November, according to Forrest Barbee, corporate broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Arizona, California, Nevada Properties.

Sher said he has two more substantial sales to close by the end of 2020 in representing the buyers and sellers in the $9 million to $10 million range, including a lot in Henderson. He said it’s the best luxury market he’s ever seen in Las Vegas.

“Our inventory is about half of what it normally is because everything is selling,” Sher said.

Out-of-state buyers are driving that, Sher said. They’re not only coming from California but New York, Chicago and even Florida. They’re looking for a different lifestyle from going to nicer weather, going from high taxes to no state income tax and getting away from any social unrest in their states. Having an international airport is a plus as well, he said.

“We’ve always done well locally, but we’re seeing a big uptick of out-of-state buyers. It’s abnormally high — maybe double or even triple. It used to be about 25 percent, but now it’s closer to 70 percent,” Sher said. “Despite the challenges of COVID, there’s doing well in this economy. When that happens, you are going to have people that buy and build homes.”

Sher represents former MGM Resorts International Chairman and CEO Jim Murren and his wife, Heather, who put their architectural masterpiece called Skyspace in The Ridges in Summerlin on the market for $10.5 million.

“The Murren home is no longer on the market,” Sher said. “They have opted not to sell that home. It’s not from a lack of activity. We had incredible action and offers that were list price, but they made the decision not to sell.”

Sher also represents former casino magnate Steve Wynn who has placed his home on Enclave Court and known as Billionaires Row adjacent to TPC Summerlin on the market for $25 million.

“There’s lots of activity and lots of interest and maybe we have a fun story for the first quarter of next year,” Sher said. “I’m hoping and expecting.”

As for the Promontory Pointe home, Sher said he signed a non-disclosure agreement and can’t divulge the name of the buyer. He said those agreements are becoming more commonplace this year.

“It’s the third one I have signed in the last few months, and I have never signed one before,” Sher said.

The Promontory Pointe sale at $1,002 per square foot is one of the few in the history of Las Vegas to exceed $1,000 per square foot, Spiegel said. In the last decade of homes sold more than $10 million, only one was above $1,000 a square foot in the home Wynn purchased in Summerlin in 2018 at $1,004, he said.

“A sale like this validates the Vegas market as a legitimate location for high-net worth sophisticated individuals who understand the value of great homes and great neighborhoods and are willing to pay an appropriate price,” Spiegel said. “We’ve been spoiled by low housing values and low price per square foot values in this town. In my opinion, they have been undervalued. Even today, we see homes selling for under replacement value. We’re finally turning the corner and seeing valuations that reflect the market value. We need to become a place where people view us as more sophisticated and well-built products and people paying the right prices for them and don’t look like we’re on sale.”