VCC Goes Big in Vegas with $344M Downtown Summerlin Project

Completing a half-built, 1.5 million-SF retail-office center in less than 18 months presented a desert challenge for VCC LLC. The sprawling Downtown Summerlin project in the western suburbs of Las Vegas also represented unfinished business for the Little Rock general contracting firm.

The Great Recession brought construction to a halt in October 2008, and work didnt resume on the 106-acre development until May 2013.

Touted as a showcase of new urbanism design, Summerlin is home to a nine-story, 200,000-SF office building and more than 1.3 million SF of stores, restaurants and entertainment venues. The development is portrayed as the largest retail project in the nation to come on line since 2008.

Its owner, the Howard Hughes Corp. of Dallas, tallied the development costs of the project at $344 million as of Sept. 30.

Were proud of it, said Sam Alley, VCC chairman and CEO. I told our management team that I feel like weve won the Super Bowl. Its an iconic project.

The grand opening on Oct. 9 was greeted by an enthusiastic throng treated to pyrotechnics and fanfare in keeping with a super Vegas event. Summerlin attracted more than a quarter million visitors during the flashy music-filled, four-day celebration.

Among the 85 shopping carnival hosts was Dillards Inc. The Little Rock department store chain held a soft opening Oct. 4 at its 200,000-SF Summerlin store in advance of the big Oct. 9-12 blowout.

The fireworks show was bigger than any Fourth of July Ive ever seen, said Derek Alley, senior vice president in the Dallas office of VCC. It was quite the party.

Dillards was a committed anchor to the project when it was envisioned as a regional mall development, the Shops at Summerlin Centre.

The original fortress mall concept called for a retailing destination designed to capture and contain money-spending patrons all surrounded by a huge moat of parking.

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VCC Goes Big in Vegas with $344M Downtown Summerlin Project