nevada: "Green" energy tax credits get new life - 04/09/08 04:51 PM
U.S. Senate has tried three times in recent months to extend the well-liked tax credits for geothermal, solar and wind energy and failed to pass it each time. The credits are scheduled to expire December 31. Without these breaks investment in the alternative energy field would suffer a serious setback at a time when the nation urgently needs to redirect its focus away from fossil fuel-based energy production. Big oil and gas companies, who else, had enough pull on the Hill to thwart those progressive attempts.
Nevada Republican Senator Ensign was one opponent of the extension and came under withering criticism from industry … (4 comments)

nevada: Southern Nevada officials remain optimistic - 04/07/08 07:00 AM
The annual forum named Las Vegas Perspective convened again to discuss what is going on in the valley's economic landscape and what the future might look like. The event drew a good crowd of about 750 business people to a Rio ballroom who politely hung on to their seats throughout the multiple presentations and colorful charts.
Among the positive news is that Vegas keeps on growing at a healthy clip, with around 78,000 people having moved here last year. That number, though, is a slight decline from the previous year, but still an impressive feat. Over the past 10 years population growth … (2 comments)

nevada: UNLVino coming right up - 04/02/08 10:33 AM
 
"Take a sip for scholarship" 
This highly popular wine tasting event has become a grand tradition in Las Vegas. It has been around for 34 years to raise funds for students at UNLV's Harrah Hotel College, a thoroughly worthy cause. Dr. Jerry Vallen, the founding dean of the college, and Larry Ruvo, senior managing director at Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada, got together in 1974 to kick off the first of these tasters. Back then they were actually held at the distributor's warehouse where I vividly remember attending one, or maybe two, of them. The spacious warehouse environment didn't dampen the spirits at … (0 comments)

nevada: Las Vegas Strip plan scrapped - 04/01/08 08:54 AM
 
Another Strip project was taken off the table as the struggling mortgage and real estate markets continue inflicting pain on condominium and resort developments here. The pace seems to be steady now for these types of casualties, for the moment at least. Recently Plaza Las Vegas was shelved and Cosmopolitan, too, is in life support.
Crown Las Vegas is the latest victim of the brutal market conditions. It was to be built on land just south of the Sahara with the original design calling for 5,000 condo and hotel units in a 142-story super tower and a large casino. It was going … (4 comments)

nevada: Drive Fore Literacy with Oscar coming up in April - 03/20/08 05:23 PM
All Southern Nevada residents, and others too, mark your calendars on April 11 and put also down the time of 6:30 a.m. That's when the sixth annual Drive Fore Literacy with Oscar golf outing at Silverstone Golf Club will tee off. The club is located at 8600 Cupp Drive in northwest part of the valley, within the Silverstone Ranch residential community.
The event is a fundraiser for the Newspapers in Education, or NIE, program that seeks to improve literacy at a pre-adulthood level. The whole idea of NIE goes all the way back to 1795 when a Portland, Maine, newspaper got … (2 comments)

nevada: Las Vegas Sands has grand plans - 03/15/08 04:56 PM
 
First the rapidly-growing hotel, gaming and resort company built the Venetian at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard, better known as the Strip, and Sands Avenue, to compliment the huge convention facility Sands Expo Center. It promptly became a major hit among convention goers and up-scale visitors to town. Since the demand was there, they soon went ahead and built the luxurious Palazzo next door, opening it in January, and connected it directly to the Venetian.
There is more in the pipeline, though. A piece of prime land sits right in front of the Palazzo and the owner of that wanted to put … (6 comments)

nevada: Las Vegas housing market report mixed - 03/15/08 09:54 AM
Southern Nevada residential real estate market is actively seeking a solid foundation to stand on. Some of its more meaningful components are either moving up a little or heading down a bit, instead of going steadily in either direction. The positive thing is that the shifts now are minor which usually indicates the correction here is nearing the end of its cycle.
Local housing experts are loudly cheering the 11.7% increase in sales of single-family homes in February, as was reported by GLVAR, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. The total came to 1,098 sales. A considerable 41.5% of the transactions … (8 comments)

nevada: Red Rock Canyon visitor center upgrade - 03/08/08 03:54 PM
The ground-breaking for the new $23 million facility took place last month, an event that was carefully monitored by the U.S. Interior Secretary, four members from Nevada's congressional delegation and a host of local aficionados. With all these big titles in attendance it had to be an important happening for Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. And it was. By the way, the center will sit a foot or two north of the old one and is slated for completion late in 2010.
The canyon was chosen by Congress in 1990 to be the first national conservation area in Nevada. Its high desert beauty draws … (1 comments)

nevada: Las Vegas condos land on non-permissible list - 03/01/08 05:20 AM
When the residential real estate market turns soft, mortgage lenders typically are the first ones to take notice and begin studying where their exposure can get them in trouble. Countless banks operating in Las Vegas have already in their own way reacted to the slowdown here and more are certainly doing so as the situation warrants.
BankUnited from Florida has paid particular attention to the condominium market and has decided to cease underwriting mortgages on 191 projects nationwide, 14 of which are here in Las Vegas. The bank is hardly a household name to many in the business, but its action underlines … (8 comments)

nevada: Northwest Las Vegas condo project about to welcome first residents - 02/18/08 05:33 PM
Echelon at Centennial Hills, tucked away at a location in the northwest corner of the valley, is preparing to open its first building later this spring. The condominium development will have six four-story structures spread out over 15 acres with 372 units between them when everything is finished. Royal Construction Co., a Steve Aizenberg firm, is the builder, the same entrepreneur who also brought Spinnaker Homes to the Las Vegas community.
The complex has an urban life-style design and offers amenities such as underground parking with storage space for homeowners and each building has two trash chutes. In addition, a pool … (0 comments)

nevada: Vegas condo development in legal tussle - 02/16/08 04:37 AM
 
When Southern Nevada's residential real estate market began to slide a while back, much of the ensuing talk was focused on the single-family house segment. At about the same time condominiums below the ultra luxury level were also having their troubles, yet for some reason they seldom generated cat-size headlines. Recently, though, that has changed.
Pinnacle Las Vegas is the latest one to become a discussion topic. The planned complex in western Las Vegas was to have two 36-story towers containing 1,100 condo-hotel units, several restaurants and shops, a fitness center and a spa and a large wet deck.  The project's developers … (0 comments)

nevada: Great Mall of Las Vegas alters design - 02/09/08 03:49 AM
Triple Five Nevada has grand plans to build a large shopping mall in the northwest part of the Las Vegas valley. The original design had the huge facility enclosed, but things have changed quite a bit and now it's going to be open-air. Their market research tells them that shoppers actually prefer a so-called lifestyle center, so that's why the changes are made.
In many ways it'll resemble the recently-opened Town Square on south Strip which contains a host of separate buildings and is nicely pro-pedestrian. Triple Five Nevada also wants to add a "green" component to the project. An enclosed shopping … (0 comments)

nevada: Mortgage industry tested by foreclosures in 2007 - 02/05/08 05:32 AM
Mortgage foreclosure filings on a national scale kept a steady pace throughout 2007, reports RealtyTrac, a California-based real estate marketplace and an expert in foreclosure data. Despite government and lender efforts to come to the rescue of homeowners in distress, the figures toward the end of the year showed no improvement at all. In fact, there was a minor push upward in the last few months. Foreclosure filings include correspondence informing homeowners that they are in default or that their property can be auctioned off or repossessed by a bank.
As anticipated, Nevada still lingers at the top of the state list … (2 comments)

nevada: Housing wrestles with affordability issue - 01/30/08 01:46 PM
In multiple areas nationwide the residential real estate market remains soft and offers home buyers splendid opportunities. Prices are coming down and many sellers are at last realizing that the marketplace determines the listing price and not them. They are now more willing to negotiate rather than just turn down unappealing offers. And mortgage interest rates in recent weeks have reached new lows, hovering right around 5.5%. These developments should be boosting transaction activity, but are they making as big a difference as expected?
The word affordability plays a large role in that. The Center for Housing Policy conducted a study on the … (10 comments)

nevada: Stratosphere sale about to close - 01/14/08 02:17 PM
 
Famous corporate raider Carl Icahn is one step closer to selling a company under his control, the American Casino & Entertainment Properties, as the Nevada Gaming Control Board recommends the transaction for approval. The buyer is Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds, an affiliate of the Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs. The sale is set to close in February.
American Casino operates locally the Stratosphere and two Arizona Charlie's gaming houses in the suburbs and also the Aquarius at the southern tip of Nevada in Laughlin.
For the near term, Whitehall Street plans to spend about $54 million in upgrades and additions … (8 comments)

nevada: Nevada heads national population growth rate - 12/28/07 02:32 PM
Nevada has been in the news a lot lately for problematic reasons related to the mortgage industry and residential real estate issues. But after a long drought it again has something to cheer about. It once more is the fastest-growing state in the union, after being edged out last year by Arizona. The official growth rate is 2.9% for the calendar year closing out July 1, bringing its total population to over 2.56 million, as was reported by the Census Bureau.
The trend is expected to follow the same path in the coming years. Clark County, home to Las Vegas, holds well … (4 comments)

nevada: Springs Preserve attracting eco-friendly conferences - 12/17/07 02:57 PM
Springs Preserve is a cultural and historical site in the heart of Las Vegas. It primarily observes the city's past, but as it does so, it also looks forward into the future, offering a vision of sustainable living and what it entails. It is a 180-acre attraction with Nevada State Museum and other historical exhibits, hiking trails and about 50,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space.
While the conference area is rather small compared to many of the vast facilities on and around the Strip, it has managed to draw the interest of the national convention industry with its eco-forward approach. … (4 comments)

nevada: Is Nevada taking advantage of its vast solar power potential? - 12/12/07 04:35 AM
It soon will be, in a small scale.
This month Nellis Air Force Base located just north of Las Vegas will start up this continent's largest solar photo-voltaic system, built by the partnership of U.S. Air Force, MMA Renewable Ventures and SunPower Corp. It will generate over 30 million kilowatt hours of power annually and provide 25% of the base's total electricity needs. The system is projected to save the installation $1 million every year, making the source at the same time sustainable and more independent.
Nevada can do much better than that, however. There are more sunny days here than … (6 comments)

nevada: Las Vegas real estate market sluggish - 12/11/07 02:25 PM
There have lately been small signs of improvement in the local housing market and anything positive on that front is warmly embraced. Perhaps the low mortgage interest rates are helping out, perhaps the sellers are pricing their homes more realistically, could be the buyers have realized that now is the time to make the commitment. Or it's a little bit of all of them.
The Southern Nevada Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose slightly in November to 133.06. The index is compiled by the UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research and really is a six-month economic forecast from the month … (0 comments)

nevada: UNLV celebrates 50th anniversary with a book on its history - 12/07/07 07:53 AM
Las Vegas is better known globally for its superb entertainment, colorful nightlife and diverse gaming than for higher education. Even though the city's history has been previously chronicled in a host of books, their emphasis has been rather one-dimensional, basically covering all matters related to the Strip. Perhaps so because it's called the Entertainment Capital of the World.
The 50thanniversary has helped put UNLV more prominently on the map. In honor of this important date, Dr. Eugene Moehring, a history professor and department chair, just published a book about the school, titled "The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, A History". The project took … (0 comments)