LV Chamber sells building to Wynn, moves to Town Square

The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce is vacating its aging facility for new digs inside a mega-mall on the South Strip. The 7,000-member trade group yesterday closed escrow on the sale of its longtime headquarters building situated at 3720 Howard Hughes Parkway to Steve Wynn owned entity for an unspecified sum. The chamber bought the two-story, 35,000-square-foot building and on 4.65-acre property for $5 million in 1988, county records show. Yet it had only occupied 15,000 square feet inside in the building, subletting the added space to other tenants. Wynn will subsequently inherit those subleases. The chamber building and property was assessed at $8,822,302 for 2007-08.

The nonprofit business group has since signed a 10-year lease to occupy 25,000 square feet of office space inside Town Square, a new $750 million, 117-acre mixed-use project, located at Sunset Road and Las Vegas Boulevard, South. The move will increase its facility size by 40%.

“We’ve outgrown our current space. We looked at renovating, but it made more sense to look at new office space,” said Cara Roberts, public relations manager for the Chamber. “This really puts the commerce in the chamber of commerce. We are going to be front and center where business takes place.”

The 63-employee chamber looks to move in late November. Town Square is a joint-venture development between Centra Properties and Turnberry Associates consisting of 1.7 million square feet worth of retail, entertainment, and office space. It, too, is expected to open in November.

“We liked that Town Square was conveniently located with high visibility,” said Roberts. “It’s next to Interstate-15, the Beltway and the Strip, making it easy for people to get there.”

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Valley Home Sales Dampen In April

Southern Nevada’s housing market failed to bloom in April with a scant 1,381 sales valley wide for a precipitous 39.1 percent drop from a year ago, reports the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. Signs of recovery still appear far off with a record 22,242 units available last month, or 25.1 more than in 2006.

Median home prices, meanwhile, remained flat at $305,000 in April, same as the month before, but 1.6 percent less than 12 months ago.

“We’re not expecting to see any significant increases in price or sales through the summer months, but we should still see the kind of stable market we have experienced lately,” said Devin Reiss, GLVAR president. “As for inventory, this may be the new reality for a while. The bright side is that prices are holding steady.”

Condos and townhome sales also saw little sunshine in April with 1,358 sales valley wide, a 14.8 percent drop from March, but a 4.5 percent improvement from 2006. There were a whopping 6,178 condo/townhome units available last month or 62.6 percent more than a year ago. Yet median sale prices inched-up to $202,000 for a slight 1.1 percent gain over March, but still 0.5 percent less than a year ago.

There was a total of $538 million in home sales in April, which is 35 percent less than last year, while condos and townhomes racked up $76.6 million in total sales last month. That was a 34.5 percent drop over 2006.

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