Looking for mom 'n' pop

Village-style retail planned for Lake Las Vegas

May 09, 2003 - The narrow streets of MonteLago Village at Lake Las Vegas are mostly empty now -- but the developer expects the retail center to be full of boutiques, bistros, restaurants and people by the end of the year.

The shops in the open-air center, which was built to resemble an Italian village, began opening last month and will continue to open as the space is completed. The MonteLago Village at Lake Las Vegas Resort is connected to the Ritz-Carlton hotel and the MonteLago Casino.

Unlike other retail centers around Las Vegas, including those connected to casinos, MonteLago Village will have no large retailers or national chains.

"We look for more unique stores, with a high level of service. It's different if you have the owner there," Sharon Allen, director of the village, said. "It's the whole experience, and it's not the same thing two blocks away."

Most of the stores that have opened at the 55,000-square-foot MonteLago Village are owner-occupied, and many will be unique to the center, Allen said.

Greeting customers who have come to see the few open stores on a weekday afternoon, Saskia Bende, owner of Alexander Perfumes & Cosmetics, said she has noticed a lot of local interest in the development.

"It was the ambiance of everything," Bende said as she showed a customer an Italian fold-up brush. "It is a really high-end luxury resort and it really fits our clientele."

Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst with research firm Applied Analysis, said in order for the open-air center to be successful, it must broaden its market to attract locals and tourists.

"It is a unique offering, with world class golf, a community atmosphere and unique shops," said Aguero, who visited the center last weekend. "But is it enough to crack the nut and convince tourists to leave the offerings of the Strip? I think that's doubtful."

But MonteLago officials think otherwise.

Allen said the center will offer an experience as a place for locals and tourists to gather for events, festivals and spend a leisurely afternoon on the lake's waterfront.

"I want to use the whole village as a stage," she said, adding there will eventually be street performers and live music concerts.

Allen said the market also has a unique advantage, because it can draw on the residents of Lake Las Vegas and the tourists who stay at the lake's two hotels and its condominiums, which will open later this summer.

Intrawest, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, is the developer and operator of MonteLago Village. It owns village-centered resorts around the United States and Canada, included Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Florida and Copper Mountain in Colorado.

As part of the retail development, Intrawest is also building 177 condo-hotel units just southeast of the shops and restaurants. Unlike a timeshare, the condos will be owned outright and rented out as hotel rooms when the owner is not on the premises. Intrawest has enough land to build the complex out to 800 units, Allen said.

Intrawest will begin to close on the condos in mid-June and will become available as condo-hotels later this summer, Allen said.

Total development costs for Intrawest are $500 million for both the retail and condominium development, Allen said.

Aguero said the open-air retail center also faces challenges to its success because it breaks from the "norm" of retail development in Southern Nevada, with no plans to offer large-name retailers, and because of its distance (about 20 miles) from the heart of Las Vegas.

"I can't point to anyone who has created something like that and succeeded in Southern Nevada," he said.

The closest development in style and idea is the still-under-construction The Shops at Green Valley Ranch, which are being developed by the American Nevada Co.

"The American Nevada project has the same characteristics, but it is wholly different and The Rouse (Co.) is building a sense of community with its retail centers," Aguero said.

American Nevada's 400,000-square-foot "urban village" being built just east of Green Valley Ranch casino is scheduled to have high-end national retail stores, apartments and office space. The center is expected to open in April 2004.

American Nevada is owned by the Greenspun family, which owns In Business Las Vegas.

The Howard Hughes Corp., an affiliate of Rouse and developer of the Summerlin planned community, is working on its plans for an upscale retail center within the western Las Vegas community.

"Not many people have tried to break from the norm in Southern Nevada," Aguero said. "The development at Lake Las Vegas oozes uniqueness."

Walking through the pedestrian-only streets with her friends, Ann Levine, a travel agent with Protravel International in Las Vegas, said she came to stay at the Hyatt Regency and the Ritz-Carlton to check it out for her clients.

"This is a fabulous idea because if you don't want to be around the craziness of Vegas you can come here," she said. "I can't wait to see it when it's all done."

About 35 shops and restaurants will comprise the development, which sits on the shores of Lake Las Vegas. A wharf-like area facing the lake offers a place where people can eat pizza, Italian food, gelato or sushi.

Near the heart of the complex, a bakery will make fresh breads and pastries. A golf store and an art gallery, Collectors Fine Art, has already opened and a glass gallery will open in the next couple of weeks.

Putting the finishing touches on her women's clothing store, Moonbeams, store owner Nancy Camp said she's had a lot of business without being officially open.

"People have really been waiting for things to happen over here," she said.

Camp, who lives in Southern California and owns a women's clothing store in San Diego, also will open a men's clothing store named J. Ryans in MonteLago Village. Her son will manage the men's store, her daughter will manage the women's store, Camp said.

"I was a flight attendant for 100 years," she said, jokingly. "I like people on vacation ... and when the opportunity came to open this store we took it."

Allen said the center is almost completely leased, and expects the "few spots" that remain to go quickly.

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Article Copyright ©: J. Shubinski, Las Vegas Sun