Mosaic Commerce Center, 34-Acre Industrial Park in North Las Vegas, Purchased for $115 Million

LAS VEGAS, NY – A Delaware-based investment group has reportedly purchased a 34-acre industrial park located in North Las Vegas for $115 million.

The Mosaic Commerce Center – a Class A, mid-bay industrial project comprised of nine buildings totaling 582,510 square-feet – has been sold by Las Vegas-based real commercial real estate firm The Mosaic Companies to KW FUND VII- NORTH BELT ROAD, LP, a subsidiary of Beverly Hills-based real estate investment company Kennedy Wilson.

Construction on the Mosaic Commerce Center – facing Interstate 15 and located about six miles south of Apex Industrial Park – was completed in July 2023 in order to meet the growing demand in North Las Vegas for mid-bay projects for office space and warehouse use. At the time of its sale, the complex was fully-leased with a total of 21 tenant companies, most of whom had moved into the facility in July and August of last year.

The Mosaic Companies issued a statement announcing the sale, with the company’s Founder, Vincent Schettler, saying that KW FUND VII- NORTH BELT ROAD, LP is a strong player in the real estate marketplace and should experience great success with their newest acquisition.

Today, we are delighted to announce the successful sale of Mosaic Commerce Center. This project exemplifies our teams’ dedication to excellence and innovation in the world of industrial real estate,” Schettler said. “We are thrilled that our buyer recognized the value in this project, and we look forward to seeing their continued success of this remarkable industrial complex.”

The sale did not encompass all of the Mosaic Commerce Center’s property; Mosaic Companies still owns approximately four acres, upon which they are planning to develop two service hotels and retail centers. The groundbreaking on the first hotel is scheduled to take place by the end of 2024.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

CHICAGO, IL – In a historic settlement that will completely change the current homebuying and selling business model, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on Friday entered into a settlement in a series of antitrust lawsuits brought against the organization by groups of home sellers by agreeing to pay $418 million in damages and eliminating commission rules, effectively doing away with the 6 percent industry standard.

The agreement to abolish the 6 percent commission standard on the part of NAR – which represents over 1 million Realtors – is expected to significantly reduce the costs associated with buying and selling homes, with experts predicting that commissions are expected to fall anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent.

Up until Friday’s agreement, sellers paid both their broker and their buyer’s broker during a home sale, which some critics have said has artificially driven housing prices higher. Previously, sellers could pay more than $25,000 in brokerage fees upon the sale of the average-priced U.S. home, which is currently $417,000; those costs are then passed on to the buyer, which in turn leads to higher home prices.

A new set of rules will also be put into place, including prohibiting the amount of compensation an agent will receive from being included on listings posted on multiple listing services (MLS), which some have claimed leads to brokers pushing pricier homes on their customers; previously, NAR had required agents to post their fees on MLS listings.

In addition, brokers are no longer required to subscribe to MLS where properties are given a wide viewing in a local markets, and buyer’s brokers will now be required to enter into written agreements with their buyers.

The home sellers who had sued NAR argued that the cost of the buyer’s agent’s commission should be paid by the buyer who received the service, not by the seller, and that buyers should be able to negotiate the fee with their agent and that sellers should not be responsible for paying it.

In November, a Missouri federal jury ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and against NAR and two other brokerages for a total of $1.8 billion in damages for conspiring to keep agent commissions artificially high; because the lawsuit was an antitrust case, NAR would potentially have had to pay triple damages in the amount of $5.4 billion.

While the other two brokerage is settled, NAR initially vowed to appeal the judgment before finally agreeing to the settlement on Friday, which was announced by NAR interim CEO Nykia Wright in a statement.

NAR has worked hard for years to resolve this litigation in a manner that benefits our members and American consumers,” she said. “It has always been our goal to preserve consumer choice and protect our members to the greatest extent possible. This settlement achieves both of those goals.”

News of the settlement caused shares of real estate firms Zillow and Compass to plummet over 13 percent; Zillow issued a statement saying any significant change to the fee structure could have an industry-wide negative impact, including less business for real estate platforms.

If agent commissions are meaningfully impacted, it could reduce the marketing budgets of real estate partners or reduce the number of real estate partners participating in the industry, which could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations,” the firm said.

However, Robert Braun – a partner in Cohen Milstein’s antitrust practice that represented the homesellers in the lawsuit – claimed that Friday’s settlement will lead to a more competitive and fair real estate market.

For far too long, home sellers have faced a system recognized by many as blatantly unfair,” he said. “This class action and settlement provides justice for our clients and will require important changes that help future home sellers.”

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Two developers – Cherry Development and Schulman Properties – have pitched two separate mixed-use apartment complexes for the downtown Las Vegas area that, when completed, will produce almost 400 units in an effort to address the housing shortage in the city.

Based in Las Vegas, Cherry Development is slated to hold their official ground-breaking later in March on their delayed $27 million shareDOWNTOWN project – originally slated to open in June 2020 – which is located on 1.2 acres of city-owned land at 1100 D Street, the former location of the Greater New Jerusalem Church.

In order for the developer to keep the project costs low and, in turn, keep tenant rent at affordable levels, the city is selling the land to Cherry Development for just $6. When completed, shareDOWNTOWN – which is catering to individuals who work in Las Vegas and who wish to reside near its downtown area – will take the form of a five-story building with 104 one-bedroom apartments, each one approximately 500-square-feet in size. It will feature 20 units going for the current market rate, and 84 units with rent caps determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

shareDOWNTOWN will offer a business center, a fitness center, a community kitchen, a co-working area with private conference room and an outdoor courtyard. In addition, there will also be a retail component on the ground floor, mainly consisting of restaurants and other assorted eateries, as well as an 8,400-square-foot shop.

The other project – Schulman Properties’ six story, $115 million Ilumina Midtown, located near Charleston Boulevard and Grand Central Parkway – targets a different demographic in the city, as it will offer 275 luxury apartments ranging in size from 600 to 1,800 square feet. It will also have numerous high-end amenities for its tenants, including a 4,000 square-foot restaurant, a 40,000 square-foot health club, a gym, a pool, sports courts and a co-working area.

Ilumina Midtown is currently pending approval by the Las Vegas Planning Commission in April; if given the go-ahead, development is anticipated to begin in spring of 2025, with completion expected in either the summer or fall of 2026.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – A national luxury real estate broker has taken the industry one step closer to the future – for better or for worse, depending on how you feel about the implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) – by announcing that it will be beta testing a website across its brokerage operations in Las Vegas featuring a first-of-its-kind “fully conversational” AI avatar that will be able to hold discussions and answer questions of prospective buyers.

Luxury Realty Group LLC, a subsidiary of Luxury Realty Group Holdings Inc, has begun testing the vuHome.ai website, claiming that their new AI avatar was created because text, images, and videos aren’t always sufficient to convey the experience of the luxury properties they are trying to sell. Instead, having an AI avatar who can actually converse with the seller and answer specific questions provides a more efficient, time saving approach to selling homes in the Las Vegas region, or at least, they say.

Pulling on up-to-the-minute MLS data, the AI avatar can be verbally asked to search for exact home criteria, including square footage, the number of stories, bedrooms, and baths, and specific amenities such as kitchen islands, pools, mountain views, guard gated communities, and what size garage they need. Within seconds, listings matching their search criteria are offered, and buyers can continue to converse with the AI to have questions pertaining to the properties they were interested in answered, including ones not readily available on traditional websites and portals.

The point, according to Luxury Realty Group, is to provide a more immersive experience for sellers and to allow them to be able to visualize living in the home more effectively. However, it remains to be seen if speaking to an eerily realistic virtual woman staring back at you from a computer screen is the best means of doing so, or if it simply conjures up the “uncanny valley,” a term that describes the sense of discomfort or unease people experience when they encounter a robot with certain human-like characteristics.

The website is currently password-protected and not for public use during its beta testing phase, but a demo video is available upon request by interested sellers, media, and prospective experienced luxury real estate agents in the Las Vegas area.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – One of the Las Vegas Strip’s most historic properties, the Diamond Inn Motel, closed down last year and has sat vacant and unused ever since. However, new reports indicate that it is set to be auctioned off and most likely demolished along with its iconic mascot – a large sculpture of a pink elephant that greeted visitors to the establishment for many years – signifying an erasure of yet another piece of the Strip’s rich history.

Whereas the Strip had previously featured a number of small motels and resorts, these icons of yesteryear have been giving way to massive megaresorts in the here and now, with the Diamond Inn Motel proving to be one of the last holdouts.

The motel – which is set on 1.36 acres of land and boasts 48 rooms – has called the Strip home for decades, and has witnessed the rise of its massive casino and resort industry from the very beginning, according to the business’ website.

“Built in 1940 the Diamond Inn Motel (then it was called the Desert Isle Motel), is one of the oldest buildings still standing on the Strip, which several decades ago the strip was called Arrowhead Highway/Highway 91,” the website reads. “The first hotel/casino built on the strip was called the El Rancho Vegas Hotel & Casino built in 1941. Later in the ’40’s and 50’s, dozens of motels were built next door, the Mirage, Lone Palm, Desert Rose and many others that were the high points of Old Vegas with their glittering neon signs. The Diamond Inn is still standing proud and operating with a profit after all these years, along with its colorful history (especially the landmark, iconic Pink Elephant)!”

One of the most distinctive features of the Diamond Inn Motel was the pink elephant standing at the front of the property next to the establishment’s sign, inviting weary tourists and locals to come in and rest in one of their rooms after a night of gambling and partying.

The pink elephant came from Disney World, probably in the 50’s,” the website says. “He used to trumpet loudly, but the noise caused some accidents. Because of that, the county made the owner take the sound mechanism out. The pink elephant is like the Diamond Inn’s mascot; thousands of tourists have stopped just to take pictures next to it, just like they do in front of the famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign.”

However, it has been pointed out that the website claim may have been in error and that the elephant most likely came from Disneyland, which opened in 1955, as opposed to Disney World, which opened in 1971.

J.P. King, a company that specializes in real estate auctions, is handling the Diamond Inn auction. The auction began on March 7 and a minimum bid of $12.5 million has been set for the property.

And yes, the pink elephant is indeed included in the sale.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – According to Clark County property records, JEN Partners – a real estate investment firm based out of New York – recently purchased 54 acres of underdeveloped, residential-zoned land in south Las Vegas for $33.5 million, and speculation is running rampant that the property will be used for a massive residential development.

The land in question is located within the township of Enterprise, just west of the Southern Highlands community; the previous owner was Southern Highlands Investment Partners, and neither they nor JEN Partners responded to queries from local media regarding the sale.

JEN Partners, according to the firm’s website, specializes in “residential land and real estate opportunities,” and has previously built single-family residential developments in such places as Florida, Arizona and Texas. Overall, they have over 150 active or fully realized residential real estate transactions across the country, although their new land acquisition in south Las Vegas will represent their first project in the state of Nevada, provided if JEN Partners indeed chooses to develop it.

Enterprise is an unincorporated town founded on December 17, 1996 and is known as an up-and-coming township as well as one of the fastest growing communities in the United States; as of the 2020 U.S. census, the population of Enterprise was 221,831, a significant increase from the 2000 census that put that number at just 14,676.

Given its degree of rapid growth in recent years – mainly attributed to the development of the 215 Beltway, which connects the Summerlin and Henderson communities and provides easy access to the airport and the Las Vegas Strip – experts say that Enterprise would rank only behind Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas in terms of the largest cities in the county if it were to incorporate itself today.

Enterprise has recently seen a large boom in building in terms of single-family residential developments, multifamily and apartment construction, including commercial real estate.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – In the Las Vegas Valley a tiny home is generating big demand from desperate Las Vegas renters on a budget, with its landlord receiving scores of inquiries from prospective tenants, a situation he said he was not expecting, according to Fox 5 Las Vegas.

The 160-square-foot residence is listed for just $950 a month – half the average rent in the valley, which is currently $1,745 – and is located on the landlord’s own property; he said he built it himself for just $22,000, and did so as a way to help out people during the ongoing economic downturn that the country has been experiencing.

I’ve literally [had] 113 and counting people. [My phone] keeps ringing on wanting to rent it,” the landlord said, who asked to remain anonymous when speaking to local media. “It’s definitely in people’s heart to want to save some money right now. This economy’s tough, and just doing my share on trying to help someone out.”

This isn’t the first time that this generous landlord has put such an offering on the market, having built dozens of other small homes that he rents out. In 2021, the Nevada State Legislature passed a law that requires cities whose populations are higher than 150,000 to create zoning laws for tiny homes, with compliance required by 2024.

The $950 rent includes all utilities and services, including water, electricity, internet, garbage removal, and plumbing. The interior boasts a small pull-down table for dining, a kitchen with a cooktop stove, a bathroom, a washer and dryer combo, and a bedroom located in an upper loft overlooking the main floor.

In addition, the tenant that snags this property will also enjoy a small backyard space, including a garden and a table and chair.

The landlord noted the interested parties run the gamut from a family of four to numerous single parents with children and pets. But the one uniting factor that all of the prospective tenants share is a need for affordable housing, and they are apparently willing to sacrifice some living space in order to acquire it.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Short-term rentals, STRs, are a major money-making business in the United States, and a new report indicates that among all of the cities in the country, the ones located in Las Vegas are among the very most profitable short-term rentals in the entire country.

The housing market in Las Vegas shot to unprecedented heights during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the median price of a single-family home jumping by over 50 percent by May 2022. Nearly 100,000 new residents moved to Southern Nevada during the same period of time, creating a seller’s market the likes of which had not been seen in many a year.

While most of the homes purchased during this span of time were by families and individuals who had relocated to the state, a large number of them were bought by investors seeking to turn them into STRs, a logical occurrence given the fact that Las Vegas is one of the most well-known destinations for tourism on the entire planet.

A new report released by finance experts Wealth of Geeks compared the average nightly rate of STRs in major cities across the United States, and contrasted that data with the average weekly wage in the same city, as provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. When comparing the two sets of information Wealth of Geeks were able to figure out what percentage of their weekly earnings could be comprised of income from Airbnb ownership.

Among major U.S. cities, Las Vegas came in at number five on that list, with the average nightly rate being $312. And with the median weekly wage in Las Vegas being $724, the average profit made from a nightly rental rate would translate to approximately 43.1 percent of the owner’s weekly income, according to Wealth of Geeks’ data.  

Of course, STRs are typically not rented out seven days a week, 365 days a year; however, even a slow short-term rental can still generate a significant degree of revenue for its owner in Las Vegas. An example of a slow month could be comprised of two three-night weekends a month, which would bring in $1,872 in profit alone; during busier months, a fortunate owner could book all four weekends, and if they are using a four-night minimum, that would get them $4,992 a month.

And one thing about Las Vegas, experts say – there aren’t many slow months.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya recently picked up his roots and moved from his longtime home of Los Angeles, California, to Las Vegas, and recently held a media event where he publicly unveiled the new residence he and his wife will be inhabiting- a lavish mansion valued at nearly $15 million that is located in Henderson’s affluent MacDonald Highlands community.

Nicknamed “The Golden Boy of boxing,” De La Hoya, 51, competed in the squared circle from 1992 to 2008, winning 11 world titles in six weight classes and is one of the most popular boxers ever, generating approximately $700 million in pay-per-view income during his career, a record at that time.

De La Hoya originally purchased the MacDonald Highlands mansion in May 2022 in an all-cash transaction for $14.6 million, coming in as the priciest Las Vegas transaction that month. The residence, which is still undergoing construction and updating, is located on a 1-acre plot of land and features 10,460 square-feet of living space, with five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and an eight-car garage.

De La Hoya is reportedly sparing no expense when it comes to decorating his new abode, building a trophy room that serves as a celebration of his boxing career – including displays featuring his championship belts and robes, a miniature boxing ring, and a huge wall-mounted television for watching boxing matches – in addition to a $500,000 man cave.

Not only is De La Hoya moving his family to Las Vegas from LA, but he’s also moving his business there as well; Golden Boy Promotions, his boxing promotions firm, will be taking up residence in new offices located in Henderson, near the Las Vegas Raiders’ training complex. This move continues the trend of numerous fight entities recently setting up their headquarters in Vegas, including Top Rank, PBC, and the UFC.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Elon Musk’s The Boring Company Is looking at serious fines imposed by the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) relating to what the organization is calling serious safety issues in its Las Vegas Loop tunnel system, citing multiple injuries suffered by workers for Musk’s company while constructing the underground people mover.

The Las Vegas Loop is a transport system constructed underneath the city, comprised of a series of underground tunnels dug by The Boring Company that currently ferries people back and forth to the Las Vegas Convention Center in a series of Tesla automated electric cars. The Boring Company had previously stated they plan on expanding the tunnel system, with plans for new people mover routes to various area resorts, sporting venues, and the airport.

However, following a complaint to OSHA and a subsequent inspection, The Boring Company was hit with eight citations and is now facing over $100,000 in fines due to purported burns suffered by workers by accelerants used in the concrete mix utilized in the Loop tunnel construction.

Dale Kuykendall, a spokesperson for the JacksonLewis firm – the legal team representing The Boring Company – maintains that OSHA had failed to show that any of the allegations against Musk’s company had any validity or merit.

In addition to [The Boring Company’s] belief that Nevada OSHA has failed to establish that the alleged violations occurred, TBC contests all of the citations’ classifications, required abatement, abatement deadlines, proposed penalties, and every other matter subject to contest,” Kuykendall said in a letter to OSHA.

According to OSHA, approximately 20 workers on the Las Vegas Loop – who were not provided with adequate protective gear – had suffered injuries while constructing the project’s Encore tunnel site after being exposed to hazardous chemicals such as bentonite, fly ash, R 100 and Portland Cement.

The chemical mixture was inadvertently sprayed onto approximately 10-15 employees soaking through their work clothing, absorbing into the skin resulting in skin irritation, skin rashes, and skin chemical burns,” the report said. “The employer did not provide instruction on personal protective equipment requirements to employees, and employees were not instructed in the recognition and avoidance of hazards associated with the underground construction.”

Other issues cited by OSHA included waste transport conveyor belts that lacked safeguards to prevent hazardous materials from falling on employees, and overloaded and collapsing onsite waste bins.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – January 2024 saw the second-highest number of luxury home sales in Las Vegas ever, proving that high-end residence sales in Southern Nevada are still going strong – and picking up steam – despite whatever challenges are encountered by the national real estate market overall in light of high inflation and mortgage rates.

In all, 102 homes and condominiums priced at $1 million and higher exchange hands last month, an amount eclipsed only by the current record-holding year of January 2022, during which 122 abodes in that price range were sold. The next two highest months in Las Vegas history were January 2021, when 86 luxury sales took place, and January 2023, when 76 were sold.

January’s luxury home sales in Vegas were bolstered by a number of expensive purchases, topped by the sale of an estate in Summerlin’s affluent The Summit Club community for a whopping $19 million. This home, acquired by Insight Tech Holdings NV LLC – a buyer from Asia – from Chambord Revocable Trust with Michael L. and M’Lissa M. Gravelle listed as trustees, was an all-cash deal.

The home, located on Stardust Drive, was originally built in 2020 and subsequently renovated in 2021; it features four bedrooms and 4.5 baths in a residence with an “ultra-modern design” that offers 7,908 square-feet of living space. Situated on a 1.37-acre plot of land, the property also boasts a pool and unobstructed views of the famed Las Vegas Strip.

The second highest-priced home that was sold in Vegas in January was a two-story residence in McDonald Highlands in Henderson for $8.45 million. Built in 2022, renovated in 2023, and located on a 0.3-acre plot of land on Tranquil Rim Court, the 7,373 square-foot home has five bedrooms, five full baths, two partial baths, and a six-car garage. Amenities include a movie theater, bar, game room, wine cellar, and elevator.

The third-highest luxury sale in Las Vegas in January was $7.3 million for a Southern Highlands home, followed by a home in The Ridges in Summerlin for $5.76 million.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – The recent drought of affordable housing options in Las Vegas can be contributed to a number of different reasons, but a new report indicates one of the factors affecting the situation is the large number of California residents relocating to Nevada that have been outcompeting state residents for housing for some time now.

Bob Cleveland, President and Chief Executive Officer for the nonprofit Rebuilding Together Southern Nevada, noted that Californians have been outbidding Nevadans for homes in the Las Vegas Valley for several decades now. The situation was exasperated even further starting in 2022 when the Federal Reserve began increasing interest rates in order to curb record-high national inflation.

I hate to say it but it’s California, and that’s me growing up in the construction industry and I used to work for a builder,” he said. “During the first boom that we had, I was the area manager for the Northwest and we would release a section of homes at 3 o’clock in the morning and there would be a line of people and almost all of them would be from California. And you had to put down $20,000 cash deposit just to get on the list to buy these houses.”

Over the course of the last several decades, Californians have comprised approximately one-third of all new residents moving to Nevada, with the vast majority of those transplants coming from Los Angeles.

When it comes to Californians edging out Nevadans on the housing market, the edge that the former holds is clear; according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in Los Angeles is $83,000, in contrast to just $66,000 in the Las Vegas Valley. In addition, the average price of a home in Los Angeles is approximately $900,000, as opposed to just $400,000 in Southern Nevada.

It’s these circumstances that Cleveland says creates an enormously unfair advantage for California residents when it comes to competing for affordable housing in the Las Vegas Valley.

Our income is just not on par with California’s income,” he said. “So our housing prices have gone up because of the influx of California money, and our income hasn’t been going up so it makes it hard for the average Joe to keep up.”

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.