Ten years ago, the owners of a mixed-use property in Las Vegas held a very Vegas event: An implosion party.
Demolitions crews wired a never-finished condo building at The Gramercy, a residential and commercial complex on Russell Road at the 215 Beltway, with copper-clad plastic explosives. Then on the morning of Feb. 15, 2015, with a bartender serving drinks to guests under a tent near the action but not too close, the nine-story tower was imploded to cheering onlookers.
The owners later sold The Gramercy for more than $100 million after filling the place with tenants, and the demo site is now home to an upscale apartment complex.
The new building, The Ellison, boasts a rooftop pool and beer garden, outdoor pizza oven, jumbo LED screen overlooking the pool, ping pong, a poker table and other features.
Lyon Living, developer of The Ellison and owner of The Gramercy’s other apartments, is known for its “luxury amenities and resident experiences, so it was always preferred to start with a clean slate and build a project that was uniquely ours,” managing partner Kasey Suryan said.
Here’s a look at the history of The Gramercy, a property that, before it changed hands, names and direction more than a decade ago, was a visible casualty of Las Vegas’ real estate crash.
‘I love the smell of recession in the morning’
After working in the tech industry in the 1990s and early 2000s, Alex Edelstein got in on Las Vegas’ real estate market.
He developed the Manhattan condo complex south of the Strip and launched ManhattanWest in the southwest valley. He reportedly purchased the ManhattanWest site in 2006 for about $30 million and broke ground in 2007.
Project plans called for 600-plus homes, as well as restaurants, offices and a hotel. But soon enough, Las Vegas’ once-booming real estate market was sliding.
In mid-2008, Edelstein announced a new blog, FrothingDeveloper, saying it was “designed to counter the media’s perennially negative spin on the economy and the housing market.”
“I love the smell of recession in the morning,” Edelstein joked in the news release. “The greatest opportunities come when everyone else is paralyzed by fear, particularly when I know that fear is irrational.”
By late 2008, however, the economy was crashing, and Edelstein stopped construction on ManhattanWest. At the time, he said funding for the project was no longer available.
ManhattanWest was one of many abandoned projects that littered Southern Nevada after the bubble burst. The site was behind barbed wire-topped fencing, and the condo tower faced the Beltway, where drivers could see through the unfinished structure.
Edelstein sold the property in 2013 to The Krausz Companies and WGH Partners for $20 million, after he spent a reported $170 million on the project.
‘Vacation mindset’
The new owners changed the property’s name to The Gramercy and completed its two apartment buildings and two office and retail buildings. They also decided the condo tower had to go.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” a Krausz executive told the Las Vegas Sun at the implosion.
Krausz and WGH ultimately sold The Gramercy in chunks. The Koll Co. and Estein USA bought its commercial buildings for about $62 million in 2017, and Lyon Living acquired the apartment buildings, vacant land and parking lots for around $46 million in 2018.
In 2021, Lyon and the LandSpire Group broke ground on a 294-unit apartment complex, originally called The Highline, on the former condo tower’s footprint and some adjacent acreage.
“Infuse a vacation mindset into your daily routine at The Ellison,” the property’s website declares.
The Ellison had its first move-ins last May, Lyon said.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
