Summerlin’s developer is carving a new custom-home enclave into the base of the mountains west of Las Vegas, selling plots with dramatic views for millions of dollars each.
Howard Hughes Holdings has sold six homesites for nearly $23 million combined in a new luxury community called Astra, a few miles northwest of the Summerlin Parkway-215 Beltway interchange, property records show.
The parcels that sold collectively span about 3.8 acres, and the deals all closed in December.
Buyers still have to build their homes and will get elevated, panoramic views of the Las Vegas Valley and close-up views of the mountains around them.
The developer hasn’t marketed the project to the general public yet, real estate pros said. Project plans filed with the city of Las Vegas show dozens of homesites, but the Review-Journal found almost no details in city records on the community’s features.
Texas-based Hughes Holdings briefly mentioned the enclave in an earnings report Wednesday, saying it started sales of custom lots in Summerlin’s “newest luxury gated community,” Astra.
It sold six lots totaling 3.8 acres for an average price of $6 million per acre, the company reported.
‘The most elite custom homesite’
Elle Gaensslen, director of sales at Hughes Holdings, said in a statement to the Review-Journal on Wednesday that Astra at La Madre Peaks, as she called it, “represents the most elite custom homesite neighborhood in Summerlin developed by Howard Hughes to date.”
She said the sales process is conducted “in phases with a select group of qualified buyers, ensuring a thoughtful and personalized sales experience for this unique opportunity.”
More information will follow on Summerlin’s website, she added.
In early 2023, the Las Vegas Planning Commission approved the developer’s plans for a single-family residential subdivision with 81 lots on roughly 78 acres west of the Summerlin Parkway-Beltway interchange. The area was labeled in city records as “custom lots.”
This past October, the Planning Commission approved the developer’s plans for custom addressing on 44 of those lots.
Land-use attorney Stephanie Gronauer, representing Hughes Holdings, told the commission that the homesites are “as far west as you can possibly go in Summerlin.”
She also said they would not be developed quickly.
The plots that sold a few months ago were among the 44, records show.
‘Unbelievable’ views
Las Vegas real estate agent Haley George, who has been tracking the project with sales data, maps and other information on her website, said she has been in contact with the developer and has some clients who are interested in buying homesites there.
But overall, the project has been very “hush hush,” she said on Tuesday.
Summerlin has other wealthy enclaves, including The Ridges and The Summit Club. Still, George said the views from the newest community are unlike anything else in the valley.
“It’s beyond anything we really have,” said George, of brokerage firm Douglas Elliman.
Michael Bondi, an agent with Urban Nest Realty/Real, also has tracked the project and flown his drone in the area multiple times to get aerial footage.
He, too, said he has talked with Hughes Holdings about the enclave, received calls from prospective buyers and noted that information on the project has been scarce.
Still, he said he has heard it will feature ample security and a massive clubhouse and amenity center.
“The views up there are just unbelievable,” he said.
Prices could ‘go crazy’
Summerlin, which spans 22,500 acres along the valley’s western rim, boasts 130,000 residents and some of the highest home prices in Southern Nevada.
Hughes Holdings sells land in Summerlin to homebuilders and has developed hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects, including the Downtown Summerlin open-air mall, in the heart of Las Vegas’ biggest master-planned community.
The company’s namesake, Howard Hughes, the famed aviator, business tycoon and recluse, acquired the land now known as Summerlin in the 1950s.
George, for one, figures land prices in its newest custom-home project will only shoot higher.
“I think it’s going to go crazy out there,” she said.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
