Work crews have demolished a run-down Las Vegas condo complex as a builder pushes ahead with plans for a new housing tract.
The sprawling former Paradise Spa complex, which had a history of fires and squatters, has been reduced to piles of rubble.
Located several miles south of the Strip, the site is expected to be cleared by September, and builder Taylor Morrison Home Corp. plans to start construction of model homes next February, according to Kent Lay, Las Vegas division president for the company.
Last year, Clark County commissioners approved plans by Arizona-based Taylor Morrison to build 275 homes on the 28-acre site at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Serene Avenue.
The new community will be called Paradise Encore, and home sales are expected to start in the first or second quarter of next year, the builder said this week.
Project plans have called for a mix of townhomes and freestanding houses, as well as trails, a pickleball court, interactive art, and picnic areas, according to county staff reports.
Health club and mineral baths
Paradise Spa was once a scenic property but had been blighted for years, and its redevelopment would bring a wave of new homes to a site with a turbulent past.
Located at 9457 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Paradise Spa was built in the 1960s. According to court records, it had 384 units spread across two dozen buildings.
In 1969, classified ads in the Las Vegas Review-Journal touted Paradise Spa’s health club and mineral baths, along with its tennis courts, exercise classes and infrared ultra-violet treatments.
However, the complex eventually became rife with problems.
According to a court filing in 2020, seven buildings at Paradise Spa, comprising nearly 30 percent of all units, had burned in fires.
Plus, three other buildings had suffered “catastrophic plumbing collapses,” according to the lawsuit by Paradise Spa’s then-largest owner, who sought a sale of the property.
The owner claimed in a court filing in 2021 that the complex was “contaminated with asbestos”; the entire electrical system needed to be replaced; roofing and HVAC units were failing when not “missing altogether”; many units had been ransacked; and the property became “infested by rats” because of work on nearby sewers.
Also, squatters had occupied several uninhabitable buildings and caused fires, including by trying to hotwire units for electricity, the landlord alleged.
More fires
The blazes didn’t stop. Last year, a separate lawsuit claimed the property had seven more fires between September 2024 and March 2025.
In two fires in November 2024 alone, the Review-Journal reported that one person was dead after each blaze.
In January 2025, after yet another fire at Paradise Spa, the American Red Cross of Southern Nevada said it helped 29 people displaced by that blaze.
Meanwhile, Taylor Morrison landed court approval as the highest, qualified bidder to purchase Paradise Spa.
It then obtained court approval to assign the purchase agreement to New York investment firm Kennedy Lewis, saying the firm would function as its land-bank investor.
In general, such investors acquire land for homebuilders and then sell them plots when they’re ready for construction.
Kennedy Lewis closed the $30 million purchase of the site last September.
A spokesperson for Taylor Morrison previously said that the company will acquire lots from Kennedy Lewis as it prepares to build houses on them.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
