Developer plans $113M housing project near M Resort

A local developer has acquired a plot of federal land near the M Resort for a pittance, with plans to build a big affordable-housing complex.

Ovation Development purchased around 18.6 acres of Bureau of Land Management property in Henderson for just $100 per acre — or about $1,860 total — in a deal that involved the city, officials said Thursday.

Property records show the developer took ownership of the site, near the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Larson Lane, last month.

Ovation, one of the biggest apartment developers in Southern Nevada, plans to build a 390-unit complex for low-income tenants.

All told, the developer aims to break ground on the roughly $113 million project in three to six months, according to Ovation Chief Operating Officer Jess Molasky, who said the complex will include a pool, fitness center, and food pantry.

Henderson officials, the BLM and Ovation held a news conference at the site Thursday to announce the completion of the land transfer and discuss the project.

With the bulk of its population in the Las Vegas area — a tourism-dependent region heavy on lower-earning service-sector jobs — Nevada has long needed a bigger supply of affordable housing.

Early last year, the Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities reported that Nevada was grappling with a “severe housing affordability crisis,” as nearly half of the state’s renters were “excessively cost-burdened,” and income growth had “lagged far behind housing costs.”

Henderson Mayor Michelle Romero said Thursday that one of the biggest obstacles to developing “attainable” housing is land acquisition, and that in the deal with Ovation, the spread was sold “at a nominal cost.”

The land had an appraised market value of $13.65 million, according to M. Ryan Chatterton, acting district manager of the BLM’s Southern Nevada district office.

Romero also said that the Nevada Housing Division and Clark County’s Community Housing Fund would help finance construction of the project.

Affordable-housing developers typically obtain government subsidies to help finance their projects, allowing them to rent units at lower prices that otherwise wouldn’t cover their costs to develop and operate the properties.

Molasky said the units in the new project are for residents who earn no more than 60 percent of the area median income and that utilities are included in the rent.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Eli Segall at [email protected] or 702-383-0342.