‘A different animal’: Four Seasons high-rise complex in Henderson tops $960M in sales, despite market slowdown

Some two decades ago, Las Vegas was in the throes of a high-rise craze that quickly flamed out.

Today, there aren’t nearly as many residential towers in the works, and sales of high-rise condos in Las Vegas have been tumbling for years. But a super-luxury project being built in the mountains is cashing in.

Buyers have signed sales contracts for 148 of the 171 units in the under-construction Four Seasons Private Residences Las Vegas, a two-tower complex in Henderson, said Craig Eddins, executive vice president of the project.

Overall, the sales total now amounts to $963 million, said Eddins, who oversees sales and marketing for the development.

Southern Nevada is a heavily suburban housing market blanketed with cookie-cutter subdivisions, and while there aren’t many residential towers, most are in or near Las Vegas’ famed casino corridor and the downtown area.

However, local real estate pros said the Four Seasons is a different animal: the condos are big, the prices are high, and the project is far outside the resort corridor, with stunning views of the Las Vegas Valley.

The smallest condos in Four Seasons are more than 2,000 square feet, prices now start above $5 million, and the monthly homeowners’ association dues alone are in the thousands.

Las Vegas luxury real estate broker Mahsheed Parsons said billionaires are buying homes in the towering new complex.

“Their pricing is completely different than any other high-rise in Vegas,” she said.

Building in the mountains

The Four Seasons complex features 24- and 25-story residential towers in the wealthy, guard-gated MacDonald Highlands enclave at Stephanie Street south of Horizon Ridge Parkway.

It will be packed with amenities, including pools with private cabanas, pickleball courts, spa treatment rooms, a golf simulator, and a restaurant from celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.

A trio of firms — Azure Resorts & Hotels, Luxus Developments and Two Roads Development — teamed up to develop the roughly $1 billion project in the McCullough Range, and Boston contracting giant Suffolk Construction Co. is building it.

The developers unveiled plans for the Four Seasons-branded complex in spring 2023, and according to a news release late last year, they landed $781 million in construction financing for the project.

They expect to complete the towers in fall 2027.

Of course, building high-rises in the mountains is a bit different than building them on flat land.

Pete Tuffo, president of Suffolk’s Florida Gulf Coast region, national gaming and Las Vegas operations, previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that work crews blasted the mountainside, hauled off rock and carried out other steps to prepare the site.

As he described it, crews worked on the site for 18 months before the towers started going vertical.

Plus, due to the topography, one tower is six stories below the other, said Eddins, the sales team lead.

Priced past $35M

Overall, the units span from 2,300 to 8,400 square feet, with up to 3,500 square feet of additional exterior space, according to the developers.

Eddins said home prices span from $5.2 million to $35.7 million, and he confirmed the developers have raised their prices since sales began in spring 2023, saying prices started in the high $2 million range at the time.

With the project, buyers put down an initial 15 percent deposit when they sign a sales contract, followed by a few additional payments over the next year, putting their total deposit at 35 percent of the purchase price, Eddins said.

To close the sale, the buyers will furnish the remaining funds when the project is completed, he added.

Eddins said the buyers have been a mix of existing Southern Nevada residents and out-of-towners, with more than two dozen units alone, comprising more than $200 million in sales, picked up by buyers from Washington state, primarily in the Seattle area.

He cited recent “tax implications” in the state of Washington, where a new 9.9 percent income tax on households earning more than $1 million per year is set to take effect in 2028.

‘We sell convenience’

Southern Nevada has no shortage of stand-alone mansions that are bigger than the Four Seasons condos. But as Eddins described it, his team is selling to wealthy homeowners who want a lock-and-leave lifestyle with ample amenities on-site.

“We sell convenience,” he said.

He said the complex will have 56 full-time employees who can provide valet parking and numerous other services, from hiring a private chef to come in or arranging work crews to help take care of the homeowners’ condos.

Still, someone has to pay for the staff and amenities, and the homeowners’ association dues at Four Seasons will have hefty price tags.

According to Eddins, the monthly HOA dues are $1.15 per square foot of interior space — which amounts to more than $2,600 in monthly dues for the smallest condos and around $9,700 per month for the largest.

Las Vegas luxury real estate broker Michelle Manley said she has had clients who picked up units in the Four Seasons and weren’t put off by the HOA dues.

The fees are high, but her clients can clearly foot the bill, she said.

MacDonald Highlands developer Rich MacDonald told the Review-Journal that he’s one of the buyers in Four Seasons and that a “huge number” of other residents in the community also bought a condo in the new project.

He said in general there are some people who collect these kinds of luxury condos like they collect cars, and while he doesn’t believe there are many such buyers at the Four Seasons, they do exist.

“There’s some of that,” he said.

‘It’s a different animal, and it’s a different buyer’

Las Vegas luxury agent Randy Char said the Four Seasons brand carries a lot of weight, and because the rich are only getting wealthier, they are loading up on homes.

He said it’s not uncommon for wealthy people who own a place in Las Vegas — a tourism-dependent region heavy on lower-earning service-sector jobs — to also have a mountain home, a beach house and other properties, and brands such as Four Seasons are cashing in on these buyers.

According to multiple Las Vegas real estate pros who handle high-rise deals, the mountainside complex in Henderson comprises a different market altogether when compared to the existing residential towers in town.

“It’s a different animal, and it’s a different buyer,” said Savi Realty owner Steven Khalilzadegan.

In America’s casino capital, homebuyers typically want a single-family house, and the buyer pool for Las Vegas’ residential towers has long been dominated by a few groups: investors who rent the units out, and wealthy buyers who use the condos as a vacation home or part-time residence.

And overall, Las Vegas’ high-rise market has been slumping.

Locally, buyers picked up almost 600 high-rise condo units last year, down from 1,315 in 2021, according to trade association Las Vegas Realtors.

A few brokers said the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas, a luxury tower on the Strip with a mix of hotel and condo units, still lands strong sales numbers. But overall, sources pointed to multiple reasons for the broader slowdown.

‘People want new’

Char, an agent with Las Vegas Sotheby’s International Realty, said there is less investor appetite for these condos because HOA dues, building maintenance and other costs keep rising, and landlords can’t fetch higher rents to keep pace with expenses.

He also noted that Las Vegas hasn’t seen a new residential tower open in more than 15 years, since Veer Towers debuted on the Strip in 2010, which means the existing high-rise stock hasn’t changed for a while now.

“They’re aging, and people want new,” Char said.

Parsons, owner of Mahsheed Real Estate, noted there are always people looking to buy and sell homes in Las Vegas. But she said that higher mortgage rates, which have pushed up buyers’ borrowing costs and slowed home sales locally and nationally, have dampened sales of high-rise units.

She also said that Las Vegas’ inventory of available high-rise units has climbed, as with single-family houses; that many of the towers are now outdated; and that owners’ expenses are rising.

“It’s not really the best investment for a lot of people,” Parsons said.

Jay Lean, of Platinum Real Estate Professionals, said the influx of new upscale apartment buildings in Southern Nevada has heightened the competition for tenants, making it harder for high-rise landlords to rent out their condos.

He also said that Las Vegas’ residential towers are having maintenance issues, and that condo owners’ insurance, HOA dues and other expenses are all going up.

Overall, he summed up the high-rise market as “a great time to get a great deal.”

High-rise mania

Southern Nevada was in the throes of high-rise mania during the easy-money-fueled real estate boom of the mid-2000s. There were so many towering projects in the works, from the Strip to the suburbs, that people called it the “Manhattanization” of Las Vegas.

But ultimately, the real estate bubble burst, the broader economy imploded, and most proposed high-rises in Las Vegas never materialized, with a few developers leaving giant holes in the ground for years.

Since the market crashed, residential high-rise construction was absent from Southern Nevada until recently, with real estate sources saying over the years that developers couldn’t land high-enough rents or sales prices to cover the costs of these expensive projects.

Besides the Four Seasons complex, just one other residential tower has been built in the valley in recent years: the 22-story Capella rental project in Las Vegas’ Symphony Park.

Developer Southern Land Co. expects tenants to start moving to the 272-unit luxury tower next year, according to Britt Stafford, spokeswoman for the Nashville-based real estate firm.

Char, of Sotheby’s, doesn’t think another “Manhattanization” fervor will sweep through Southern Nevada again. Be he figures developers will build more high-rises in Las Vegas, saying they will most likely cater to wealthy buyers.

MacDonald, of MacDonald Highlands, contends Southern Nevada needs more residential towers, noting developers have been building “out and out and out” for decades in the sprawling region.

“We don’t have the ability to keep doing that forever,” he said.

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

CELLO TOWER

Southern Nevada has seen only a few new residential high-rises take shape since the housing market crashed more than 15 years ago.

One is in Las Vegas' Symphony Park — and one that hasn't started yet is also penciled for this redeveloped former railyard.

Las Vegas developer Patrick Brennan has drawn up plans for a 32-story luxury condo building called Cello Tower, with prices starting in the upper $800,000 range.

The City Council approved his proposal in fall 2023, and he held a ceremonial groundbreaking in spring 2025.

However, as seen recently, he still hasn't started building the project on the 5.9-acre plot along Grand Central Parkway near the Spaghetti Bowl, and property records show he hasn't yet closed his purchase of the city-controlled site.

Brennan, founder of Red Ridge Development, previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he expected to close the purchase, and start construction, this past spring.

Las Vegas officials have granted extensions on the land sale and expect to close the deal early next year, said city spokesman Jace Radke.

A spokesman for the developer recently told the Review-Journal that Brennan aims to close the sale "imminently" and that Cello has more than $175 million in residences under contract with buyers.

He also said the development's retail component is roughly 90 percent preleased, including a grocer and an office tenant.