LAS VEGAS, NV , 2.9.2010 For years many southern Nevadans had heard the concept of Lake Las Vegas. Originally it was a small valley below the wetlands in east Las Vegas along a stream in the Las Vegas wash feeding down into Lake Mead which sits between Arizona and Nevada. Lake Las Vegas is a master-planned community of high-end luxury homes, beautiful water and very challenging golf courses. Set to the southeast of Las Vegas proper, this resort community was planned to be Southern Nevada’s equivalent to similar exclusive communities in Southern California and Arizona. There was no lake at first in the Lake Las Vegas development until engineers and work crews crafted a pristine lake with large concrete tubes set deep along it’s bottom to carry flood waters from the Las Vegas wash under the lake and into Lake Mead without disturbing the purity of Lake Las Vegas. Only electric boats are allowed to cruise Lake Las Vegas so as to keep it clean and free of petroleum pollutants.
Overall View Ritz Carlton Complex at Lake Las Vegas
Today, one of the anchors of the Lake Las Vegas community, the Ritz Carlton Hotel, announced it was closing its’ doors on May 2nd, 2010. A grand and elegant hotel/resort/spa for out-of-towners and a great get-away for locals, the 348 room Ritz Carlton property has been an excellent spot for meetings, weddings, holiday parties and small business conferences. Now that it is being shuttered due to the economy there will be a dark edifice at the entry to the resort community. The closing for business is just another problem surfacing from the economically troubled Lake Las Vegas project over the past few years.
It has always has seemed that the daunting challenge to the Ritz Carlton was its’ location being a bit too far from the world famous Strip in Las Vegas. It is about a 30-minute ride from the southern end of the Strip and faces some of the toughest gaming and non-gaming hotel competition of any similar hotel property.
In very recent years with the downturn in the economy and withering values on all types of homes especially the higher end luxury homes within in the Lake Las Vegas community, business has been off. Also, there have been closing of a golf course due to costs to operate and lack of traffic. There have been rumblings of bankruptcy of various ownerships within the resort community of Lake Las Vegas. Although the community needed a retail center to provide for the residents around the lake, one never came about and it was a trek to get to town to the grocery store and other services.
This closing of the Ritz Carlton is another loss to the weak economy and the inability to hold that high-end market of wealthy second- or third- homeowners and vacationers.
Local residents hope for another flag to take over the property and re-brand a major upscale hotelier brand to keep the area vibrant and the staff employed. Meanwhile, Loews Hotel across the quiet lake is holding its own and will no doubt profit from the transfer of guests who still enjoy the tranquility of Lake Las Vegas resort living.
-Vic Donovan “ Vegas Commercial Broker.com ”
