3 Henderson office buildings bought for $34M by JMA Ventures

A San Francisco real estate firm has bought another cluster of office buildings in Henderson.

JMA Ventures acquired three buildings near Green Valley Ranch Resort from developer American Nevada Co. The properties span about 163,000 square feet combined.

The $34 million purchase, announced by listing brokerage Cushman &Wakefield, closed Nov. 5, property records indicate.

The deal is another sell-off by American Nevada, which has unloaded more than 1 million square feet of commercial real estate in the past few years, and comes as the valley’s once-battered office market continues its slow recovery from the recession.

Amid job gains, office vacancy rates have shrunk in Las Vegas, and investors like JMA have been picking up buildings.

Todd Chapman, JMA’s president and CEO, said his newly acquired properties – at 2475, 2485 and 2495 Village View Drive – are collectively about 65 percent leased and “complement” the buildings he already bought nearby. He said that JMA now owns nine or 10 office buildings in Henderson and that all were acquired from American Nevada.

Chapman said his group has also looked at “a number of hospitality assets” in Las Vegas as well as apartments. He figures that Nevada’s population will keep growing amid the high cost of living in neighboring California and that a rising tally of big companies will set up shop in Las Vegas as the local economy tries not to rely so heavily on gambling.

Launched in the 1970s by the late Las Vegas Sun publisher Hank Greenspun and his late wife, Barbara, American Nevada is perhaps best-known for developing the Green Valley master-planned community.

American Nevada President Phil Ralston confirmed that, as Cushman &Wakefield said, his company had sold 1.26 million square feet of real estate in the valley for around $234 million over the past few years.

He said that American Nevada “saw an opportunity to start diversifying assets” and that the market uptick has let the firm invest in other types of properties and metro areas, adding that his group is eyeing deals in Southern California and Arizona.

Cushman broker Brad Tecca said Las Vegas’ tenant base, dominated by real estate firms before the mid-2000s bubble burst, is “more diverse than it’s ever been.”

He indicated that the market bodes well for landlords because even as demand for space increases, office construction remains relatively slow, limiting the amount of new competition.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.