Canadian developer chooses Las Vegas for his first US project

Canadian real estate developer Ryan Beedie has visited Las Vegas so often, he said it’s like a second home.

Beedie has been here probably 160 to 200 times, he estimated the other day. He comes to America’s casino capital for the Super Bowl, he had his 50th birthday here, and he was here for 40 nights in 2019 alone.

“I’ve already been there three times this year,” he said.

He also picked Las Vegas for his first U.S. project.

Beedie, who boasts a big portfolio of industrial buildings and condo towers up north, held a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday for a two-building warehouse complex in the southwest valley.

The 261,751-square-foot project, Pioneer Business Center, is slated to be finished by year’s end.

His venture is the latest in an ever-growing tally of new industrial projects in Southern Nevada, where developers have been on a yearslong, warehouse-construction spree that has only ramped up during the pandemic.

His project is different from most, though, as Beedie plans to sell units to individual buyers.

By comparison, warehouse developers in the valley routinely lease their projects to individual tenants and then often sell the buildings to new landlords.

Beedie, whose project will feature 26 units, said it’s probably easier for a developer to sell to one buyer than to several of them. But he said that rental rates are climbing and that his group has already lined up buyers for six units.

“We think we’ve found a little bit of a niche in the market,” he said.

CBRE Group’s Sean Zaher, a listing broker for Beedie’s complex, said there have been other industrial “condo” projects locally in the past several years, but they aren’t nearly as common as warehouse rental developments.

Plus, he said, the for-sale ventures mostly target users that want 50,000 square feet or more, while Beedie’s project will offer smaller spaces.

According to a marketing brochure, the units in Pioneer Business Center, just north of Sunset Road between Tenaya Way and Buffalo Drive, will range from 7,791 to 13,186 square feet.

Beedie, president of the British Columbia-based firm known simply as Beedie, runs a company founded in the 1950s by his father, Keith.

The firm has built more than 30 million square feet of industrial space in western Canada, including distribution centers and dairy plants, and is one of the largest property managers in B.C. with 12 million-plus square feet in its portfolio, according to publicity materials.

His homebuilding division, Beedie Living, is one of the province’s fastest-growing residential developers, with thousands of units built or planned, the materials said.

As he explained in a phone interview, Beedie feels a strong connection to Las Vegas. He has a lot of friends here and loves the climate, the concerts and the restaurants. He stays at Wynn Las Vegas, adding he gets treated well and likes to be in “familiar surroundings.”

Moreover, he said, his favorite hockey team is the Golden Knights, pointing to the team’s arena and the games’ high production value.

Beedie had been looking to build here for years. Property records show he acquired the southwest project site in 2017, and he indicated he is buying more land in the valley.

All told, developing here is a “natural fit,” Beedie said.

“It truly is like my second home,” he said.

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