Construction begins on Vegas Trade Village in North Las Vegas

A $100 million live-work space for Asian manufacturers is envisioned for an industrial area of North Las Vegas, but the developers of Vegas Trade Village are starting out small.

Huanghai Development and city officials will hold a ground-breaking ceremony Wednesday for the project’s first phase, which calls for building a 4,800-square-foot bank and a convenience store equipped with a car wash and fast-food eatery at the northeast corner of Cheyenne Avenue and Commerce Street.

Over the next several years, the seven-phase project is expected to grow into an international trade center spanning 35 acres with a 20,000-square-foot convention center, an apartment building with 264 units, four restaurants and a 12-room hotel.

The project, developers said, is aimed at providing a one-stop hub where overseas manufacturers can live, eat and sell their wares to companies across the Las Vegas Valley.

“I think the strength of the world economy is driving this,” project manager Dwaine Anderson said. “It’s the type of place that’s open to the world we live in, so there’s really no limit to what we’ll be selling.”

Huanghai first presented its plans for Vegas Trade Village in 2015, largely basing the concept on the company’s 75-acre Imperial Valley Trade Center in California. The North Las Vegas City Council approved the development a short time later, when it was previously known as the Huanghai Project.

In March, the City Council approved several small adjustments that allowed developers to move ahead.

Anderson said it could take up to seven years before the North Las Vegas project is completed, but Councilwoman Pamela Goynes-Brown said she thinks it might take longer.

“When the project was first presented to me, I liked it from the outset because the concept is so different, so I’m overjoyed to see it start,” said Goynes-Brown, whose Ward 2 includes Vegas Trade Village.

“It’s definitely a project that lets us think outside of the box that will benefit everybody, not just the Asian market,” Goynes-Brown said. “Unless we take risks like this, we won’t know if we can be successful or not.”

Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Find @AMarroquin_LV on Twitter.