Summerlin starts work on first new residential village since ‘04 — PHOTOS

The hiatus is over.

Summerlin, Southern Nevada’s largest planned community at 22,500 acres, broke ground Wednesday on its first new residential village since 2004.

The Cliffs, named for the 600-foot-high ridgeline against the village’s western edge, will have 1,700 homes in 11 neighborhoods on 450 acres near Patrick Lane and Hualapai Way when it’s complete in about five years.

Kevin Orrock, president of Summerlin for developer The Howard Hughes Corp., said the groundbreaking “speaks volumes” about improvements in the Las Vegas economy. Local observers predicted it would take at least 10 years for the market to recover enough to grow following the recession’s depths in 2008 and 2009.

“But people forgot that we’re a land-constrained market, and once we got going again, things would begin to move quickly,” Orrock said.

The Cliffs will create 4,000 to 5,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs, Orrock said.

About a quarter of The Cliffs — 110 acres — will house Regency, an age-restricted neighborhood by luxury builder Toll Brothers. Regency will have 450 homes and a clubhouse. The builder will open models in the first quarter. It hasn’t set pricing for its nine single-story floor plans.

The Cliffs will also have a trail system tied into what’s set to become a regional outdoor recreation area.

Clark County Commissioner Susan Brager said the county owns 5,000 acres on and around the ridge west of The Cliffs. The county will turn several hundred acres along the ridge top into open space with walking and biking trails.

The property, formerly owned by the federal government, was part of a 2002 swap of land adjacent to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. To prevent housing development on the top of the cliffs, county officials agreed to take it over.

It won’t be another decade before Summerlin breaks ground on its next village.

A 2016 launch is planned for an unnamed, 300-acre village west of The Paseos, north of Charleston Boulevard and west of Desert Foothills Drive.

Also, The Howard Hughes Corp. and development partner Discovery Land Co. of Arizona are grading lots and a Tom Fazio-designed golf course — Fazio’s first Las Vegas course that isn’t being built for Steve Wynn — at their high-end project south of The Ridges. The project will have 250 homes on 555 acres.

Work is also underway at The Constellation, an apartment community in Downtown Summerlin. The Howard Hughes Corp. and The Calida Group of Las Vegas are building the 124-unit community on 4.5 acres at Griffith Peak and Town Center drives.

Orrock said The Howard Hughes Corp. is negotiating to add other projects to the 400-acre Downtown Summerlin, which is already home to Red Rock Resort; a 1.6 million-square-foot shopping, dining and entertainment district; and a nine-story, 200,000-square-foot, Class A office tower.

Summerlin has about 5,400 acres of land left, with a buildout of more than 20 years. It will have nearly 100,000 homes when complete.

Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Find @J_Robison1 on Twitter.