California entrepreneur lists Blue Heron home for $3.77M

Craig Moe’s story is like many other California entrepreneurs these days who now make Southern Nevada home.

Moe, 63, was the owner of collision repair shop in Silicon Valley for 20 years, when in 2013 he plotted his next move. Tired of high taxes and the high cost of real estate, Moe looked to Las Vegas to move onto the next phase of his life — real estate investing.

In late 2013, Moe bought a home built by Blue Heron on 6671 Tomiyasu Lane, southeast of McCarran International Airport. Built in 2011, it was part of the luxury custom-home development known as Marquis that featured four homes, each in three different gated cul-de-sacs.

Moe said he loved the home for its proximity to the airport with a 10-minute ride. That allowed him to travel back and forth between Las Vegas and the Bay Area until he sold his business in the third quarter of 2014. Moe sees Las Vegas as a base to buy commercial and residential properties out of state to renovate and either lease or sell.

“Real estate has always been my hobby, Moe said. “The collision repair business served for the “milk cow for that. Since I sold the company, that has created a lot more cash to invest, and I have been doing my own real estate investing to keep me busy. When you go from 360 employees to zero employees in one day, you don’t know what to do with yourself. I’m a project-oriented person, and that’s the reason for jumping in with both feet.”

After four years at his home on Tomiyasu Lane, Moe has put it on the market for $3.775 million.

He’s not leaving Las Vegas, but loves diving into new projects and wants to build a hillside home in Ascaya in Henderson where he has reserved a lot.

“I need to have a project, and right now I’m running out of projects,” Moe said. “I want to build my next property.”

The home on Tomiyasu is one Moe said he fell in love with at first sight. He had sent a list to a Realtor asking for 12 homes he wanted to see based on what he saw on the internet, and she responded with four other homes that should be on his itinerary.

“It was two days, and I looked at 16 homes, and the first house I looked at happened to be the one I bought,” Moe said. “It was one of those things where after seeing the Tomiyasu home, everything else they showed me lacked something it had.”

Moe’s Realtor, Ivan Sher of Shapiro &Sher Group, calls it a contemporary custom-built luxury home with an Asian flair. An Asian-themed atrium is off the living room and features rice paper window treatments.

“This is one of the nicest Blue Heron homes I have ever seen,” Sher said. “They incorporated a Zen Asian feel with a one-piece wood carvings inserted in the wall. It’s really an infusion between Asian and modern, and it’s very cool.”

The home is two stories and measures nearly 9,000 square feet with four bedrooms, eight baths, a theater room and executive office. Behind the pool area is a casita that is connected the downstairs master suite by a pathway. Moe uses it as a gym. The home also has an elevator but lives as a one-story because only secondary bedrooms and a second master suite are on the second floor.

“Everything I need is downstairs,” Moe said. “There’s the master bedroom, gym, office, theater, bar and kitchen. I never go upstairs unless I have a guest and show them where everything is.”

The whole concept behind the Blue Heron home, however, is bringing the outdoors inside with its two-story ceiling and pocket doors that open with the push of a button, Sher said. That showcases a vanishing-edge pool and 10-foot waterfall that leads into a lighted river with reflection ponds.

The pool area has a cabana and massage area, outdoor shower, fire pit, fireplace and barbecue area.

There’s a private entrance to Sunset Park to the west.

“One of the things I liked was the privacy of the backyard,” Moe said. “We are against Sunset Park with a trail that’s lit up at night. It’s nice. You don’t have neighbors staring at your yard.”

Because of its location, Sher said the home suits someone who uses the Strip a lot or who travels either through commercial jets or private planes.

“It’s right in the heart of everything going on in Las Vegas,” he said.

“I would say it’s for somebody who wants their privacy and wants to entertain and wants to be able to get out of town quickly when they need to travel,” Moe added. “I can imagine a celebrity or athlete buying it.”

Moe said he’ll probably rent for a couple of years until he finishes his next house that he expects to measure 11,000 or 12,000 square feet. He said he’s done some preliminary architectural work but is not in a rush.

“I’m going to be slow playing it,” Moe said. “I would like to get one of my houses sold before I buy another one.”

Moe said he’s been impressed with his Blue Heron home and the level of details in them from the builder and previous owner.

The master bedroom features radiant heated travertine floors, his-and-her vanity towers, a hidden glass pantry, large shower with rain fixture, and an electric heated shaving mirror.

Moe said his next home will be built with more steel and bigger spans and open floor plans.

”I can envision what I’m building,” Moe said.