‘Gigolos’ reality TV star finds home in Vegas condo — PHOTOS
The perfect place for a bon vivant, man about town? An urban loft, of course. At least that is what Brace, who only uses his first name, a featured performer on Showtime’s risqué “Gigolos” decided when he bought a condo off East Fremont Street last year.
The X-rated reality TV show follows the escapades of five Las Vegas men and their personal and professional experiences as escorts. There is plenty of sexy in the show, but their work is described as “companion services,” probably because prostitution is illegal in Clark County. Several media reports, including the Daily Beast say it is scripted, and that the women appearing on it are hired by the producers.
The show is taped in Las Vegas, and is now in its sixth season.
The TV personality purchased his two-bedroom, two-bath, 2,006-square-foot Urban Lofts Townhomes condo in April 2014 for $215,000. There are only a few condos for sale in the development, which is still under construction. Prices start at $239,500. Before that, Brace resided in the Loft 5 condos at South Las Vegas Boulevard and Pebble Road.
The first floor has one bedroom and bath and a concrete floor. The living room and kitchen make up the second floor, and the master suite is on the third.
It was new construction when he bought it. Like many do-it-yourselfers, Brace decided to forego the builder’s upgrades and accepted the carpeting that came with it, later replacing it with gray bamboo wood floors. The finishes and color choices are shimmery, sleek, and Asian-influenced.
He also replaced the light fixtures, and dumped the pony walls for a glass and a metal railing to let in more light and add an airy feel.
The third-floor master bedroom includes a 5-foot fountain with a black rock basin, and a small balcony overlooking the backyard. In the master bath, he replaced the counters with black granite and dual vessel sinks. There is also a small third-floor office with a view of the second-floor living room.
The kitchen includes an island and breakfast bar. It is separated from the living room by a faux-forest of dark wooden “tree branches.”
A small backyard is provided for each unit.
“It’s only 25-feet-by-15-(feet), but it was just a big square of dirt. If it rained, it was horrible,” Brace said, adding his dogs would track mud into the house. So he created a Zen-inspired space with tiered plantings including bamboo and succulents, a small patch of synthetic lawn, a Buddha statue and a gas fireplace.
The lofts’ exteriors are multicolored stucco with corrugated steel, and there are crisp awnings over the exterior doorways. Visitors (and we are all wondering about his visitors) enter through a short, narrow walkway. Each unit’s utility meters are mounted next to the garage doors.
Urban Lofts Townhomes has two Las Vegas properties, including the one on East Fremont Street and one other on 11th Street that is sold out.
Brace said it has been a nuisance having the construction going on all around his home for so long, with no end in sight. The only view from the windows is of neighboring yards or scaffolding. Approximately 40 units of 75 are finished, he said.
This is his fifth real estate project. He said he almost always turns a profit on the projects after fixing them up and reselling.
“I always try to get in at the beginning, and by the time it’s done I have made a considerable amount of money, usually.”
He has owned 30 rental homes and a beauty salon over the years.
Originally from Okemos, Mich., Brace was a General Motors employee from age 17, who took an early buyout and moved to Las Vegas four years ago.
He started attracting a clientele of women through a website he created “just to see what would happen and I had women from all over the world contacting me. It’s really not how it’s depicted on TV, it was really, they came to me as more of a dating site type of thing.”
He is a loyal supporter of GM and has two Cadillacs parked in the attached garage.
“I always will,” he said. “I come from a working class background … I believe in unions, and the Republicans don’t. They believe in slave labor.”
Veering off into talk of politics, Brace proclaimed: “If I had to vote today, I’d vote for Donald Trump.” He joked about running for mayor of Las Vegas. Hey, if a mob lawyer can run Sin City, why not a gigolo?