An affordable residential complex is to be built next to Mayan cinemas amid a severe shortage of units for low-income Nevadans.
Dallas-based Rise Residential and southern Nevada real estate company Camino Verde Group have teamed up to develop Cine Apartments, a 270-unit rental complex on North Las Vegas Boulevard and Hamilton Street, near North Las Vegas City Hall and the Silver Nugget Casino.
Developers plan to start building the $ 64 million project in January and open the first units in mid-2023, according to Dallas consultant Bill Fisher, who arranges the project financing and owns his Rise family.
Fisher said 80 percent of the units will be available to renters earning 60 percent or less of the median family income in the area, and the remaining 20 percent of the units will be rented at market prices.
The housing market in southern Nevada accelerated over the past year with record sales prices and skyrocketing rents. There’s no telling what the market will be like when Cine opens, but the need for lower-priced housing isn’t new and probably won’t be resolved quickly.
With the majority of its population in the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada has an estimated shortage of 84,320 affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renters, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
North Las Vegas councilor Isaac Barron, who owns the project site, said there is an “acute shortage” of affordable housing in the area, adding that cines are making a “small” but “important dent” in it would.
According to Fisher, founder of Sonoma Housing Advisors, a one-bedroom apartment in the Cine is expected to cost just $ 730 a month in monthly rent.
By comparison, the typical rental price for a Las Vegas home was $ 1,718 in August, nearly 25 percent more than last year, listing site Zillow reported. Las Vegas annual rental growth was the fastest of the report’s 50 metropolitan areas.
Mike Ballard, co-founder of the Camino Verde Group, noted that North Las Vegas has seen a surge in industrial development and that Cine could accommodate people who work in these facilities.
“This is for entry-level warehouse workers, middle-tier warehouse workers,” he said.
Cine would occupy part of the 32-acre site that Moctesuma Esparza, founder of the Maya Cinemas chain, acquired in 2017, plans show.
Esparza, a film producer whose credits include “Gettysburg” and “Selena”, sold more than 10 acres of its property to a school in 2018, property records show, and opened the 14-screen theater in 2019.
He confirmed to the Review Journal this week that he also has a contract to sell approximately 7 acres for Cine.
There is “huge demand” for housing, Esparza said, adding that he has another 8.5 acres around the theater devoted to grocery and beverage and “fun” retail stores.
North Las Vegas spokesman Patrick Walker said that the overall plan for the Maya location will include the recently completed Civica Career and Collegiate Academy charter school, that the next phase will include Cine Apartments, and that future phases will include commercial development including retail.
When asked if there were more projects in the pipeline, Walker said talks were “ongoing with several interested parties.”
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.
