Southern Land, Cedar Street, Bridge go big in Las Vegas

Multifamily developers have discovered the Las Vegas Arts District, which went from housing used clothing and furniture stores to a hip hot spot for restaurants and shops.

Nashville-based Southern Land is building a 337-unit apartment complex at 1200 South 3rd Street, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

At the same time, Chicago-based Cedar Street Companies and Salt Lake City-based Bridge Investment Group are constructing a 311-unit apartment complex at 123 West Imperial Avenue.

A dozen years ago, the Arts District was dead, with a smattering of furniture stores, second-hand clothing shops and vacant storefronts, empty lots and little foot traffic.

“It just seemed like a completely dormant neighborhood,” Josh Molina, who opened a Makers & Finders restaurant and coffee bar in 2014, told the newspaper. Even “desolate.”

Then came a flood of new restaurants, coffee shops and stores, filling the streets with people. With increased popularity, landlords also have boosted rents.

Southern Land’s project site used to be mostly vacant land, with a shuttered commercial building that had broken windows, graffiti and homeless sleepers.

The company is now building three seven-story buildings there with a two-story fitness center, a rooftop deck and 8,600 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants. The firm expects to open early next year, according to Southern Land development manager Alex Woodin.

Woodin said his firm began looking at the Arts District four years ago, noting its walkability.

“It felt good, it felt right,” he told the Review-Journal.

Cedar Street Companies and Bridge Investment Group have also broken ground, and have said they expect to open by next summer. The seven-story complex will include a large fitness center, a resort-style spa, including saunas, and ground-floor shops and restaurants.

Southern Land, founded in 1986 by Tim Downey, has built apartments and homes from New York to Nevada, according to its website.

Cedar Street Companies, founded in 2009 by Alex Samoylovich, Will Murphy and Mark Heffron, has $4 billion in assets under management, including 7,500 apartments across numerous markets, including Chicago, San Diego, Portland, Minneapolis and Cleveland, according to a release.

Bridge Investment Group, an alternative investment firm founded in 2009, had $49.4 billion of assets under management as of September 2023. The firm went public in 2021.

— Dana Bartholomew