Community to be constructed

A new corporate face, but one with a few familiar faces on its staff, has jumped into the busy residential development field in North Las Vegas.

Standard Pacific Homes, based in Irvine, Calif., will open one new community this month and plans three more in the city.

If the company is new to the Las Vegas Valley, some of its players are not. Las Vegas division chief Gary Cavender, as one example, has worked in the home-building industry for a quarter of a century, with the past 17 years in Las Vegas.

"The combination of our local expertise with the power of Standard Pacific Homes gives us an ideal opportunity to bring unique new home communities to Southern Nevada," he said.

The first community is called Mountain Shadows, with 77 home sites, located near the intersection of Azure Drive and Commerce Street. Cavender said the gated community is planned as one in which residents won't be strangers to one another.

"Mountain Shadows will feel more like a neighborhood where residents will actually know their neighbors," he said.

"Smaller neighborhoods with a common-sense approach to design, we believe, is the key to creating a tight-knit community," said Donna Petty, community managers for the Mountain Shadows development.

Mountain Shadows will include, among other amenities, a park of just over 1 acre for the residents' enjoyment. "Our goal was to create a neighborhood like the ones we all remember growing up in," Petty said. "Playing with neighborhood kids is normally a part of those memories."

House plans range from 3,061 square feet to 3,459 square feet, with prices starting in the high $300,000 range.

Three more communities also are planned for the several hundred acres the company has purchased for development.

Desert Ridge will be built around Lone Mountain Road and North 5th Street, Morning Ridge is set to go up in the vicinity of Centennial Parkway and Donna Street, and The Villages will be erected at Tropical Parkway and Walnut Road.

Standard Pacific also plans to create a new community in Henderson, Skyline at Paradise Hills.

Prices in those four neighborhoods have not been set.

Even though the market for housing has slowed to some extent, said Alyssa Anderson, a public relations specialist representing Standard Pacific, the company felt the market is still worth tapping into.

"Las Vegas continues to be the most sustainable real estate market in the country," Cavender said.

He added that the company is working to keep up with the desires of home purchasers, including second-story laundry rooms, Internet pre-wiring in every room, instant hot water, two- and three-vehicle garages and Energy Star energy conservation ratings.

All of the men and women on the Las Vegas team have worked extensively in the valley home-building industry, Cavender said.

"Two of the most important things for a homebuilder are land and experience," he said. "With our executive team and Standard Pacific Home's buying power, we will be building in Las Vegas for years to come."

Standard Pacific has built homes for more than 83,000 families during its 40 years in business. Its operations include work in major metropolitan areas in California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida and the Carolinas.