Developers address challenges of valley’s development

BY BUCK WARGO LAS VEGAS BUSINESS PRESS
April 22, 2025 – 9:55 am

The Southern Nevada Chapter of NAIOP hosted its April breakfast meeting on future development in the Las Vegas valley that portrayed challenges ahead for the marketplace.

Entitled “Building Up or Sprawling Out: The Southern Nevada Growth Debate,” the April 10 meeting of the development organization at The Orleans included Frank Maretti, founder of G2 Capital Development; Guy Martin, president of Martin Harris Construction; and John Restrepo, principal of RCG Economics. Steve Neiger, principal of CAST, moderated the discussion that examined the region’s potential shift from horizontal expansion to high-density infill development.

“Nevada is a unique state and Southern Nevada is even more unique in terms of federal ownership,” Restrepo said. “The idea that we have lots of land to develop is not true compared to other states. Some 89 percent to 90 percent of Clark County is controlled by the federal government and various federal agencies. We’re limited in our land resources, and we’ve known it. We’ve just not done enough to move things along in terms of getting more land released, which is now accelerating.”

As for density, the population per square mile in Las Vegas when compared to 36 cities in the Western U.S, the region ranks No. 13 with about 4,000 people per square mile. San Francisco is the highest at 19,000 per square mile while Scottsdale in Arizona is the lowest of those surveyed at 1,400 per square mile…