Thursday, April 13, 2006

Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming Corp. has bought a four-story, 110,000-square-foot office building at Rainbow Sunset Pavilion, a 25-acre retail and office park on Rainbow Boulevard, one-half mile north of the Las Vegas Beltway. The price of the building was not disclosed. However, a recent report from Marcus & Millichap showed office space selling at more than $200 a square foot, which would put the price of the building at $22 million.

"You're in the neighborhood," said Chuck Coleman, president of Plise Cos. development group.

Plise has started construction on a twin to the Boyd building and three-level parking garage at Rainbow Sunset Pavilion, master-planned for 450,000 square feet of office space and nearly 100,000 square feet of retail. An eight-story, Class A office building is planned between the four-story buildings with completion scheduled by the end of 2007.

Gross lease rates at Rainbow Sunset Pavilion are $2.85 a square foot, a fair price compared with some of the office product in the southwest submarket that's going for $3 a foot, said Dean Kaufman, a Colliers International office broker.

"This is an incredible environment here for legal, gaming, financial institutions," he said. "It's got great amenities, retail and dining tenants, and you can walk to those amenities. You've got a Starbucks out front, Chinese food, Italian food, banking on site."

Blake Cumbers, Boyd's vice president of development, said the sale has closed and about 300 employees from Boyd's corporate office on Industrial Road behind the Stardust and other offices will move into the building soon.

"We were looking for a new building because we're growing so rapidly. We started with the El Dorado in Henderson and we still own it," Cumbers said. "We've leased 60,000 square feet elsewhere for the development of Echelon Place."

In addition to Rainbow Sunset Pavilion, Plise is developing Centennial Corporate Center in the northwest valley and the 135-acre Sage Mountain mixed-use project west of Henderson Executive Airport. It will have more than 1 million square feet of office space, 500,000 square feet of retail and 2,500 residential units in a live-work environment, Coleman said.

Infrastructure work at the site will probably start in about five months.