This district has the real-deal: industrial-style live-work spaces with a Dan Tanna-style entrance
You’d probably bet your life that today’s Las Vegas “loft” is an imported idea, that it’s derivative of the original urban term, re-coined by demo-driven developers to shift your notion of condo from boring suburban to hip urban. While the odds are in your favor, we found one example that will knock you dead.
At the very east end of Post Road, book-ending a generic industrial park and under McCarran’s incoming wings, sits one of the most original live-work spots in the Valley: the Southeast Loft District. Though not carved out of an old warehouse, the 26 brand-new units do live up to the name, with each two-story building flaunting its raw materials (concrete walls, wood and steel ceilings) and exposing its utilities (ducts, pipes, conduits). A living space hangs high above the ground-floor “warehouse:’ which includes an industrial-size garage door.
Sounds traditional, yet the lofts’ architectural inspiration was not Soho nor San Diego, nor from some marketing VP’s ink board. It was Las Vegas.
More specifically, Vega$.
Architect Michael Chait of the Los Angeles firm C2G seemed slightly sheepish about sharing the fact that his building references an old detective show from the late '70s. That these sparse, anti-pastel structures are desert appropriate may indeed be a more erudite discussion point, but who cares when you can drive right into your headquarters?
“I guess you could say our influences were the desert and Dan Tanna:” laughs Chait, who did not research any other projects in designing his very first lofts.
Dan Tanna didn’t actually have a loft but an old (and now long-gone) one-story cinder-block industrial building near Circus Circus. The coolest thing was that he could hit his garage door opener and park his red T- Bird right by the living room.
Not all of the Loft District occupants live Vega$ style-in fact, not all of them live in their lofts-but here, out of nowhere, it still seems to be developing into a with-it neighborhood. There’s an electrical systems guy, Todd Lilley, who parks his motorcycle on a fabulously stained concrete floor of the company’s workspace while his bachelor pad is upstairs. Nationally known African-American artist Annie Lee bought an entire building for her gallery and distribution warehouse, and while her backside garage doors are only for practical things like deliveries, she has thrown some pretty cool parties. And then there’s Ron Wild, who makes masks for Cirque du Soleil and Phantom in the studio that crowds his garage door, while the rest of his residence-in-progress motif is sort of Industrial Rec Room.
“Not everybody can afford both a home and office,” says real-estate agent Ellen Ross, who owns one of the units. “I think this is the way of the future.”
It was developer Bruce Familian’s idea. His primary holdings are shopping centers, gas stations and industrial parks, and his first residential project emerged from a restless vision: “I just wanted to build something totally outside the box.”
He sold all but one unit before the first wall was poured. “The concept has been received very well,” he says. “This is the only true live-work loft project in Las Vegas that I’ve seen.”
His buildings contain three to seven units, with square footage varying from 2,100 to 11,000. Each unit has 1.5 bathrooms, a covered porch, and a loft with master bedroom and balcony. Upgrade packages include a utility room, full kitchens and air conditioning for the entire unit.
While Familian’s had requests to develop similar lofts elsewhere, he swears the district is his first and last. “It was a very complicated project;’ he says. “It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle.”
Besides the construction orchestration, there are restrictions on how much space can be devoted to living (an architectural headache), plus energy requirements that differ for residential and industrial spaces, and details like extra roof insulation due to those overhead aircraft. Familian’s “labor of love” needed three years before birth.
The rising prices of construction and land are also deterrents. It’s nearly twice as expensive now as when the Southeast Loft District got under way.
But the architect wants to do it again. “I hope so;” Chait says. “Bruce has a nice formula there!”
