Construction debris litters the area around unfinished midrise condominium buildings at Uptown on Centennial Parkway in North Las Vegas. Chris Adams bought his unit in 2007 while the project was still being built and before the developer let it fall into foreclosure. Adams says all work on the project has stopped.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 | 2 a.m.
The North Las Vegas area where Upfront sits unfinished is zoned for multifamily housing. Adams says he wants to be bought out if a new developer changes the condo units to apartments.
One of eight Uptown residents, Chris Adams says amenities such as a pool and a clubhouse with a fitness center have never opened.
Vandals have broken windows at the condo complex. The pool was never filled with water, and the clubhouse sits locked and unused. Another company, Blue Marble Development, based in California, wants to turn the units into apartments.
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Beyond the Sun
Chris Adams was excited to be one of the first occupants of a midrise condominium complex along Centennial Parkway in North Las Vegas. It made the perfect bachelor pad, with its modern architecture, apple red exterior and view of the mountains.
Eighteen months later, he’s getting pretty tired of still being one of the first occupants of the place.
In the three-building complex, totaling 75 units, Adams has only seven neighbors.
The other units sit vacant in varying degrees of completion. His building and another are almost finished but a third is nowhere close. Work on three other planned buildings never began.
It’s spooky at night, the darkness of the desert enclosing on the nearly empty buildings. There’s little noise or movement.
The pool is empty and the clubhouse remains locked, keeping a fitness center and a community room off limits. In front of the complex, the address appears to have been hastily spray-painted on a slab of rock. Above it, a billboard depicts a good-looking couple embracing, enjoying carefree living.
“I can tell you that they don’t live here,” Adams says, because he really does know everyone in the neighborhood.
Adams, 50, spent his life working for this lifestyle. He left the grind of TV news reporting in Houston and moved to Las Vegas to create documentary films. In January 2007, he plunked down $20,000 cash for his $218,000 condo.
Then he noticed the plumbers weren’t coming to finish work on neighboring units in his building. Soon the electricians stopped returning. When all the workers were gone, he started to worry.
The complex went into foreclosure. Now another developer plans to purchase the project. It has been rebranded as Uptown. The marketing strategy: “Next Generation Condominiums.”
But they might not be.
Blue Marble Development, a California-based company with Las Vegas offices, wants to convert the unsold units into apartments. Blue Marble representatives did not return calls to their Las Vegas office this week.
On its Web site, the company lists a public relations company, but that company says it no longer represents the developer.
Blue Marble is also developing Paxton Walk, a planned 30-acre mixed-use project in northwest Las Vegas. Construction has stopped on that project.
Adams shudders to think how apartments will affect the value of his condo. He certainly never intended to be surrounded by apartments when he agreed to make $1,300 monthly mortgage payments.
The buildings are targets for vandals. A half-dozen shattered windows have been boarded up, giving the complex that low-rent feel. The trappings of construction crews who one day packed up their tools and never returned can be found inside the unfinished buildings — soda bottles, paint brushes, fast-food wrappers.
“It could have been a nice place to live,” he says, walking past a small playground that gets little use. “It would be like taking your kid to a junkyard to play.”
He’s looking to North Las Vegas for help.
His remarks at a recent City Council meeting were the first that city officials have heard of the situation. The new developer has not applied for building permits.
Adams figures the city cannot allow the complex to change from owner occupied to rental units. A city spokeswoman said it’s a civil matter. The area is zoned for multifamily residences.
If the developer wants to turn the other units in his building from condos into apartments, Adams wants to be bought out.
If that doesn’t work, he’s at least hoping they put some water in the pool.
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