Thursday, April 28, 2005 | 11:05 a.m.
American Nevada Company has started construction on the second phase of the District at Green Valley Ranch that will include a Whole Foods and Cheesecake Factory restaurant.
The second phase of the District is at the southeast corner of Green Valley Parkway and Interstate 215, across Green Valley Parkway from the existing 400,000-square-foot first phase that includes retail, office and residential uses.
American Nevada is owned by the Greenspun family, owners of the Las Vegas Sun.
The second phase of the District is being constructed on 20 acres of a 40-acre parcel and will consist of six buildings, encompassing an additional 104,500 square feet of retailers and 51,300 square feet of office-above-retail space. A tram will be used to safely shuttle shoppers across Green Valley Parkway between the two sections of the District during business hours, he said.
The Cheesecake Factory is scheduled to open in August. Whole Foods Market and other tenants are set to open in the first quarter of 2006.
"The tenant mix will be very similar in type to the first phase, with the lifestyle retail tenants," said John Kilduff, president of American Nevada. "It will be different products and different stores, but it will be the same context or quality."
Kilduff said American Nevada is in discussions with a number of retailers, but that those discussions are not far enough along to announce any additional tenants.
He said the success of the first phase of the District, which opened April 2004, has prompted many retailers to look at the project and its second phase.
Bill Dunbar, a principal with Sierra Commercial Advisors, a retail brokerage and development firm, said the District's outdoor design and higher-end retailers have meshed well with the area.
"I think American Nevada did a great job on the residential-over-retail concept that they had planned there," Dunbar said. "The tenant mix is good along with the restaurants."
He expects Whole Foods, a retailer of natural and organic foods, will do just as well in Henderson as it has done in Peccole Ranch on the west side of the valley.
Dunbar said he has worked with a couple of retailers that have looked at the District in the past and are looking at the project's second phase.
"They are relooking at phase two of the District to see if there's a large enough market to put additional locations," he said.
Plans are for phase two to include six buildings, including the Cheesecake Factory and Whole Foods buildings, two additional standalone retail buildings and two retail buildings with two stories of office space, Kilduff said.
Kilduff said the 25,000 square feet of office-above-retail in phase one has been well received.
"The office above retail leased very quickly and is all occupied now," he said. "The three-story office building is about 75 percent complete."
The architecture and landscape of phase two will be identical in style to the first phase, Kilduff said.
The second phase of the District will also feature a public plaza, which will serve as a venue for outdoor concerts and events.
"The design is an East Coast, New York urban park -- a pocket park. It will have tree-lined thoroughfares with benches, and a meandering path that goes through it as well," Kilduff said. "There will be little tables with checkerboards or chessboards. It will be a tranquil and relaxing venue."
What the remaining 20 acres to the east of the second phase will be used for is still up in the air, Kilduff said.
He said there is the possibility that the land could include a residential component, but that American Nevada still has to work with the city on any possible plans.
The first phase included 88 loft and flat units above retailers. Three are currently for sale while the remaining units have sold or are in escrow, Kilduff said.
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