Las Vegas Business Press (NV)
EXECUTIVE SNAPSHOT: John Tippins
John Tippins never bought into the "Manhattanization" of Las Vegas, the buzzword thrown around when every fly-by-night developer was announcing the latest and greatest high-rise condominium project coming to Las Vegas.
What he really sees as the most striking similarity to New York City is the creation of specific districts in downtown Las Vegas. Depending on your mood, you can go to the Arts District, the Entertainment District, Downtown Third or the Fremont Experience, he said.
Tippins, 34, has closed more than $500 million in real estate transactions since founding Northcap Commercial real estate property management company in 2006. Before that, he worked for Mark L. Fine and Associates and Insight Realty.
When the commercial market hit the skids in Las Vegas, Tippins expanded his business into property management and residential condominium sales.
He's senior vice president of ST Residential, a division of Starwood Capital that was selected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to manage the assets of failed Corus Bank in Chicago. ST Residential's Las Vegas portfolio includes The Ogden (formerly Streamline Tower), Newport Lofts, Juhl, One Las Vegas, Loft 5, Monterey at Las Vegas Country Club and Montage.
Tippins came to Las Vegas from Atlanta in 1999 to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he majored in marketing and stuck around because he wanted to work in real estate.
How did you make it through the boom and bust of Las Vegas?
It's been a blessing. What I'm so grateful for are the relationships I have, so when the market was down, it created a lot of blessings. People got closer in their relationships. You didn't meet people to do a deal because there were no deals. You met to stay in touch. I'm grateful for people who stayed as my mentor, like Irwin Molasky and the Fine family.
How has the real estate landscape changed in Las Vegas over the past 10 years?
I'm of the opinion that some great things will be built in areas that you didn't think it could be done as the result of land prices going back to reality. The Strip and downtown ... now you can build a midrise or stick-and-wood product instead of a high-rise.
You've got 275 units at The Ogden. How did you fill them?
Tony Hsieh (chief executive officer of Zappos.com) leased the entire 23rd and 25th floors. He's bringing people in and out of here all the time. We're 100 percent leased and 98 percent occupied, so there's a waiting list for most of the units. We created alliances with businesses in the area, so Le Thai delivers here, Triple George and the Gold Spike deliver here.
People seem to have a better perception of downtown Las Vegas than they did 10 or 15 years ago. What's changed?
To me, the perception of downtown has changed because people are now able to live downtown. All of these new businesses are great, but the more people that live downtown, the more businesses there will be. You look at four or five years ago, these housing options were nonexistent.
What's happening with Juhl? That project was developed on city-owned land that was basically given to San Diego-based CityMark Development and now it's sitting empty.
As of three hours ago (on April 5), we own Juhl. ST Residential is no longer the lender on that property, we now own the property. It's going to take time to figure out the options. I can't really discuss it at this time. We're uncertain about what we're planning to do. There's a lot of moving parts. Needless to say, we're excited about what that brings to downtown. It'll bring 600 to 700 bodies downtown. It'll also bring some cool retail opportunities. It'll bring about 10 new businesses to downtown, between the live-work units and retail space. Then there's this uncalculated multiplier of friends they bring downtown. We've got 2,000 people a week who come to see their friends at The Ogden.
Why don't you live at The Ogden?
I want to live down here, but when you're running a business, it's awkward to live in a building where you know everyone.
http://www.lvbusinesspress.com/articles/2012/04/16/news/iq_52615573.txt