Las Vegas Developer of the Year:
Thomas & Mack Development Group
By Tony Illia

Thomas & Mack Development Group, a subsidiary of Thomas & Mack Co. LLC, is highly regarded in Las Vegas development circles as an industry leader that is always one step ahead of the competition.

The firm is savvy, cunning and experienced, and it's Southwest Contractor magazine's choice for "Las Vegas Developer of the Year."

The Las Vegas-based firm was originally created in 1956 by E. Parry Thomas and Jerome Mack, who began a lifelong partnership in banking and real estate. Together they started Valley Bank, which grew to become the state's largest privately owned bank before selling to San Francisco-based Bank of America in 1992. Over the years, Thomas & Mack began acquiring tracts of land throughout the Las Vegas Valley as a financial investment.

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When southern Nevada's real estate market exploded in the 1990s, the firm formed the Thomas & Mack Development Co. Since 1995, the company has developed more than 3 million sq. ft. worth of projects in the Las Vegas Valley, including some of the area's best-known business parks such as Las Vegas Tech Center II, McCarran Center I and II, Blue Diamond Industrial Park, Eastgate Plaza and the Nevada Financial Center.

"Thomas & Mack has an experienced management team as well the financial resources to produce some well-conceived projects," said John Restrepo, principal of Restrepo Consulting Group LLC, a Las Vegas-based real estate analyst. "They have been very strategic and very forward-looking in development approach. They don't make too many mistakes."

Thomas & Mack is a multifaceted industrial, office and retail developer specializing in everything from land acquisition and design to marketing and construction. The firm also serves as a development manager for hire on such projects as the 1-million-sq.-ft., mixed-use Las Vegas Tech Center II at Buffalo Drive and Smoke Ranch Road.

New York financial powerbroker Lehman Brothers recently hired the firm to oversee development of a 61-acre parcel in downtown Las Vegas. Thomas & Mack realized greater development potential in the growing northwest valley and crafted a land swap with the city of Las Vegas. The move proved a master stroke that led to the creation of Las Vegas Tech Center II.

Lehman eventually sold off its acreage to Thomas & Mack and others. The company is now constructing build-to-suit and speculative office/industrial buildings at the thriving center as well as selling land of its own and jointly developing parcels with others.

"The ownership structure makes it a unique development," said Richard Myers, Thomas & Mack's senior vice president. "Our ability to structure land sales, do build-to-suit and joint-venture transactions has greatly increased the center's momentum."

Upon build-out in 2008, Tech Center II will consist of 22 buildings, ranging from single-story flexible space to three-story multitenant, with a daytime workforce of approximately 5,000 professionals.

Thomas & Mack is also serving as development manager for the new Southern Highlands Corporate Center owned by the Olympia Land Corp. at Southern Highlands Parkway and Valley View Boulevard. The first $13.5 million, 70,000-sq.-ft. building is scheduled to finish in October.

Las Vegas-based Martin-Harris Construction Co. is the general contractor for the three-story, steel-framed EIFS-clad building. Three to four similar buildings, totaling 155,000 sq. ft., are tentatively slated for the 10-acre site with build-out occurring over the next few years.

Thomas & Mack's diversity, flexibility and capability have ultimately fueled its success.
And the company isn't afraid to work with others. Thomas & Mack is currently involved in two joint-venture developments with Majestic Realty Co. of the City of Industry, Calif., including the 424-acre, 5.5-million-sq.-ft. Beltway Business Park in southwest Las Vegas and the 103-acre, 2.5-million-sq.-ft. Northern Beltway Industrial Center in North Las Vegas.

"In many ways, Thomas & Mack is a perfect partner for Majestic because our family-owned businesses collectively have more than 100 years of development experience in Las Vegas and throughout the United States," said Ed Roski Jr., president and CEO of Majestic.

The Beltway Business Park at Interstate 215 and Warm Springs Road calls for 35 to 40 office, retail and industrial buildings to be constructed by 2015. >> Commerce Construction of City of Industry, Calf., a division of Majestic, is the design-build contractor for the industrial buildings. The remaining spaces will go to competitive bid.

Thomas & Mack provides the master planning, design and marketing for the center.
Valley Realty LLC, a subsidiary of Thomas & Mack, is providing the leasing.

The company's experience and marketplace knowledge led to the largest build-to-suit project in southern Nevada history at the Beltway Business Park when Greyhound Exposition Services signed a $40 million, 12-year lease for 860,540 sq. ft. in 2002.

The two companies are also building the $80 million Northern Beltway Industrial Complex south of the Interstate 15/215 intersection. Scheduled for build-out by 2008, the five-year project will consist of six to eight single-level, concrete tilt-wall buildings, ranging from 200,000 sq. ft. to 400,000 sq. ft. in size. Commerce Construction is the design-build contractor.

While Thomas & Mack sometimes sells its completed projects, as it did with the 160,000-sq.-ft. Crossroads Shopping Center in 1993, it also keeps and manages others, such as the 103-acre, 1.4-million-sq.-ft. master-planned McCarran Business Center near I-215 and Warm Springs Road.

That's where Thomas & Mack created a campus-style environment with a six-story, 190-room Club Hotel by DoubleTree for business travelers. The hotel - a joint venture with Promus Hotel Corp. - features 3,000 sq. ft. of dedicated workspace for guests, plus the state's first Au Bon Pain bakery café.

"Amenities and services are a very important component of the modern business park, which is why we've gone to great lengths to bring these features to McCarran Center," said Robert A. "Tim" Snow, Thomas & Mack's president. "In addition to the Club Hotel, we've added an Applebee's Restaurant, three bank branches, a retail center with a Starbucks Coffee store, a U.S. Bank branch and a day-care center."

McCarran Center is anchored by Harrah's Entertainment Inc., which signed a 15-year, $50 million lease for a new four-story, 120,000-sq.-ft. office building in 1999.

The 28-building, mixed-use complex proved so successful that Thomas & Mack started the 17-acre McCarran Center II nearby at I-215 and Bermuda Road, and that seven-building, 240,000-sq.-ft office park has been a success.

"Foresight, anticipation and adaptation makes Thomas & Mack what they are today," said Jeremy Aguero, a principal with Applied Analysis, a Las Vegas-based real estate research firm. "These qualities plus a great reputation with tenants, brokers and public officials has made them one of the best developers in the Las Vegas Valley."

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