Dam Bypass Prompts Bets on Northern AZ

(Read more on the industrial market.)

LAS VEGAS-The Hoover Dam Bypass opens in a few years and developers in Northwestern Arizona are ready to capitalize on it. The Mardian family, which already has approvals for a 63,000-home master-planned community in Arizona’s White Hills, 60 miles southeast of Downtown Las Vegas, has listed for $29 million 947 acres along Highway 93 around Pierce Ferry Road, the route to the new Grand Canyon skywalk.

In addition to being tourist route to the Grand Canyon, Highway 93 is a key portion of the CanaMex Corridor, a route that is being upgraded for use as a main trade route connecting Mexico, the US and Canada. When the Hoover Dam Bypass is complete in 2010 or 2011, the time it takes to drive from White Hills to Downtown Las Vegas, which is more than an hour now, will be reduced by 30 minutes or more, making the trip not a whole lot longer than commuting to the Las Vegas Strip from Summerlin, a master planned community on the Western edge of the Las Vegas Valley.