By Eli Segall, Las Vegas Review-Journal, May 6, 2026 – 7:00 am
Construction crews are at work in a new section of Summerlin, after the developer of Las Vegas’ biggest master-planned community cleared a key hurdle for more housing tracts.
Over the past several weeks, crews have done extensive site work at the western edge of Las Vegas where Alta Drive dead-ends at the desert.
Big stretches of open land have now been scraped, showing an apparent extension of Alta past its now-westernmost intersection at Crossbridge Drive.
The activity follows the Las Vegas Planning Commission’s approval last spring of Summerlin developer Howard Hughes Holdings’ plans to subdivide more than 400 acres at Alta and Crossbridge into 13 “developer pods” and a dozen parcels of open space.
Plans called for a maximum of 2,909 residential units across the sprawling land tract, according to a city staff report at the time.
Howard Hughes Communities, the company’s real estate business, said in a statement Tuesday that roadway and underground infrastructure installation is underway “to support future land sales to homebuilders and subsequent development.”
It added that the land along the western extension of Alta is planned for residential uses, open space, and a potential school site.
Texas-based Hughes Holdings sells land in Summerlin to homebuilders and has developed hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects in the commercial core, off Sahara Avenue and the 215 Beltway.
Overall, Summerlin spans 22,500 acres along the Las Vegas Valley’s western rim and boasts more than 130,000 residents, as well as parks, trails and community centers.
It has some of the highest home prices in Southern Nevada and is regularly among the top-selling spots for homebuilders nationwide.
The developer’s namesake — Howard Hughes, the famed aviator, business tycoon and recluse — acquired the land mass in the 1950s.
Last year, Hughes Holdings sold around 412 acres of “superpad” sites — or tracts for housing developments — in Summerlin for more than $400 million.
That was up from 216.5 acres sold, for about $291 million, in 2024, the company reported.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.