We’re happy to report that, in the middle of a recession and the worst housing market in Las Vegas—in America—in a generation, it’s still possible to purchase a super-sized, prix fixe meal of a home in Las Vegas for $18.5 million.
It’s on display at the Las Vegas Parade of Homes, which rings in its fifth year as the city’s showcase for custom-built opulence and a calling card for the pool installers, cabinet makers and kitchen designers who make it happen.
The marquee crib is called The Falls, a 14,000-square-foot spec mansion that showcases the talents of a team of designers from the American Society of Interior Design. Backed up to the side of a mountain in Summerlin’s The Ridges, framed by a 60-foot waterfall, The Falls is an embarrassment of nouveau riche splendor: six-car garage, wood ceilings, a kitchen/living entertainment area large enough to play a tennis match in, off-bedroom suites half as large as your house, and, count them, 26 flat-panel screens, plus a home theater.
The owner’s suite alone comprises a bedroom, his and hers bathrooms and closets, an outdoor shower, three balconies, a lanai, an exercise room and a private spa room. (Six of the television sets are up here somewhere.)
Other entries in this year’s parade include an Italian villa in Southern Highlands adorned by lavishly coiffed women done up as Marie Antoinette (who was, we hasten to point out, French and not Italian—but we know, it’s the mood that matters) and a sumptuously serene Zen-themed home designed by World Market Center that would no doubt test even the Buddha’s capacity for non-attachment.
If it all seems a bit much, especially given the current economic climate, the proceeds from the parade do benefit the nonprofit charity Opportunity Village. And who knows how many people will be inspired to redo their bathroom, or knock down a wall to enlarge their kitchen. “There is enterprise generated at the Parade of Homes,” says the festival’s executive director, Lisa Hester. “Whenever you wanted anything, you dig in the couch, you find the money and you make it happen. That’s how you dig out of a bad economy.”
The Las Vegas Parade of Homes runs through May 4; tickets are $25. See lasvegasparadeofhomes.com for more information.