The intention behind Vestra, the residential complex located at UnCommons in the southwest Las Vegas Valley, was to bring a “first of its kind, modern, sophisticated, mature” and elegant apartment community to the city, according to Jim Stuart, partner at Matter Real Estate Group, the developer behind UnCommons.
Vestra was integral to UnCommon’s mission as a mixed-use neighborhood, Stuart said, with restaurants, cafes and fitness studios, to name just a few offerings, within walking distance for residents looking to exercise and grab a coffee or a bite to eat.
“All these pieces can be done over the course of your day or your weekend without ever setting foot into your car,” he said. “That is the great promise of modern mixed-use environments. It is the best of urban living in a very protected, safe, pleasing and organized aesthetic.”
The three-building apartment complex houses more than 350 residences. In addition to opulent lobbies and curated artwork, Vestra also offers an indoor-outdoor gym, a dog park, a resort-style pool, a wellness center and more. The complex is also home to what he described as “some of the most beautiful coworking offices you can come across.”
Though luxury living may seem to be increasingly gaining ground in Las Vegas, Stuart said Vestra’s location in UnCommons, a $500 million mixed-use campus, makes it unique compared to its peers.
“So, where others may have great amenities and be well-designed, Vestra stands alone in its access to community events, to walkable bars and neighborhoods, to your workplace being yards away from where you live,” he said.
In addition to dining, lifestyle and fitness destinations, at the heart of what UnCommons is doing in its location near the Durango Resort is inverting the design of coworking and office spaces by bringing them down to the “human scale,” Stuart said.
“While there’s been this long standing conversation about amenities, amenities, amenities, we concluded that the single greatest amenity that you can have is other people,” Stuart said. “We used that … to inspire the design thinking of UnCommons.”
Contrary to the “narrative that people are not going back to the office” following the COVID-19 pandemic, Stuart said, a slew of tenants have already leased the unique coworking spaces located at UnCommons.
Tom van Betten, vice president of strategic partnerships at Matter Real Estate Group, attributed the success of the office spaces to a lack of supply in the Las Vegas market, and the special experience for tenants at UnCommons.
Companies today really value the flexibility of coworking office spaces that can be leased based on space and length of stay, van Betten said.
“It’s a wonderful option for smaller companies, or even smaller offices of a larger company, to be able to have a footprint in a big mixed-use project like UnCommons, without making a major long-term or high-capital investment,” he said.
Flex office space leader Kiln is slated to debut a 30,000-square-foot-plusworkspace at UnCommons in spring 2025, and its adjacent pavilion the Assembly by Kiln serves as a 5,000-square-foot event space, according to the company’s website.
Coworking spaces like Kiln’s create a sense of community among tenants, van Betten said, so that they get to know each other and even go into business together.
“We always wanted coworking as a component of UnCommons, to help complete the vision,” he said. “Because it brings in energy from all types of people and companies and startups and tech companies and real estate and finance, and they all kind of create this ecosystem that, many times, can support each other and help each other grow and be successful, and that’s a special opportunity.”
That face-to-face connection rings true at Vestra, as well, where Stuart said the team of resident managers, concierge assistants and maintenance workers has seemed to garner positive feedback from consumers.
It’s all about making people feel more connected, he said, despite the potential stresses of everyday life, politics or social isolation.
The latter reflects the overarching mission of UnCommons as a whole, Stuart added, to form connections between people and give them a refuge to celebrate their uniqueness.
“We can celebrate the fact that we’re all uncommon, which, in a twist of irony, is what makes us all relate to one another,” he said. “And I think when we really break down what we’re after at UnCommons and Vestra, [it] is to remind ourselves and to remind one another that the beauty of life is found in these small moments, most often shared with other people.”
This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.