If you follow the red-hot Las Vegas real estate, you may have heard of Blue Heron’s Vegas Modern 001, the most expensive home ever sold in the Las Vegas Valley—$25 million! But you may not know that Blue Heron has a range of boutique communities that also resonate with home buyers. Not only that, it offers plenty of options that will entice a wide range of home buyers. BH Nexus Division president Chris Beucler recently spoke with Las Vegas Magazine’s Nina King about the division and the trends that he’s noticed.
What sets the BH Nexus homes apart from other builders and communities?
First and foremost, it's our design. Blue Heron leads not only Las Vegas but pretty much the country in its cutting-edge design. And with that comes our attention to detail, as it relates to all the aspects of the home. And it's very unique. I think one of the big separators as well is that we offer a completely finished home, which very, very few builders do. And what I mean by that we not only offer the home, but we also do all of the interior finishes for the customer. We also offer what we call the outdoor experience, which is a complete finishing of all their outdoor spaces, that would include pools and everything that they would use in their landscape. And then last, we also offer furnishings, we have our own furnishings department. So, it's not a stretch when we would say that if you bought a BH Nexus home and you utilize all our services, you literally could bring your clothes and your toothbrush and move in, and everything would be done. A lot of builders, the majority of builders, they complete the home but then you have to finish your yard, you have to go out and find your furnishings, you have to do all those other things.
In new home construction, what kind of trends have you seen since you arrived in Vegas?
Well, a (few) things that I've seen just not only in Vegas, but across the country, (are) much more efficient building methodologies. Home building’s one of the most antiquated businesses there is, when you think about how they used to raise barns and raise the walls, and you'd hammer the wood together. These days, what we're seeing is the advent of panelized building where certain elements of the home … come out of the factory (panelized), so they're super-efficient. We're seeing a lot of biophilic design—we're kind of leading the charge in the biophilic world. There was a big trend for a long time that had to do with “Oh look, we're bringing you to the outdoors,” with big, paneled windows and sliding pocket walls and everything. But what we've done, and what biophilic is, is actually bringing the outdoors into the home. So, plants inside of the home and kind of blurring the lines between the outdoor and the indoor, as opposed to just saying “Oh it's outdoor-indoor living,” and you figure that out. The last thing that I'm seeing an awful lot of is a real movement right now on sustainability; and it's not only in the products that are being put into the home, but it's the same sustainability as it relates to solar and batteries. All the things that we really need, to catch up to the auto industry as far as how that how that they have advanced their methodologies, and I'm seeing a lot more of that trend within the entire industry.
A lot of those trends are completely encapsulated in the Vegas Modern 001. Are you driving those trends in those Nexus communities?
Nexus is really all of the Blue Heron DNA. And what I mean by that is the home that you saw in the 001 is an elite home, and that's where it's a design build. Well, we happen to design it ourselves and build it for ourselves and sell it. But typically, what we've done is take all of the best elements of our elite division, which is the design-build division, and bring that into our developments. So, in some of our newest offerings, the biophilic is super important … and you could see it the minute you showed up. We're paying special attention to lighting and how that enhances the way people live and feel within their homes. And how the passive way, the solar, like everything else, can relate to the home. So, you're seeing that in our communities.
One thing that we do in the Nexus division, too, that's pretty interesting is we have a lot of what we call structural options. So, as an example, we have a new community where you can get up to nine bedrooms. That was brought about by the COVID thing, with more people coming in. We actually offer generational living with dual masters or dual primary suites, things like that. And now, in our newest product lines, we actually have detached casitas, and those come in several different configurations. So, depending on what people are looking for, you can have a separate detached casita with a living space and a big, covered patio. A lot of different options with that, but what we tend to do is we take everything that we do with as far as design and drive it into all of our products.
Are there any specific innovations that are particularly impressed you personally?
Personally, yeah, I really am a huge fan of the biophilic. I've been doing this a long time, and one of the things that when I came from and one of the things that I did in my previous (San Diego) companies is we really thought the outdoors. We really had very, very open houses—San Diego was the perfect climate for that. So, seeing see how you can actually incorporate the outdoors in was something that is very exciting to me. The other thing that's been really exciting for me is seeing the design process that Blue Heron does. I mean we have basically we all have our architects in house. And all of our vision designers are in house. And the process is so complete and so holistic ...Our designers and the design team are incredibly engaged in every aspect from the entry gates… to the wall design for the entire community, to the landscaping for the entire community. And because we have everything under one roof, you get what is really a cohesive feel and look that you wouldn't get in a typical community subdivision.
You are groundbreaking several communities. What is one thing that people can look for that sets them apart?
I think the one thing that everybody recognizes the minute that they get involved with Blue Heron is design is different. It doesn't look like anybody else's design. And one of the things that people tend to think with modern is that it's cold and sharp, but what you find in the Blue Heron, like you found in the 001 house, is it's actually a very warm and inviting environment for people. And so, to get cutting-edge design along with something that makes you feel good, is going to be very appealing to the buyers—and it already has been. We've had tremendous success with our last two releases, and I think … people now that are in Vegas are very aware of our cutting-edge designs, and they want to be a part of it. The people who are relocating from other areas, they go to a lot of different communities. They all look alike, and then they come and see us and go “Wow, this is different. This is a place where I want to be.”
You came from San Diego—were there any design challenges that particularly noticed about building in the desert?
Yeah, there's been a few things that are unique. You know, obviously, it's a very harsh climate for four months out of the year. So, there's elements of that, and it's as simple as when you can pour concrete in the summer. As soon as there's light, we're pouring concrete. It's dealing with that harsh climate during the summer. One of the things that's interesting here is that it's been such a robust market that the subcontractor base is spread very, very thin. What happens is, it'll cause delays. And it's not a surprise to anyone that supply chain issues have been an issue that were brought about by COVID. It wouldn't be uncommon in the San Diego market to see guys on a roof, five o'clock in the evening. Here, you're not going to see that four months out of the year. So, it's just coordinating those sorts of things that I've seen as a difference as far as in the constructability of the homes.
I think a lot of people love the homes. Even though they’re planned communities, the homes just seem unique.
Yes, they are, and the whole community feels unique. We've paid close attention in our new communities. We're going into section 10, which for 30 years, has been an outstanding neighborhood, but it's community that's 30 years old, so to get a fresh design in an existing neighborhood people love, is fantastic. And then our latest offering that we just opened up, our shoreline product out in Lake Las Vegas, has just been on fire. It's because the idea that you can live on the lake in something that isn't, you know 6,000 square feet, is pretty attractive to a different buyer profile, with the walkability to the village, etc.
Do you live in Las Vegas, or do you commute?
Well, I live in Las Vegas. I've maintained my residence in California, (but am) living in Las Vegas full time. We have a very active division; we're expanding and growing like crazy. We'll open up eight new communities over the next 12 months. And so, the idea of commuting back and forth isn't really fair, in my opinion, to the company. I tend to be all in with everything, and I expect all my people to be all in, and if I wasn't all in, I don't think I could expect them to be as well.
Is there anything in Las Vegas—not talking homebuilding—but anything that was really cool that you experienced or that happened or things you've done that you really love?
Yeah, I think that you know, one of the things it's amazing is the dining here…I really love the aspect that some of the greatest chefs and the greatest types of restaurants are located in these little strip malls—the dining has been a real standout for me.
I love what they've done with some of the masterplans out here. I think they're fantastic. I think MacDonald Highlands is fantastic. I think that Summerlin is fantastic. They've done a really nice job. The other thing that's a real refreshing thing is the roads are clean. The streets are clean. There's not a tremendous amount of traffic. So, you can get to work reasonably (quickly)—I can get from one side of town to the other in a half an hour. Well, that's unheard of in San Diego. That's an hour and a half, if you're lucky. So those are some standouts.
Personally, I like to golf and the golf here is about as good as you're going to find anywhere in the country. So that's fun. And but I'm most impressed by you know, the one thing that's interesting in people, people think of Las Vegas as the Strip. There's so much more to Vegas than what everybody has always known think it's for and that's something that's been very impressive to me.
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