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2025 ULI Fall Meeting 2025 ULI Fall Meeting
, November 04 – 06, 2025

Placemaking

Tours
Mon Oct 28 7:45 AM — 2:15 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time

Downtown Summerlin: The Making of an Urban Center in the Heart of Suburbia

The master-planned community of Summerlin, a development of Howard Hughes Holdings, is one of the country’s most enduring and successful master-planned communities, now in its 34th year and still ranking as one of the country’s best-selling based on new home sales (number 4 in 2023). At the heart of the community is Downtown Summerlin, a 400-acre urban center that includes a dynamic, walkable retail destination with more than 125 stores and restaurants; two major professional sports venues—City National Arena, practice facility of the Vegas Golden Knights, and Las Vegas Ballpark, home of the Las Vegas Aviators; multiple class A office buildings, including state-of-the-art 1700 Pavilion that opened in 2023 and is already more than 90 percent leased; three luxury apartment complexes; and, coming soon, a new retail center anchored by Whole Foods Market. Hear from Hughes executives on their exciting plans to develop two additional urban centers in the southern and western regions of this acclaimed 22,500-acre community.
Tours
Mon Oct 28 8:45 AM — 2:00 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time

Water Street District in Henderson: Revitalizing a Historic Main Street

Water Street, Henderson’s historic “main street USA,” was put on the map during World War II with the building of industrial plants that manufactured magnesium and other chemicals used in the war effort. Once a thriving civic hub, time and urban sprawl left Water Street in need of revitalization. Years of concerted redevelopment efforts, meticulous planning, and invaluable public/private partnerships have transformed the Water Street District into a vibrant, walkable, and friendly historic heart of Henderson. Significant new development in the area, including more than a dozen new restaurants and bars, multifamily housing projects, a hotel currently under construction, and America First Center, a two-sheet ice rink, have all contributed to the burgeoning success of the area. America First Center is a regional draw for the valley’s growing interest in sports and home of the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights—the farm team to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Henderson City Hall Campus has recently been renovated to include a magnificent Water Street Plaza that has become a community gathering spot for sports-viewing parties, festivals, and family-friendly celebrations. One of Water Street’s visionaries is famed Southern Nevada architect Windom Kimsey, who staked his claim by literally building his personal home on Water Street, connected to his busy architecture firm, restaurant, and coffee shop. For more details on this popular valley destination, visit waterstreetdistrict.com.
Tours
Mon Oct 28 9:00 AM — 2:45 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time

Mobsters and Neon: The History of Las Vegas Told through the Mob Museum and Neon Museum

Located in the heart of downtown Las Vegas, The Mob Museum is an immersive experience exploring the ongoing power struggle between organized crime and law enforcement from the Mob’s origination to today. Hear the facts, the fiction, and the gray area in between that showcase the events and characters that played an integral (and infamous) role in shaping Las Vegas into the city it is today.

Founded in 1996, The Neon Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, studying, and exhibiting iconic Las Vegas signs for educational, historic, arts, and cultural enrichment. On its 2.27-acre campus, The Neon Museum has an outdoor exhibition space known as the Neon Boneyard (“boneyard” is traditionally the name for an area where items no longer in use are stored); the North Gallery, home to the immersive audiovisual experience “Brilliant!,” which uses projection mapping technology to animate more than 40 nonoperational signs; the Boulevard Gallery outdoor exhibit and event space; and its Visitors’ Center inside the former La Concha Motel lobby. The museum collection also includes nine restored signs installed as public art in downtown Las Vegas.

Explore the unique history of how Las Vegas became Sin City through the city’s two most exciting museums.

Tours
Mon Oct 28 9:30 AM — 1:15 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time

Creating the Cultural Core of Downtown Las Vegas in the Arts District

Las Vegas is known globally for “the Strip.” The economy thrives from the tens of millions of visitors the city hosts each year. A long-forgotten area of the city has been the Arts District and the associated downtown core. While some public buildings have dotted the civic core, much of the immediate downtown land has been surprisingly underdeveloped. In this tour, you will see the tactical measures the city of Las Vegas has made to encourage new development and renovations of existing building stock. The neighborhood was poised to see acceleration prior to the Great Recession. Then development stalled abruptly. Las Vegas is a resilient city that now sees widespread development (both large and small) that will create a momentum that sustains future economic cycles. The hope is that the downtown area can be seen as the heart of local Las Vegas—an area that draws from vibrant history with a keen eye on the future and risk taking. This tour will review the overall context of the Arts District including galleries, breweries, The English Hotel, street art programs, and multifamily residential projects. The tour will cover the variety of influences shaping this expanding neighborhood.