KVIG Informative

Developer Sam Cherry has built his downtown housing strategy around apartments smaller than most hotel suites. A third project, with city-subsidized affordable units built in, is now headed toward a 2026 opening.

Developer Sam Cherry opened his second shareDowntown apartment complex in the Fremont East district, following his first project in the Arts District in 2020. Both buildings offer units of 480 square feet, with the Fremont East property opening at roughly 30% leased and an estimated monthly rent of $1,100, according to Cherry.

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman spoke at the Fremont East opening, telling a crowd of more than 100 people that the project would appeal to anybody who’s smart, anybody who wants to be in the heart of the city.

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A third shareDowntown project is now moving toward a planned 2026 opening. Of its 104 units, 84 will carry rents capped under fair rent metrics set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, while the remaining 20 will rent at market rate, according to Cherry.

Development costs for the third project are reduced significantly because the land, currently owned by the City of Las Vegas, will be conveyed to Cherry Development for $6, according to Cherry. The project also includes a roughly 6,400-square-foot market and food hall that the city will operate.

Cherry has described the model’s appeal as impermanent by design, saying the compact apartments represent a moment in time for residents rather than a long-term living solution, while still serving as what he calls part of downtown’s broader renaissance.

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The third shareDowntown project joins a larger pipeline of downtown apartment developments, including a roughly 3,000-unit project from Z Life Co. and a 337-unit project from Southern Land Co., both concentrated in and around the Arts District.

Cherry’s tenants don’t just pay rent to Cherry Development — in at least some cases, their buildings are managed through RHOME, a property management company backed by Associa, the nation’s largest HOA management firm, whose Las Vegas broker of record is also Cherry Development’s own managing partner, Jason LeDell, as KVIG previously reported.

Cherry has now built his entire downtown housing strategy around the idea that smaller is sellable, at a price point most new valley construction doesn’t touch. Whether $6 land deals and HUD-capped rents become downtown’s standard path to affordable housing, or stay a one-developer experiment, depends on whether the next project pencils out the same way this one did.