The owner of Tivoli Village is looking to sell half its stake in the stylish retail and office center, amid a corporate shake-up and just months after breaking ground on the project’s long-awaited final portion.
IDB Group, an Israeli conglomerate, wants to sell a 50 percent stake in its Summerlin-area real estate portfolio, which includes Tivoli, a dozen unsold units in the One Queensridge Place condominium complex and almost 20 acres of nearby land, according to an announcement today by the Carlton Group, which IDB hired to find a buyer.
The portfolio does not have an asking price, said a Carlton executive, who did not want his name published. He said the sale would have “no effect” on Tivoli’s construction, and added that IDB is merely looking to diversify its holdings.
IDB has new controlling shareholders, Argentine businessman Eduardo Elsztain and Israeli partner Moti Ben-Moshe, but the Carlton executive said that has “nothing to do with this project.”
According to Reuters, IDB expanded rapidly over the past decade but has been hit hard by slowing economic growth and rising competition.
Moreover, its IDB Development subsidiary owes bondholders 5.8 billion shekels ($1.7 billion), and the company lost money on “some poor investments, such as a major land deal in Las Vegas” that was inked just before the real estate market crashed, the news group reported in December.
In the first half of 2013, IDB wrote down the Tivoli project by 46 million shekels, a corporate filing shows.
Tivoli spokesman Michael Coldwell said the property’s construction plans would “remain unchanged,” and that Tivoli’s management was "not impacted” by the sale efforts.
IDB teamed with Las Vegas-based EHB Cos. to develop Tivoli and the nearby One Queensridge Place. The condo complex has two 18-story towers and opened in 2007. Tivoli was supposed to open in 2009 with 500,000 square feet of retail space and 200,000 square feet of office space, but it was derailed by the recession.
The developers considered mothballing the $850 million project but instead chose to build it in phases, Tivoli President Patrick Done has said. The first portion opened in spring 2011, and the second and final phase is expected to open in spring 2015. Construction on that portion began in October.
According to Carlton, H&M and Restoration Hardware have signed leases for 25,000-square-foot and 70,000-square-foot stores, respectively, in the new section.
Meanwhile, EHB and IDB reportedly split ways more than a year ago, and IDB took control of Tivoli and One Queensridge.
EHB executives were not available for comment today, said a woman who answered a call to the company’s offices.