LAS VEGAS – NAIOP Southern Nevada, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association for the greater Las Vegas Valley, released a study this week digging deeper into the amount and type of land available for development in Southern Nevada. This study serves to narrow and unpack certain findings made in the Underutilized Land Inventory released by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada in 2025 (the “Inventory”).
NAIOP Southern Nevada Executive Director Jamie Schwartz said the study, conducted by Las Vegas-based RCG Economics, “examined the practical feasibility of land” identified in the Inventory as “underutilized.”
“The RCG analysis NAIOP commissioned provides important context to this issue,” Schwartz said. “It’s part of our mission to bring informed, practical, real-world perspectives to conversations that directly impact Southern Nevada’s economic and land planning future. This issue affects far more than the development industry. It impacts housing affordability, business attraction, infrastructure planning, renewable energy opportunities, job creation, and the long-term competitiveness of our region.”
Unlike any other metro area in the nation, Southern Nevada faces unique land constraints. More than 80% of land in Nevada and about 90% of all land in Clark County is owned by the federal government.
“This dramatically limits the amount of land available for residential, commercial, industrial, and mixed-use development,” she added.
NAIOP Southern Nevada maintains that thoughtful, incremental federal land releases are necessary to support continued economic diversification and long-term affordability, while still protecting environmentally sensitive lands and maintaining responsible growth practices.
“NAIOP Southern Nevada also emphasizes that conversations around land availability should be grounded not simply in mapped acreage totals, but also in actual development feasibility,” Schwartz said. “Factors such as terrain, infrastructure access, parcel configuration, utility capacity, entitlement limitations, and economic viability all significantly affect whether land can realistically support future growth.”
She said other takeaways from the RCG analysis include:
• Due to entitlement constraints, slope, ownership issues, and infrastructure capacity, not all of the land identified as vacant in the RTC inventory can be immediately developed, “and understanding that distinction is critical” to avoiding the oversimplification of the issue.
• Land described as “underutilized” in the inventory “might present a planning opportunity, but that does not necessarily correlate with readiness for redevelopment.”
• Bridging planning insights with market realities “is essential to avoid misaligned expectations.”
“This study shows that the path forward is to build on this work with deeper, actionable analysis,” Schwartz said.
NAIOP is releasing the RCG analysis in conjunction with its May 21 breakfast program on the issue of available land in Southern Nevada and how it has become one of the biggest challenges facing its industry. NAIOP Southern Nevada has shared these important insights with the RTC and is working collaboratively with RTC to update the inventory to more accurately reflect land availability in our community.
Commercial real estate development continues to serve as one of Nevada’s most significant economic drivers. In 2025, the industry contributed an estimated $24.3 billion to Nevada’s economy, generated $7.7 billion in wages and salaries, and supported more than 120,000 jobs statewide.
For a summary of the RCG study, members of the media are encouraged to email gmccabe@bpadlv.com.
About NAIOP Southern Nevada
NAIOP Southern Nevada is a chapter of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, and it comprises over 800 members serving the Southern Nevada market. NAIOP is the leading organization for developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate, with more than 21,000 members in North America. NAIOP advances responsible commercial real estate development and advocates for effective public policy. For more information, visit www.naiopnv.org. For more information on NAIOP corporate, visit www.naiop.org.
###
Leave a Reply