In the mid 1950s Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. purchased 25,000 acres (10,000 ha) in Southern Nevada near Las Vegas. After Hughes died in 1976, Summa Corporation was organized to oversee Hughes’ vast business empire and land holdings, including the large parcel of Southern Nevada desert that is today known as Summerlin.
In 1988, Summa Corporation exchanged more than 5,000 acres of land adjoining Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area for 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of land located south of Summerlin. This landmark land exchange was facilitated by The Nature Conservancy and critically acclaimed by the environmental community. It created a buffer zone to protect Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area from future development.
Summa Corporation began construction of Summerlin in 1990 but initiated planning and infrastructure construction – including Summerlin Parkway – in the late 1980s.
In 2002, Summa, known by now as The Howard Hughes Corporation, enacted a second exchange with the Bureau of Land Management, giving more than 1,000 acres (400 ha) of environmentally sensitive land adjacent to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area for 900 acres (360 ha) more suitable for development south of Summerlin.
Summerlin is currently home to more than 100 neighborhood and village parks, more than 150 completed miles of the Summerlin Trail System, nine golf courses – including Nevada’s only two Tournament Players Club courses, the TPC at Summerlin and the TPC Las Vegas, more than a dozen houses of worship, shopping centers, medical and cultural facilities, business parks and 25 public and private schools.
The community is unfolding in villages and today, 19 of 30 total villages are complete or are under development.
Summerlin offers homes in a variety of styles and prices to create a true multi-generational community. As of May 2010, Summerlin has approximately 9,000 of its 25,000 acres yet to develop.
Summerlin is recognized as a standard-setting master-planned community and has a long list of national and local awards to its credit. These include the American Trails Developer Award, 2008; Best Master-Planned Community Award, Best of Nevada Real Estate Awards, 2007; New Community of the Year, Awards for Excellence, Urban Land Institute, 2002; National Landmark for Outstanding Landscape Architecture, American Society of Landscape Architects, 1999; and Best New Town Land Plan Award, Pacific Coast Builders Conference, 1993.