Why Stars Like Mark Wahlberg Are Leaving Hollywood for ‘the Beverly Hills of Las Vegas’ (Exclusive)

Stars like Mark Wahlberg aren’t simply heading to Las Vegas as of late for an excellent time. Now, they’re flocking to it — completely. 

Wahlberg simply flipped a 7,327-sq.-ft. townhouse in Las Vegas’ unique residential group referred to as The Summit Membership for $16.6 million after shifting to the world along with his household final 12 months, based on paperwork obtained by the Las Vegas Evaluate Journal and reviewed by PEOPLE. He had initially bought the two-story property for $14.5 million.

However the Father Stu star, 52, stays in Las Vegas after his news-making sale.

“After we determined to maneuver [to Las Vegas], we wished to maneuver earlier than college began, so we moved into a brief place and we now moved into one other place,” Wahlberg instructed Right this moment.com. “The plan was all the time to construct not solely a studio however a household residence. We simply moved from one home to a different.”

“You’ve Las Vegas, and folks suppose routinely, ‘Oh, the Strip.’ However [in] Nevada, there are great communities,” he continued. “I dwell in an exquisite group that is actually faith-based, nice faculties. There’s way more to Las Vegas than the Strip.”

Celine Dion, Nicolas Cage, Nick Carter and Mike Tyson are amongst bold-faced names who’ve lengthy lived in Vegas, the place Nevada’s state earnings tax advantages, low crime and lightweight visitors are significantly advantageous — and a scarcity of paparazzi doesn’t harm.

Right this moment, the unique group of Summerlin “is the Beverly Hills of Las Vegas” and akin to Scottsdale close to Phoenix, says Summerlin realtor Michael Bondi. “It’s the place all of the celebrities have homes. It has that prosperous really feel to it.”

And areas like The Summit Membership — the latest luxurious improvement within the space the place Wahlberg bought his townhouse — are significantly fascinating, provides luxurious actual property agent Gavin Ernstone. 

Only a 20-minute drive from the world-class leisure of the Las Vegas Strip, The Summit Membership is a 555-acre personal group providing a premium life-style that has attracted sports activities stars, celebrities and the ultra-wealthy. One in every of its key choices afforded to residents is “very, very excessive degree of safety, the best you may see,” says Ernstone. 

Contained in the gated group are “unimaginable amenities,” Ernstone provides. “They’ve an incredible clubhouse that they only opened, their very own purpose-built lakes that children can go fishing in, a baseball area, and an unimaginable golf course that is members solely and unique to residents.” Householders are handled to beautiful views of the close by Pink Rock Canyon Nationwide Conservation Space, and facilities embrace a hosted suite for occasions like Raiders video games at Allegiant Stadium, the place residents are ferried in personal vehicles. “It is exclusivity,” underscores Ernstone.

The Summit Membership is simply one of many prestigious communities constructed by the Discovery Land Co., which boasts equally usual locations in locales together with the Bahamas, Montana, Cabo San Lucas, Idaho and Hawaii. Some households even spend money on properties throughout the developer’s portfolio and hop between them, says Ernstone: “It is definitely a following amongst the ultra-wealthy and it is extraordinarily unique.”

Wahlberg instructed PEOPLE in April that his household “beloved Vegas” and that his 4 youngsters have been settling in properly after solely six months. The Oscar-nominated actor and his spouse, Rhea Durham, are dad and mom to Ella, 19, Michael, 16, Brendan, 14, and Grace, 13. 

“Thoughts-boggling” progress within the space has additionally incentivized California-based corporations like Google and Amazon to make the transfer, creating shortage of residential land to construct on, says Bondi.

Las Vegas might even turn into a manufacturing hub like Atlanta in coming years, because of a invoice sitting earlier than the Nevada legislature that may green-light the event of a movement image studio only a five-minute drive from communities like The Summit Membership. Sony Leisure and a neighborhood developer have “already give you a plan to construct a 58-acre studio,” says Bondi.

In October 2022, Wahlberg instructed The Discuss he hoped to foyer for tax credit to “construct a state-of-the-art studio right here and make this Hollywood 2.0.”

General, Wahlberg stated he aimed to offer his kids a better high quality of life with the transfer.

“So to have the ability to give my youngsters a greater life and comply with and pursue their desires — whether or not it’s my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball participant, my youthful son as a golfer — this made much more sense for us,” he defined. “There’s numerous alternative right here. I am actually excited in regards to the future.”