Esko Kiuru

What exactly is Vegas Uncork'd? It's a series of events celebrating good eats, to put it simply. Well, probably much more than good eats, it's safe to say that the eats are gourmet quality. Its official name is Vegas Uncork'd: A Bon Appetit Epicurean Experience and it takes place May 8-11 at multiple locations here in town.

The Experience includes food tastings, workshops administered by big-name chefs, lunches and dinners sauteed by more big-name chefs, at least one gala dinner and food fights, or more appropriately cooking contests. The first three days operate pretty much on a full schedule. There are lunches and dinners in several Strip bistros and between and among them are the seminars and discussions about food.

The Culinary Pro-Am runs for two days where the Masters battle the Rookies for food preparation supremacy and culminates in a gala at Bellagio on May 10. The chefs responsible for the fare that evening are Julian Serrano of Picasso, Todd English of Olives, Michael Mina of Michael Mina Restaurant, Jean-Georges Vongerichten of Prime and Jean-Philippe Maury who does the desserts. A powerful team of cooking aces. A Who-is-Who of Las Vegas fine dining scene right there.

The four-day event will close out with two brunches at Wynn Las Vegas in celebration of Mother's Day. Ticket and other info is available at www.bavegasuncorked.com.

Las Vegas downtown is okay, that's about the best way to describe it and still be respectful. The Fremont Street Experience, the very core of it, is surrounded by a string of colorful gambling establishments and that is the backbone of the area. But right outside that district things get rather spotty. The City, with the optimistic Mayor Oscar Goodman at the helm, has done a lot to get new development to come there and some success is evident. The road ahead is still long and winding, though.

Union Park is supposed to transform downtown in a big way. And it likely will. It's a 61-acre parcel of land southwest from downtown, a large vacant lot currently considered more an eyesore than anything else. The City has burned plenty of midnight oil to get something meaningful started there, yet so far steady success has been elusive.

A major step in the right direction saw daylight the other day when a ground-breaking for the beginning of infrastructure construction there was observed by local luminaries. Although infrastructure assembly is much less glamorous than kicking off the building of a high-rise luxury condominium tower, the City of Las Vegas and its development partner Newland Communities were really happy to be around to witness it. It meant progress. Isn't it true that every little bit counts.

The current blueprint for the site includes The Lou Ruvo Brain Institute designed by Frank Ghery which is already under construction, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, a Charlie Palmer's boutique hotel and restaurant, another hotel with a surgical training facility, obviously several buildings with condos and retail and office space and one more hotel with a casino. Some like to call the whole package a "city within a city". And why not? It obviously has a lot of variety going for it.

Once it gets built up it'll definitely change the flavor of downtown for much better.

Station Casinos runs a host of successful gambling halls in Las Vegas for the local clientele and is continually building new ones in strategic locations. The Aliante Station in North Las Vegas is the next property to open its doors, scheduled to do so late this year. The company is also set to break ground on another gaming facility up in the northwest section of the valley, at Durango and 95. And they have more land in Southern Nevada to do more of the same when they find the time is right.

It seems to be right for the Viva, a tentative name for a huge project Station Casinos is planning to develop at Tropicana and I-15, in the northwest corner of the intersection. The land parcel measures 110 acres in all, so it can accommodate quite a few buildings and facilities. It's probably going to take a few years before construction begins, but a lot of time nowadays is being spent on it.

As of now, the plan calls for the first stage to include three hotels with 5,200 rooms and a big casino to go with them. In some ways, according to Station Casinos, the project will resemble the now under-construction MGM Mirage's CityCenter across the freeway, a hint of what is to come. Not only in size, but also in cost, which could go as high as $10 billion if the entire plan is carried out.

It's supposed to be a mixed-use enterprise, so it's fair to expect that there will be condominiums either as part of these three hotels in phase one or then at some point in their own towers. Upscale condo sales can nicely cover a large chunk of the construction costs of a multi-billion dollar development like that. The presently difficult Las Vegas real estate and mortgage markets don't favor this right now, but down the road things can, and most likely will, be much different.

Viva would also be the third large resort project on the west side of the freeway, joining the nearby Rio and Palms just a stone's throw north. Panorama Towers, a luxury condominium destination, already sits between these two points, between Flamingo and Tropicana, on Dean Martin Drive and it appears that the somewhat obscure street is about to become even more famous. It could one day turn into a second Strip. Viva will certainly draw other similar development to the area and push away the rest of the retail and warehouse element.

The current crunch that descended on the Southern Nevada housing market is slowly working on what it is designed to do. It was invited to the valley by stark economic realities that had learned the bazaar had grown overheated and was actually about to spiral out of control. Home prices were zooming, builders were putting up way more houses than was needed and the mortgage money was cheap and accessible to just about anybody.

The crunch watched the frantic housing activity for a stretch and then saw it best to intervene, swooping in to save the day. And its actions are finally starting to produce results.

Home values here have been retreating steadily and are seemingly nearing the bottom. It's one of the three main segments in the overall market that went out of whack. The other two were anemic sales and the excess supply of new and resale houses, or the inventory.

It wasn't too long ago when local homeowners and investors were beginning to wave goodbye to the house that would cost under $100 per square foot. But thanks to the crunch and the sagging demand it brought along, things are changing. Heading in the right direction. Valley builders are nowadays offering about 100 new models in their subdivisions marked under $100 per sq. ft., reports Larry Murphy from SalesTraq. Richmond American for instance lists a 3,839 sq. ft. house at Vienna for $319,990 that comes to about $83 a sq. ft. That's the good old times right there. And something that can be sustained.

As the price levels drop, homes become more affordable again and that puts a smile on the faces of home buyers, refinance candidates and anyone in the industry. Median household incomes in Las Vegas generally had fallen way behind what it took to purchase a standard home and that's one large reason why the bazaar stalled. People simply couldn't afford to acquire property any more. Family incomes and housing prices have to bounce within a certain workable range for ongoing market stability and these two forces are approaching that now, being led by the falling price structure.

Freddie Mac is one of the big players in the secondary mortgage market, buying conforming loans there to add liquidity to the vast home finance system. The current conforming loan limit is $417,000 and anything above that is called jumbo and interest rates at that altitude generally hover as much as 1.00% higher than for the conforming money. A significant disadvantage to homeowners who wish to refinance or buyers looking to bankroll a purchase. But the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 changed the loan limit and it can now go up to $729,750 in designated expensive areas. The change is good only until the end of this year, but can be extended by Congress.

Since the new legislation was approved Freddie Mac has negotiated with Chase, CitiMortgage, WaMU and Wells Fargo, the fearsome foursome, to purchase loans from them originated in 224 high-priced markets where median home values top the $417,000 ceiling. The firm predicts the volume of the new conforming jumbo mortgages it'll buy will be worth between $10 and $15 billion this year. It also is conducting discussions with other large lenders to do the same with them.

The expected interest rates for these fresh conforming jumbos should be about .50% below the regular jumbos in these markets, but still about .50% higher than for loans under the $417,000 limit. So, they'll fall somewhere right in between the two.

While each lender will determine its own specific loan portfolio, Freddie Mac is committed to buying the following loan products; 15-, 20-, 30- and 40- year fixed-rate programs, 30-year fixed-rate loans with 10-year interest-only period, fully-amortized 5/1 ARMs and 5/1 ARMs with 10-year interest-only time frame. Cash-out refinance up to $100,000 is also available to qualified homeowners.

This certainly will add liquidity to the marketplace and with it comes a more stable lending environment, a critical component that has been shaken badly in the last year or so.