Lennar Begins Site Work on the Former Badlands Golf Course in Las Vegas
Lennar has started site work on the former Badlands golf course in Las Vegas, a 27-hole course that closed in 2016. Plans call for 1,480 homes, after a settlement that cost the city $286 million.
Lennar Corp. is laying out roads and homesites on the former Badlands golf course in Las Vegas. The 27-hole layout on the city’s west side, beside the Queensridge neighborhood, closed in 2016. The roughly 250-acre property is now called The Preserve, and plans call for 1,480 homes. Lennar told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that site work began a few months ago.
The cost of reaching this stage was high. Under a settlement the Las Vegas City Council approved in late 2024, the city agreed to buy the course from its prior owners for $636 million and promptly sell it to Lennar for $350 million. Both transactions closed in March 2025. The difference, $286 million, was the city’s net cost, and it prompted buyout offers, hiring freezes, and project delays at City Hall.
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The dispute that produced that number stretched across years. Badlands Golf Club opened in October 1995 with 27 holes designed by Johnny Miller, its three nines named Desperado, Diablo, and Outlaw. The course ceased operation in December 2016, a year after Las Vegas developer Yohan Lowie acquired the property through his firm, EHB Cos. EHB drew up plans for thousands of multifamily units, dozens of large homesites, and open space. Residents of Queensridge, an upscale community that weaves through the course, strongly opposed the idea. Lowie’s group sued the city, claiming it had effectively taken the property by blocking redevelopment, and won multiple times in court. The Review-Journal’s timeline of the Badlands saga traces the full sequence.
Lennar, a Miami-based homebuilder and one of the largest in the country, was not part of that legal battle. It took control of the site as part of the settlement between the city and the prior landowners. Homesites and roads are taking shape in the northwest section of the property, at the corner of Alta Drive and Hualapai Way. The planned mix includes townhomes, condos, and single-family houses, along with a community pool, fitness center, playground, and basketball and pickleball courts. Lennar’s page for The Preserve also lists a modern clubhouse among the amenities. Lennar’s website and a sign at the property say the community is coming in 2028.
Joy Broddle, president of Lennar’s Las Vegas division, acknowledged the baggage in her interview with the Review-Journal. She described the deal as unique because it involved a golf course with “some rough history.” Lennar’s goal, she said, is to “turn that around” and make it a “positive story” for the community.
The outcome is clear enough. Neighbors fought to keep a golf course green, and the site is now planned for 1,480 homes, with the city’s taxpayers covering the $286 million cost of resolving the dispute. Across town, golf in Las Vegas is still drawing new investment, as at Wynn Golf Club, where Cliff House, an SOM clubhouse, recently opened. Other closed or threatened courses are turning toward housing by different routes, including Farrell Estates on the former East Course at Palm Beach Polo in Wellington, Florida, and Village Golf Club in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, where a homebuilder is exploring homes under a new state law.
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The Badlands is a warning for any neighborhood built around a golf course. When the course closes, the land’s future is rarely settled by the people who live beside it. It tends to be settled by owners, courts, and city budgets, and Las Vegas has now seen how long and how costly that process can be.
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