Squatters keep taking over 7-story Vegas-area apartment building that stalled out while under construction

Construction work on the building in Henderson, Nevada, stopped in December

A Nevada business owner says he is concerned about squatters causing damage to a Las Vegas-area high-rise building where construction halted last year.

Jeremy Day, owner of neighboring business Freak’s Tattoo Emporium, is working to keep The Watermark, a mixed-use apartment building in Downtown Henderson, clean. He’s complained about how alleged squatters have pried the fence posts open in front of the building.

“I don’t know how they bent it,” Day told KLAS. “I tried bending it back with a ratcheting tie-down strap by putting it across and putting it back again a couple of times, but they keep bending it open somehow.”

Day has struggled to locate the property’s owner. His tattoo shop runs along the south side of the building. He said he has told the squatters to keep away from the building several times. Other residents are concerned about rising theft in the area.

The man is not financially attached to the building but is worried that the squatters may cause fires that’ll reach his business.

A photo of the The Watermark, an abandoned high-rise in Nevada (KLAS)

“I’m worried as time goes on, it gets out cold, they’re going to light fires or something,” he said. “I’ve had multiple confrontations where I’ve actually told them, they need to leave the property. They’re in the parking garage, as far as I know, but they’re in there all the time.”

Day says he contacted the police about the problem but they allegedly told him there was nothing they could do.

“He said the biggest problem is because they don’t have a list of who’s supposed to go into the property,” Day said. “They said unless the owners call them, there’s no way to know if the person is allowed in there or not.”

Construction on the building stalled in December when contractors walked off the job. There are around $16m in liens against the property.

Earlier this year graffiti covered at least 27 stories of an unfinished high-rise development in Los Angeles. The three-tower project was going to house a hotel and luxury condos, but the project stalled in 2019 when a Chinese developer ran out of money.