Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF GALE (CARS, SCULPTURE); COURTESY OF THE TORINO FOUNDATION (CAMP) POWER STRIP Summertime fun at Torino's kids' camps continued from page 59 "Th e fi rst time somebody tells me something isn't going to work, I know I'm probably doing the right thing. " a collector. The amazing pieces under this roof—which also include a beautifully restored, fully operational, turn-of-the-century carousel and the gleaming perfection of what has been called the greatest muscle car collection in the world—certainly attest to that. But for Torino, holding on to these meaningful items and being the keeper of their stories is merely an extension of the way he thinks and lives. "It's not about money, it's relation- ships," he says. "It's about people liking you. When people trust you, they let you into their world." Torino is equally humble in regard to his business. He was a major multifamily resi- dential builder during the mid '80s and '90s across the Southwest and has turned his attention to the Strip more recently, buying his first property here in 1995, before selling the majority of his company in 2001, a few months before 9/11. "I've always had the propensity to know how to buy land and been willing to take chances and see opportunity perhaps where others didn't," he says. "I love the Strip because it is the most competi- tive environment for real estate in this country. You've got the best and the brightest competing for limited resources, so it challenges you to be on your A game." Torino's latest project demonstrates that he's indeed playing the game at its highest levels. The recently completed three- story Harmon Corner retail center, which cost $120 million to construct, is turning heads and generating traffic for a variety of reasons. Atop the development sits the largest high-resolution video billboard in the world, a 322- by 65-foot wall of near- unlimited advertising and branding potential. Torino says he's made a career out of proving doubters wrong, and the Harmon Center project was no different. People scoffed when he and his partners paid $25 million for the oddly shaped 2.15-acre parcel in a depressed economy. Torino now considers the project one of his most successful. "The first time somebody tells me something isn't going to work, I know I'm probably doing the right thing," he says. "The fact is, when there's a desire to do something and fulfill a need, you just do it. It's that simple." V Torino commissioned this 22-foot-tall, 12-foot-wide chandelier to be the heart of his foundation's headquarters. Torino's muscle car collection has been called the greatest in the world. A CAMP THAT CARES Summer programs at Torino Ranch let kids be kids, whatever their needs. For Brett Torino, nothing is more important than the impact the Torino Foundation has had on the community, and specifically children affected by life-threatening illnesses and autism. This summer, he'll pour that passion into his summer camps from late June until mid August at Torino Ranch in Lovell Canyon, about 40 minutes west of Las Vegas, where hundreds of special-needs kids swim, sing, dance, and do arts and crafts, thanks in part to a powerful partnership with the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation. Four years ago at Sunrise Children's Hospital, the Torino Foundation opened the first classroom in the country to provide in-patient education for children receiving long-term, hospital-based care for cancer and immune-related diseases. "It allows them to have their education back, which is huge," Torino says. The second cutting- edge Torino Classroom experience will open soon at University Medical Center, and the foundation also provided a big boost for NCCF's Caring Place program to support adults and pediatric cancer patients. "Why do we work as hard as we do as a company?" he says. "Just for that. That's what matters." 60 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM