It started with a quarter-acre lot and a dream.
Domanico Construction, currently known as Domanico Builders, was founded when Ernie Domanico took a risk and built one home to flip for profit.
After graduating from UNLV, Domanico built his first house in Vegas Manner, a northwest Las Vegas community in 1974.
“I love building things,” Domanico said. “I watched my friends building houses. I told my dad and wife that I wanted to start building. They thought I was crazy.”
Domanico built the home on a lot he purchased for $6,000 using a design by Architect Larry A. Farnsworth. Farnsworth offered several home designs in the 1970s.
The 1,600 square-foot, single-story rancher featured three bedrooms, two baths, and a den. According to Domanico, the most memorable feature of the home was the den.
“It had true divided lite French doors,” Domanico said. “You open up the door and here’s this cool den. Oh man, I was so proud of that.”
The home sold for $36,000, netting Domanico a $3,000 profit.
Domanico had earned his real estate license one year before building the home. In the early days of his career, he sold real estate and built homes during the day. While in the evenings, he worked as a stagehand operating a spotlight for many local icons including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and Barbara Streisand.
“I worked with everybody,” Domanico said, who continued as a stagehand until 1995. “Every time it got tough in real estate I would go back and run spotlight for a couple of weeks and stay for a couple of years.”
Domanico joined forces with his father and brother-in-law to build three houses for family members. The homes were in the same neighborhood as his original home.
Once the projects were completed, he returned to school to earn his contractor’s license. In 1979, he founded Domanico Construction.
Throughout his career, Domanico’s portfolio included tilt-up concrete warehouses in Las Vegas and Utah, small commercial projects, and developing residential communities.
By the early 2000s, his company grew to a staff of 20 including five Domanico family members. At its peak, the company grossed over $18 million in annual revenue.
His largest residential project was completed before the recession in 2007. It was a 14,500-square-foot home built in Southern Highlands and took two and a half years to complete.
The home featured six bedrooms, an elevator, a swimming pool valued at $450,000, a waterfall, a putting green, and a 10-car garage. He sold the property to Gavin Maloof, former owner of the Sacramento Kings, for $10 million.
“After they bought it, they drained the pool and put the Sacramento Kings logo on the bottom of the pool,” Domanico recalls.
The 2008 economic downturn turned everything upside down for the Domanico family business.
“We kept thinking it was going to bounce back,” Domanico said. “It got to a point where we couldn’t keep our staff any longer, so we had to let them go.”
After being forced to lay off all his employees, the six projects currently under construction were completed by Domanico and his family.
Temporarily shuttering the business, he and his wife, Kathryn, flipped houses so they could remain close to their family in Las Vegas.
“We thought we were out of business,” Domanico said. “We even thought about going to Texas but we didn’t want to leave our kids and grandkids.”
Four years later, Domanico got the itch to build again. He purchased a lot in 2013 for $35,000 on the northwest side of town and built a spec home.
“That used to be a $300,000 lot in the old days,” Domanico said of the 2012 purchase. “And we sold the house for $440,000.”
Following the recession, Domanico chose to keep his general contracting firm small with a management staff of three. Besides Domanico, the staff consists of his daughter Michelle and his long-time friend Steve Westmoreland.
The company’s primary focus is custom building luxury homes ranging in price from $3 to $4 ½ million.
“The secret is he got dragged back into the business,” Michelle Domanico said about how the business got started again. “Everyone was asking him to build. Next thing I know we’re growing the business back again.”
Approximately 60% of their business comes from building spec homes, while the remaining comes from clients hiring his services for their custom-built projects. The majority of the projects are located in high-end communities including The Ridges, The Summit, MacDonald Highlands and Seven Hills, Spanish Trails, Red Rock Country Club, and Southern Highlands.
Currently, Domanico is working on three projects in the exclusive Vintage Valley of Southern Highlands. One is a 4,000-square-foot home for former NBA player Jordan Farmer. The home features a two-level theater, yoga/workout room, $350,000 swimming pool with a water slide and waterfalls, an exterior covered pavilion, five-car garage is valued over $3.5 million.
He is also close to completing a two-story spec home at 39 Vintage Canyon, listed for $4.5 million through Darin Marques of The Darin Marques Group at Huntington & Ellis. The 6,784 square foot home located in the exclusive Southern Highlands Golf Club features four bedrooms including two master suites, soaring ceilings, a wellness center with dry heat and wet saunas, wine cellar, swimming pool with elevated spa, elevator, and a five-car garage.
Domanico recently broke ground on a second spec home in the community. The 6,100 square foot transitional contemporary designed home features five bedrooms, pool, and spa. He plans to list it for $3.2 million.
He has two additional lots in Southern Highlands where he plans to build spec homes as well as deposits for two custom homes in the exclusive Summit community of Summerlin. Both 8,000 square feet projects are in the design phase.
Throughout his career, Domanico estimates he built over 150 custom homes. As a realtor, he listed most of the spec homes he built. He also listed the home his family was living in, and whichever home sold first they lived in the other. As a result, Domanico and his wife moved 39 times throughout their 47-year marriage.
“She’s been through everything with me,” Domanico said of his wife. “She’s a trooper.”
Overall, the Domanico’s pride themselves on being an honest firm that provides quality work at an affordable price.
“We get a lot of self-satisfaction creating something spectacular,” Domanico said. “We love what we do.”
As he considers the future of his business, the 72-year-old Domanico doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon.
“Steve and Michelle want me to stick around and have fun with them,” Domanico said. “I plan to work another 8 to 10 years. Maybe I’ll retire when I’m 80.”
