Silver State Award winner Mark Fine is one of Southern Nevada’s preeminent real estate developers. The president of Mark L. Fine & Associates is also a passionate supporter of UNLV. He demonstrated this passion by chairing the UNLV Foundation’s Board of Trustees real estate committee for two years and has continued to be a vocal advocate for the university through the years. During the most recent legislative session, he traveled to Carson City to meet with legislators to support UNLV’s call for decreasing planned budget cuts.

Tell us about a moment when someone showed you unexpected kindness. How do you pay it forward?

My involvement with UNLV started in the mid-1970s. I became aware that for this city to grow in a positive way UNLV needed to lead the way. I became active in prioritizing academics and committed in lending my support in that direction.

Thanks to a young enthusiastic new president named Bob Maxson, who pulled in a new generation of community supporters who shared his academic vision, I was recruited to be a trustee over 30 years ago. Those years not only allowed me to help UNLV but they were also important in my personal development and allowed me to grow in so many ways.

I have personally worked with every president since then, each one helping to take UNLV to the next level. I continue to be astounded by how our university has grown over the last 30 years and thrilled that our community has embraced the vision through donations and activism. UNLV has helped me find my voice, which I hope helped UNLV and the many other community organizations that I have been lucky enough to be associated with. I continue to be active as a trustee, where I have served in many capacities, including chairman. I believe our future has never been better. I can’t imagine where we will be in another 30 years, but it is going to be great.

Growing Las Vegas

In 1968 Fine started his career with Chemical Bank in New York City as a construction lender and later helped manage real estate assets for Loeb/Rhoades & Company, a major Wall Street investment banking company. He moved to Las Vegas in 1973.

As the president of American Nevada, he guided the development and growth of Green Valley for 17 years, Las Vegas’s first large-scale master-planned communities. During his tenure, Green Valley was rated one of the nation’s fastest-growing community. Fine also spent approximately five years as the president of the Summerlin division of Howard Hughes Corporation, helping to launch that 22,000-acre master-planned community in 1991. It became the nation’s fastest growing master planned community during his tenure. In addition, he has been involved with the development of approximately 2 million square feet of commercial and retail projects over his career and has served as a development advisor to the master planned communities of Queensridge North and South, Mountain’s Edge, Providence, and Inspirada.

In 2005, along with his son, Jeffrey, Fine started Fine Properties, focusing on unique, high-end retail and office projects. Some Fine Properties projects include: Hills Center North Business Park, Canyon Pointe Shops, Gardens Plaza Retail and Business Park and most recently the 400,000 square-foot Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Headquarters.

Fine has also played critical roles in higher education in the state of Nevada. He served as the UNLV Foundation Board of Trustees real estate chair for two years. He is a member and former chairman of the UNLV Research Foundation Board of Directors and during the most recent legislative session, he traveled to Carson City to meet with legislators to support UNLV’s call for decreasing planned budget cuts. Fine has been a Trustee of the UNLV Foundation for over 30 years.

He has been active for 40 years in the economic development of Las Vegas as well as active on many levels with the Clark County School District.