As kids, Jess and Josie Molasky built tiny villages with their dad in the sand at Red Rock Canyon.

Their father, Las Vegas developer Alan Molasky, would stop for coffee before their desert hikes and the empty cups became molds for sandcastles and miniature communities. Father and children invented stories about the people who might live there.

Today, they’re still building neighborhoods and imagining the futures of the people in them. Josie is now the director of design and co-owner at Ovation Development, the family company her father chairs. Her brother, Jess Molasky, is Ovation’s chief operating officer and co-owner.

“It’s a full-circle moment to realize that we kind of get to do that in real life by building these communities in Las Vegas,” Josie said.

This summer, the Molasky family's latest investment brings its name to UNLV through the Molasky Family Department of Economics and Real Estate, the first named academic department in university history. The naming recognizes their support over the last three generations and the impact their latest gift will have on future students.

The First Generation: 45 Acres on Maryland Parkway

The family’s relationship with UNLV began with Josie and Jess’ grandfather, the late Irwin Molasky. One of the developers who helped shape modern Las Vegas, Irwin’s projects included Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center, Paradise Palms, and the Boulevard Mall, Nevada’s first enclosed shopping mall.

In the 1960s, Irwin worked with banker Parry Thomas to assemble land for UNLV's growing campus. In a 2014 oral history interview with UNLV Libraries, Irwin described his land donation as “one of the best things I did.”

The donation added 45 acres at Maryland Parkway and Flamingo Road that became part of UNLV’s campus. In 1981, he became the founding chairman of the UNLV Foundation. 

His son Alan remembers another side of him. “I was so lucky because he was not only my father, but a mentor,” Alan said. “And he had a lot of trust and belief in me.” 

The Second Generation: Learning by Doing

Alan went on to found Ovation Development more than four decades ago, building his own reputation in Southern Nevada's real estate industry. Today, the company develops both market-rate and affordable housing, including communities designed for seniors with limited incomes.

“My formal education gave me an important foundation,” Alan said, “but the hands-on experience I gained through internships with architects, contractors and mortgage bankers helped shape both my career and the path my life would take, giving me knowledge, perspective and confidence.”

In 2026, Lee Business School recognized Alan with the Lieder Award, the same honor his father received 25 years earlier. The award recognizes leaders whose real estate developments have made a lasting impact on Southern Nevada.

Christy Molasky, ’88 BSBA Finance, Jess and Josie's mother, also contributed to the family's most recent gift. While earning her undergraduate degree, she helped revive the student chapter of the Financial Management Association, and as the chapter’s president, organized meetings and brought business leaders to campus.

“That experience helped shape my belief in the importance of giving students opportunities to connect what they learn in the classroom with leadership, mentorship, and real-world relationships,” she said.

After her studies at UNLV, Christy went on to earn her MBA from Northeastern University in Boston.

The Third Generation: Passing Access Forward

The family's relationship with UNLV found renewed momentum in September 2022, when a student helped connect the next generation of Molasky’s with the Lied Center for Real Estate.

Jaydin Moore, ’24 BSBA Real Estate and Urban Economics, was then president of UNLV's Real Estate & Business Society and introduced Jess Molasky to professor Shawn McCoy, who had recently become director of the Lied Center for Real Estate.

“At the time, I was simply thinking of two people in my world whom I felt, quite passionately, should know one another,” Moore said. Within weeks, Jess and McCoy were talking about internships, mentorship, guest lectures, and other opportunities for students to learn directly from industry professionals.  

Moore understood the value of those connections firsthand. As a student, he participated in site tours, career events and mentorship opportunities that put him directly in contact with Southern Nevada’s real estate industry.

“These experiences brought the classroom to life,” Moore said. Now an acquisitions and dispositions analyst at AMH in Las Vegas, Moore said mentorship, combined with his UNLV coursework, helped prepare him for a career in real estate.

Ovation Development and the Molasky family have long supported the Lied Center for Real Estate and the mentoring programs established by Debra March, the former mayor of Henderson who served as the center's executive director 1995-2009. 

The family's latest gift formally establishes the Molasky Family Leadership and Mentorship Program, a semester-long program that pairs students with professionals whose work aligns with their career interests.

Ovation has welcomed UNLV interns and hired university alumni, extending those professional connections beyond the mentorship program. For Alan, supporting students is an opportunity to pass along the kind of guidance he received from his father. 

“I hope that by [continuing to welcome] UNLV students to intern at Ovation, we can give the next generation that same kind of meaningful, real-world experience, and perhaps help shape their futures as others helped shape mine.”

Shawn McCoy, director of the Lied Center for Real Estate and an associate professor in the Molasky Family Department of Economics and Real Estate, believes those connections are part of how students learn. “Mentorship and industry engagement have become less of an extracurricular component and more of a defining part of the student experience,” McCoy said.

What Comes Next

The department naming builds on the family's commitment to student opportunities while extending its investment into other areas of business education. The gift establishes endowed support for scholarships, experiential learning, curriculum development, faculty research and fellowships, along with programming that connects students with Southern Nevada's business community.

“I've always been a private person but having our family name associated with UNLV is different,” Alan said. “It's something I'm genuinely proud of, especially knowing how much the university meant to my father,” Alan said.

Asked what he hopes the Molasky name will mean to a student graduating from the department 20 years from now, Jess looked ahead.

“A city needs a good university to be world-class,” he said. “We want the Molasky Family Department of Economics and Real Estate to be the incubator for the next generation of placemakers in Las Vegas. Our grandfather, our father, and now us — each generation has treated this city as ours to build. We hope every student who graduates from this school walks out feeling the same: that Las Vegas is theirs to shape."