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LAS VEGAS — Despite the national recession and a local unemployment rate hovering about 6 percent, Las Vegas continues to experience a retail boom. 

Matt Bear, a principal with commercial brokerage NewMarket Advisors, said he’s seen no slowdown in retailers’ plans to locate stores in fast-growing parts of the valley. 

R.C. Willey Home Furnishings, a new retailer in Las Vegas, is buying land in the master-planned community of Summerlin for its second southern Nevada store. 

The deal offers evidence of sustained high growth on the city’s west side, industry experts said. That’s despite the slowdown in tourism after Sept. 11 that cost an estimated 15,000 residents their jobs. 

The Sport Chalet, Barnes & Noble and Whole Foods, a national health food and gourmet grocery store, along with upscale retailers Williams-Sonoma, the Gap, Pottery Barn, Talbots and Banana Republic are planning to open stores this spring in westside shopping centers. 

The second phase of Boca Park, a massive, three-phase Triple 5 project, is set to open in March in the same area with upscale interior decorating and furniture retailer the Great Indoors as an anchor. 

“It’s a testament to how attractive Las Vegas continues to be as a place to live,” Bear told the Las Vegas Sun. 

For R.C. Willey, that population growth prompted construction of a second store. 

“We decided it was the right time to proceed with a second store based on our success in our first store in Henderson,” said Scott Hymas, chief executive of the Salt Lake City-based retailer.