Renovations planned at area shelter

Art Nadler

Friday, Nov. 8, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

St. Vincent Plaza, which shelters and feeds the homeless, is getting a $17 million facelift, thanks to a $1.5 million gift from the owners of a local casino company.

Frank and Victoria Fertitta, owners of Station Casinos Inc., were to present Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada with the gift today at the plaza at 1501 Las Vegas Blvd. North. Renovations are expected to begin early next year.

"The success of the St. Vincent project will be a major factor in the quantity and quality of services to our low-income and at-risk neighbors," said Mike Husted, Catholic Charities executive director. "This is not just a Catholic Charities project. It is a Southern Nevada project.

"We hope that everyone will see this as a community-impact project and embrace it and rally to help."

When renovations are completed by the year 2000, the 90,000-square-foot St. Vincent Plaza will resemble a Spanish Mission, said Kathryn Haisan, director of communications for Catholic Charities. Three to four annex buildings will be built around the plaza that will house laundry facilities, postal services, a thrift store, administration offices and transitional housing.

"The new St. Vincent Plaza will include three components -- crisis and homeless services, a supportive residential program and a business complex," Haisan said. "We expect to have the kitchen and dining room, emergency shelter, employment center and some housing units under construction next year."

The transitional housing unit will offer affordable apartments for 200 men who graduate from the center's residential work program. About 300 men participate in the program now, Haisan said.

"Last year, over 1,000 men got full-time jobs (after completing training)," Haisan said. "We are seeing more employable and skilled men, and businesses are helping them."

The furnished apartments will be affordable and accessible to the disabled, Haisan said. Reasonable housing is important, she stressed, because many work-program graduates end up back at the shelter because they can't afford rental prices in Southern Nevada.

The emergency shelter, which houses about 200 men a night, and all other operations at St. Vincent Plaza will remain open during renovations, Haisan said. No one will be displaced, she emphasized.

"The mission of Catholic Charities is to provide services which recognize the human dignity in all people," Bishop Daniel Walsh of Las Vegas said. "The new St. Vincent Plaza will be a tangible expression of that dignity.

"Assistance and dignity will be provided to people in need in a warm, humanizing environment. As a caring community working together, we bring hope to our neighbors and help them gain control to help themselves."

This gift follows on the heels of more than $3 million in federal grants Las Vegas nonprofit organizations received earlier this year. Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada received nearly $2.7 million of these grants.

Haisan said Catholic Charities will be asking area corporations and private citizens for the remainder of the funds. People can contact her at 383-1163 to donate.

St. Vincent Plaza was built in the 1960s. It was originally the Vegas Village Shopping Mall. Catholic Charities purchased it 15 years ago.

"The plaza is still the one-stop shopping idea," Haisan said in reference to the mall's original theme. "The only difference now is that it's for social services."