Single-room apartments in downtown LV delayed

Denise Cardinal

Thursday, Feb. 19, 1998 | 10:12 a.m.

Next month was supposed to see the grand opening of a federally funded, single-room apartment complex near downtown Las Vegas.

But today, ground has yet to be broken and neighbors and city officials are asking why.

Planned for the lot surrounded by Stewart and Ogden avenues and Eighth and Ninth streets, the SRO is being developed by the Tom Hom Group, a San Diego-based developer. When finished, the complex will have 320 rooms that rent for $475 a month. Each room's dimensions range from 168 square feet to 224 square feet.

But the developer is now asking the Las Vegas City Council to reinstate and extend a zoning change the council approved back in late 1996 that allows the complex to be built in a commercial zone.

The SRO, named Campaige Place, has been delayed because of problems with the project's funding.

Though it's being paid for through state private activity bonds, the project still needs a financial institution or lender to guarantee it. The Tom Hom Group had a guarantor lined up that eventually pulled its agreement because of concerns about the surrounding neighborhood.

"The original lender we had selected got scared of the neighborhood and some of the negative comments from the neighborhood," said Will Newbern, president of the Tom Hom Group. "They actually scared the lender off and we had to go back to square one."

When it was introduced almost two years ago, Campaige Place wasn't greeted warmly by neighbors who were worried it would become a flophouse and feed into the area's prostitution and drug problems.

Even some of the city's officials questioned the zoning change. The project was unanimously rejected by the city's board of zoning adjustment back in 1996. Later that year, the developers appealed and the City Council unanimously voted in favor of the project.

The council approved the SRO because of the way it fit into the redevelopment plans for downtown, which include high-density housing for low-income residents.

"This is just one of the many different ways that we approach critical mass and housing in the downtown area," said Sharon Segerblom, director of the city's neighborhood services division. "This is just one of many approaches. It will be a beautiful building. The architect, Rob Quigley, is well-known for his work."

The project should be breaking ground in 60 days and should be completed in about a year, Newbern said.