Neonopolis negotiates for big theater complex

Denise Cardinal

Thursday, May 7, 1998 | 10:10 a.m.

A major nationwide movie theater operator has informally agreed to develop 24 theaters in the Neonopolis @ Fremont Street project in downtown Las Vegas.

Neonopolis is a retail entertainment center planned for the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street. The project, developed by World Entertainment Center of Atlanta, is to be completed in 2000.

Mike Forche, president of City Centre Development, an arm of the city's redevelopment agency, said the operator's name will be announced when an agreement is signed.

A few details of the agreement need to be hammered out, Forche said.

One aspect involves the Fremont Street Experience Parking Garage, which was owned by the city but now is owned by the Fremont Street Experience Limited Liability Corp., a for-profit corporation made up of downtown casino owners. If the corporation decides to sell the parking garage, which is across Fremont Street from Neonopolis, then the city would have to build parking near the theaters to make up for the loss of the 900 spaces of public parking in the garage.

Another item to be figured out, he said, was that the operator wants the city's redevelopment agency to agree not to subsidize any other theater project downtown that exceeds six screens for the next five years.

Forche said up to 10 other tenants will sign agreements to operate in Neonopolis once the theater operator deal is final.