Wednesday, July 7, 1999 | 11:26 a.m.
Frustrated by the lack of offers for its asbestos-plagued building that sits in the heart of downtown Las Vegas, Clark County officials finally decided to seek the commission's permission to renovate the old structure.
Once the decision was made -- and two years after the building was put on the market -- offers poured in to buy the abandoned county structure for the asking price of about $3.8 million.
On Tuesday, board members agreed the offers were too little too late.
Rather than selling the former county government center, commissioners decided to clean it up and move divisions leasing space from the Clark Place Building back into the Bridger Building.
"When we made the decision to sell it, I recommended removing the asbestos and keeping it as office space," Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said. "It took us awhile to get to my original suggestion, but nevertheless we're here."
General Services Director Earl Hawkes said the reason nobody has been interested in the building at the corner of Third and Bridger streets is because of the significant amount of asbestos.
He estimated it would cost about $20 million to gut the 86,000-square-foot building and remodel it. The benefits would be worth the cost, he said.
"Every building we build, we grow so quickly, we grow right out of the space," Hawkes said. "We decided selling this building may not be such a good idea."
The county left the Bridger Building in 1995 when it moved into the lavish Clark County Government Center on Grand Central Parkway. Two years later, it decided to try to sell the property.
Hawkes said holding onto the building also would satisfy the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, which urges the county to use its own property for office space rather than leasing buildings.
The county leases about 34,781 square feet from the Clark Place Building downtown and spends $863,000 a year on rent. Rent will increase in 2001, forcing the county to spend about $985,000 on the lease. Hawkes said if the county moves its offices out of Clark Place, it will save about $1 million a year.
Those savings would pay 57 percent of the debt service related to a bond that would have to be issued to renovate the building, Hawkes said.
archive
