Neonopolis looking for occupants

Erin Neff

Tuesday, June 22, 1999 | 11:29 a.m.

Edward and Julie Jacobs peered through the chain-link fence at Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street on Monday morning eyeing the construction crews several stories below.

"What the heck is a Neonopolis?" asked Edward Jacobs of Ames, Iowa, after reading the sign hawking the site to would-be retailers.

"I don't know, but it sounds very Las Vegas," his wife, Julie, said.

Neonopolis, by all accounts, couldn't be any more Las Vegas.

The retail and entertainment complex under construction adjacent to the Fremont Street Experience is seen as the most vital link in the downtown redevelopment chain.

But the project, for which the city is building the $14 million parking garage, has gotten off to a slow start finding tenants. Mann Theatres has signed on for an 11-screen cinema on the third floor of Neoopolis, but not one tenant has inked a deal for the remaining 72 percent of space.

Neonopolis must open Thanksgiving weekend in 2000 in order to keep the target date agreement with Mann Theatres.

"We have a very strong sense of urgency," said Sandie Witmer, a principal of the Miami-based Retail Estate, which was recently hired to lease Neonopolis by the project's developer. "We're looking to sign some contracts as soon as possible."

Retail Estate was hired last month by World Entertainment Centers, the Delaware company developing Neonopolis, with hopes of finding tenants during the International Council of Shopping Centers convention in late May.

"They hit the ground running at the convention," said Rob Snowden, vice president of World Entertainment Centers. "The next 8 to 12 weeks after the convention is critical."

Snowden said he hopes to lease restaurants for the project in the next 30 to 60 days. Once restaurants are on board, he said, it will be easier to lease the remaining retail space.

Neonopolis is being touted as an open-air urban entertainment "destination." It will have a two-level subterranean parking garage and a central courtyard where entertainers will perform.

Granite Construction is currently working on the parking garage and has finished the major excavation work.

Although the garage won't be completed by Sept. 22, enough of it will be finished to begin work on the actual building, said Stacey Lied, vice president of planning and development for the City Centre Development Corporation.

"At that point they can start on the shell of the building," Lied said.

The $99 million project includes 203,646 square feet -- room for about 60 tenants.

Originally the developers had eyed roughly 40,000 square feet for four anchor retailers.

Witmer's group has revised the leasing layout in an effort to create more diverse offerings. Now, instead of a 10,000-square-foot department store, Neonopolis will have a 5,000-square-foot retailer, she said.

In addition to roughly 50 retail tenants, Neonopolis will feature five restaurants and a food court with six eateries.

Snowden said he does not consider the Race Rock restaurant under construction across the pedestrian mall from the Neonopolis site to be competition.

"It's very much a plus," Snowden said of the car racing-themed restaurant set to open Labor Day weekend in the Fremont Street Experience parking garage. "It helps validate the location.

"It will help bring traffic down to our block (from the Fremont Street Experience) 12 months before Neonopolis opens," Snowden said.

Witmer said she is not under contract to lease a specific portion of Neonopolis by a specific date.

"Just as soon as possible," Witmer said.

Neonopolis is owned by and financed through Prudential Insurance Co. The City Centre Development Corporation -- the private sector arm of the city's redevelopment efforts -- is overseeing and financing the parking garage.

The city, in turn, will receive proceeds from the parking garage revenues.

Developers see the 9 million tourists who visit or stay downtown each year and the region's 1.2 million residents as the prime target audiences.

"We don't really look at it as us vs. them demographics on the Strip," Witmer said, referring to the huge increase in retail development on Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County. "If we were trying to sell this on the Strip, we wouldn't be able to."

Mann Theatres -- which is anchoring a similar revitalization effort in Hollywood -- chose Neonopolis because of its downtown location and existing tourist base.

Once downtown at night for the Fremont Street Experience laser show, many tourists walk the four city blocks under the canopy looking for something else to do.

"There's not a lot of places across the country like Fremont Street has without anything else to do," said Witmer, whose company has leased retail centers nationwide, including Miami's Coco Walk -- on which Neonopolis was loosely modeled.

Neonopolis is seen as the next logical extension of the Fremont Street Experience. The Experience, city officials argue, helped secure jobs and kept tourists coming to downtown's older casinos despite increased competition on the Strip.

Now, Neonopolis is viewed as the central element of future redevelopment downtown -- including any plans for the 178-acre parcel of land owned by Union Pacific Railroad and Lehman Brothers.

Mark Paris, president of the Fremont Street Experience, said Neonopolis will provide a much-needed place for people to meet, eat and shop downtown.

Sales tax revenue generated from Neonopolis will help the city continue to fund redevelopment efforts downtown, officials said.