Thursday, April 20, 2000 | 11:06 a.m.
A planned office tower downtown cleared its final procedural hurdles Wednesday by receiving both Las Vegas City Council and planning staff approval.
The Colorado-based Pauls Corp. is developing a six-story office building with an attached three-story garage on the southwest corner of Fourth Street and Lewis Avenue.
The 111,495-square-foot tower should begin rising this fall from the lot vacated in March 1999 when plans for Sun Plaza fell through.
"This is a well-conceived redevelopment project," City Centre Development Corp. President Mike Forche told the council.
Final approval of the site development plan was granted 5-0 with Councilmen Michael McDonald and Michael Mack absent for the vote.
The granite building with nonreflective glass windows on upper floors will be just a block away from the planned Regional Justice Center and several blocks from the Foley Federal Building now under construction.
"It looks like it's a Class A, A-1, top-class building," Mayor Oscar Goodman said, before advising Pauls Corp. president Paul Powers and architect Ed Vance to: "Work diligently and quickly please."
"We just came from express plans check, and we're all approved," Vance responded, referring to clearance the project received Wednesday morning from city planners.
Under the Pauls Corp.'s agreement with the city, Pauls will purchase the land for the office building for $1.1 million.
The city purchased the site for $6.4 million and spent another $700,000 preparing it when the Sun Plaza was proposed. That office tower, planned by American Nevada Corp. and Nevada State Bank, fell through in March 1999.
American Nevada Corp. is owned by the Greenspun family, which owns the Las Vegas Sun.
The Pauls Corp. hopes to close on the property next month and begin construction on the building this year. Construction is estimated to take 12 months.
The city will build a 600-space parking garage, estimated to cost $7.5 million, on the part of the lot not used for the office tower.
Pauls will lease 440 spaces from the city at market rate with the city retaining the remaining spaces.
The Pauls Corp. has developed office buildings in eight metropolitan areas, including downtown Denver. The company developed the City Center West office tower on Lake Mead Boulevard in northwest Las Vegas.
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