Council covets 10 acres in core of city

Erin Neff

Monday, Dec. 4, 2000 | 11:14 a.m.

The city of Las Vegas has already grabbed 61 acres of vacant prime land downtown to help entice developers to the urban core.

Now the City Council is looking for more, and plans to purchase another 10 acres nearby.

On Wednesday the council will likely vote to purchase a $4.2 million parcel at Parkway Center from Union Pacific Railroad. The item first must clear an early-morning Real Estate Committee meeting before the council receives the proposal during its 9 a.m. session.

The property will sell for $9.25 a square foot, for a total asking price of almost $4.3 million. The city thinks the parcel, called Parkway Center Lot 4, is a prime location for an office, retail or residential project.

The council will first vote to purchase the property and then immediately vote to sell it to LVDT Redevelopment, LLC. In another item, the council will create a non-profit corporation, City Parkway IV, to purchase and take title of Lot 4.

"We're working like beavers," Mayor Oscar Goodman said of the city's real estate dealings downtown. "I don't think we're leaving a stone unturned."

On Friday, Goodman heard a proposal from the University Board of Regents for a possible medical school campus on part of the 61 acres the city has already agreed to purchase from Lehman Brothers.

Talks with the University and Community College System of Nevada have been informal up until now. But Goodman said the city would sell the prime downtown real estate at a price that was "was best for Southern Nevada."

"It changes the whole environment of the city," Goodman said of the proposed university system medical center and research complex.

Several regents took the microphone to give the proposal high marks.

Plans for the the medical center are in a draft stage. No price tag or fiscal budget has as yet been determined.

Last week the city also sent out dozens of requests for qualifications to any and all developers who have expressed even the slightest interest in the Lehman site downtown.

The city has already gotten some responses and plans to convene a committee of city officials to examine the best proposals.

In addition to the 10-acre parcel expected to be purchased by the city, Las Vegas officials are also eyeing Lot 5 of the Parkway Center.

Parkway Center is the name given a currently vacant, but improved, parcel of land near the Clark County Government Center. A high-tech incubator and a furniture showcase have already signed deals to developments on part of the land.

The 61-acre Lehman site is south of Parkway Center and abuts the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and the Spaghetti Bowl.

Goodman also has held discussions recently with a group of business people interested in buying the Plaza hotel-casino, which lies at the edge of the Lehman site and is a gateway to the Fremont Street Experience.

The hotel, which opened in 1971 as the Union Plaza, has been the subject of rumored sales talks for several years.

In some scenarios a new hotel-casino would rise from the site and link to a downtown monorail.

Goodman said the property is key to making the Lehman site accessible and opening that development to the rest of downtown.

So, what would Goodman like to see happen with the Plaza?

"I'd like to see it imploded and be the entrance way to the 61 acres," he said.