Plan advances for a resort near Sahara

Erin Neff

Monday, Jan. 10, 2000 | 11:14 a.m.

A developer is hoping to breath life into a long-neglected stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard just south of downtown with a 28-story hotel-casino.

Plans call for demolition of the small El Mirador hotel, built in 1949, to make room for a 322,226-square-foot tower and attached parking garage.

When the huge project was originally proposed on 2.37 acres, city planners wondered about the logistics of putting a 28-story building on the size parcel typically filled with something like a McDonald's restaurant.

Charlie Frias, the owner of A-North Las Vegas Cab Co., is also president of Oxford Technology Inc., which is proposing the hotel-casino on Las Vegas Boulevard just north of Sahara Avenue.

He has spent the months since an initial December 1998 council approval purchasing adjacent property to give his planned El Mirador hotel-casino more room to breathe.

"One of the initial concerns was that you're putting five pounds in a four pound bag," Frias' attorney Greg Jensen said. "Since then, Charlie has acquired more land to bring it to better position."

City planners will recommend the Planning Commission approve Oxford Technology Inc.'s latest proposal when it is unveiled Thursday.

However, city senior planner Andy Reed said city staff will not allow Oxford to vacate Fairfield Avenue, one of three roads providing east-to-west access from the Strip to the project area, in order to build on it.

Emergency personnel have suggested that vacating the road would make their access to the typically congested Sahara Avenue-Las Vegas Boulevard intersection nearly impossible.

Frank Schreck, an attorney representing the Stratosphere hotel-casino nearby, agreed.

"If they close Fairfield, it's just going to dump more traffic on the neighborhood," Schreck said.

Jensen said Frias has withdrawn the request to close Fairfield to traffic.

Still residents are not convinced they want another behemoth development near their neighborhoods.

"I think that would really add to the traffic problems," said Pat Ulmer, who lives several blocks behind the proposed hotel. "It's bad enough here now without another huge casino."

City Councilman Gary Reese, whose ward includes the project area, said he has some traffic concerns, but is pleased that a planned $200 million to $400 million casino could soon rise in his ward.

"I haven't really seen all of the plans, but I think this is the type of thing we need to spark other development," Reese said.

Oxford Technology is asking the Planning Commission to approve both the special use permit and a zoning change from high-density residential to general commercial.

Adjacent properties all have either general commercial or high-density residential zoning.

Reed said the zoning change is recommended for approval, because the site is located near a tourist corridor including the Aztec Inn, Holy Cow Casino and Stratosphere.