City close to getting key downtown land

Erin Neff

Friday, June 23, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

For years a massive parcel of downtown Las Vegas land that could be the key to Mayor Oscar Goodman's redevelopment dreams has sat vacant while dozens of project ideas and hours of discussions fell by the wayside.

Now the city is on the verge of obtaining 61 acres of the parcel from Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. for the purposes of redevelopment.

Goodman said Thursday that the city and Lehman are so close on a final deal that he believes he can close it soon.

"We're only a million apart," Goodman said Thursday.

The city is offering to trade land in its 96-acre Northwest Technology Park and unspecified cash for Lehman's 61 acres downtown.

Goodman would not disclose specific points of the city's offer except to say: "We made what I consider to be a very serious offer. They told us they would get back to us."

Lehman Bros. representatives have met with Goodman, City Manager Virginia Valentine and other officials several times in the past week to discuss a deal.

In September 1998, Lehman appraised the site at $48.3 million. The city has recently conducted its own internal appraisal. That figure has not been released.

Goodman said he thinks his vision for a downtown sports arena or performing arts center hinges on the city's ability to control the land. The Lehman Bros. parcel is adjacent to another 178-acre site owned by Union Pacific Railroad.

Next week Union Pacific representatives are tentatively scheduled to meet with developers who have financial backing to create a dot-com business incubator, office space and retail on roughly 5 acres of railroad land referred to as Parkway Center.

The developers also envision creating a campus setting with parks, townhomes and a potential downtown college site on the remaining Union Pacific property.

After meeting with the developers Thursday, Goodman promised to walk them through city planning and development processes.

It appears as though the Lehman site is critical then for an arena, spring training baseball facility or performing arts center.

Goodman has pledged that no tax money will be used to fund an arena project. He has also said that several professional basketball team owners with whom he has spoken have said they couldn't build an arena if they also had to buy the land.

Swapping land downtown for land in the city's northwest and cash to equal the amounts may enable Goodman to claim that no tax money per se was used to acquire the land.

The full City Council will have to approve any such swap and would also have to approve any deals with potential arena developers.