Goodman, Guinn want to bring biotechnology industry to Nevada

Friday, March 24, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

UNLV's fledgling cancer institute can attract medical products companies that could help diversify Southern Nevada's economy, Las Vegas' mayor says.

Mayor Oscar Goodman listed the types of industries the city hopes to attract in a presentation to the Southern Nevada International Business Council on Thursday.

A similar presentation hosted by Gov. Kenny Guinn this morning outlined the state's plans to attract the biotechnology industry to Nevada.

Goodman also scolded the local gaming establishment for failing to support initiatives that could better the community in general and downtown Las Vegas specifically.

"We have to develop a mindset for giving back to the community," Goodman told the gathering of about 75 business people.

Goodman said his pleas for altruism from the resort industry have fallen on deaf ears and that his only hope for getting results is "to embarrass them enough" to act.

"I've had no cooperation at all from the gamers on developing an arena for the downtown area," Goodman said.

The development of an arena is one piece of a multifaceted plan Goodman expects to breathe life into downtown Las Vegas. The mayor has been in negotiations with a National Basketball Association team to relocate in Las Vegas, a move Goodman says would help improve downtown's fortunes.

An arena would be the foundation of a downtown convention facility that would help all downtown properties, he said.

But the gaming companies won't get behind the plan, he said, discouraging any positive momentum.

Goodman said the new federal courthouse is on the verge of opening downtown, offering a new community gathering place, and negotiations are nearing completion for a theater tenant for the Neonopolis entertainment center, he said.

Curing downtown's ills is crucial to solving the rest of the city's economic development problems, he said.

Later in the day, Goodman commented on how damaging the proliferation of Indian gaming could be to Las Vegas' downtown casinos.

"I personally believe that we're going to be sorely tested in the city of Las Vegas by Indian gaming," Goodman said during his weekly press conference. "We really need the downtown area to compete."

Goodman said he needs the gaming industry to get behind his efforts to build a downtown sports arena as a way to help the area compete with the Strip for tourists.

"At this point in time, all I want is their support," he added. "An arena's never going to be built here unless gaming's behind it."

Rob Stillwell, vice president of corporate communications for Boyd Gaming Corp., said in an interview that he believes Boyd's downtown properties can compete with Indian casinos in California.

"The Indian gaming will certainly have an impact here," Stillwell said. "But those casinos will not be able to compete with Las Vegas as a destination.

"Downtown in and of itself is its own megaresort," he added.

Many of the city's other diversification goals have been well documented in efforts by the Nevada Development Authority and the state to attract business to the area -- Hollywood industries, high-technology companies and automotive research and development.

Goodman, who has numerous Hollywood contacts through his work as an actor in the motion picture "Casino," said the motion picture industry is interested in a Las Vegas presence and will build "studios of the nature of Universal Studios" here.

The city has a technology park dedicated to high-tech business development in the northwest part of the city, but the mayor said dot-com companies looking to relocate to the city need simple office space and not Class A facilities that there's already an abundance of in the city.

Another potential growth sector Goodman alluded to Thursday is the medical products industry. The medical industry is a great match for Las Vegas, Goodman said, because the city already has a world-class hotel infrastructure and great transportation resources to McCarran International Airport.

Stephen Carper, the recently named director of the UNLV Cancer Institute, concurs.

"If you have a choice of going to Rochester, Minn., in the middle of winter or Las Vegas, Nev., in the middle of winter for cancer treatment, where would you want to go?" he asked.

Carper also noted that Las Vegas is one of the nation's fastest growing retirement cities, which means it also will have a growing number of people who will need to be treated for cancer.

Carper, an associate professor of chemistry at UNLV, was named in August to head the 10-member Cancer Institute. Today, researchers from UNLV's chemistry, engineering and health sciences departments are teaming to develop programs that eventually will need personnel, buildings and equipment to continue.

Goodman said once the Cancer Institute is thriving, it can attract new medical businesses that will want to be near the research facility.

Carper said one of the first steps for the researchers is to form a partnership with the University Medical Center to develop plans for a comprehensive cancer center.

Carper said the plan needs funding -- but it also needs community support.

"We need help through donations and we need people who live here to let legislators know that this is something they feel strongly about," Carper said.

George Plopper, a Cancer Institute researcher who received his Ph.D. from Harvard, said he moved to Las Vegas because the environment is more positive for researchers to build their program.

Plopper is attempting to secure a $150,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health in Washington, the largest source of cancer research money in the United States, to help form the comprehensive cancer center.

Carper said within five to 10 years, he hopes the program has advanced enough for the medical community to take notice and begin establishing commercial ventures to work with the institute.

Eventually, the researchers hope there will be clinics with equipment to scan for and treat cancers. Similar operations in Arizona, Carper said, have lengthy waiting lists of patients awaiting diagnosis and treatment.

Plopper already has begun work to establish a commercial spinoff, tentatively called Nevada Biotechnology Inc. The company would take a biopsy sample from a patient, conduct a series of tests and predict what chemotherapy regimen would be best for treatment.

The biotechnology industry also received attention from the state in a separate meeting today.

Gov. Guinn was scheduled to address about 30 biotechnology educators and industry leaders at an event dubbed "Biotech Summit II."

Biotechnology involves industries that rely on the sciences of genetics, molecular biology and biochemstry. Products are developed for pharmaceuticals, agriculture, energy, environmental restoration, law enforcement forensics and wildlife management.

Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, coordinated the meeting, starting with a review of a tour he made to California's biotechnology center, housed in a building formerly operated as the Camarillo State Mental Hospital.

Rawson suggested forming a steering committee to make contact with biotechnology companies to determine the best course for developing industry in the state. Rawson said the committee must determine if it's best to offer incentives to companies to build in Nevada or to beef up biotech education at UNLV or the Community College of Southern Nevada. Offering incentives is a difficult proposition, he said.

"It's not our prerogative to give them the moon, but we don't have to give them the moon (to get companies here)," Rawson said.

But Billy Vassiliadis of R&R Partners, representing the interests of the gaming industry at the meeting, warned that the costs of recruitment and incentives shouldn't be placed on the shoulders of the casinos.

Vassiliadis said 21 percent of the state's work force is in the gaming industry, yet it provides 53 percent of the state's tax revenues.

Past recruitment efforts have gone after "anybody who didn't have a craps table or a slot machine in a lot of giveaway programs."

"I can assure you that Mr. (Sheldon) Adelson (owner of the Venetian hotel-casino) didn't receive any incentives, nor did Mr. (Kirk) Kerkorian (top investor of the MGM Grand hotel-casino)," Vassiliadis said.

He said the fact Nevada is the third-friendliest tax state in the country with no income tax or no business income tax is incentive enough for the recruitment of new companies to the state. He also said the state should be more creative in its approach toward pitching the benefits of the state.

He said companies relocating to Nevada will have the opportunity to help craft the education system in the state to develop trained employees to meet the company's needs.

Rawson said if he chairs the steering committee, he will attempt to get meetings with executives of biotech companies to learn what it would take for them to move to Nevada.

Sun reporter Erin Neff contributed to this report.

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