Goodman stays optimistic in face of downtown setbacks

Erin Neff

Friday, May 26, 2000 | 10:42 a.m.

Redevelopment efforts in downtown Las Vegas have a feel of one step forward, two steps back.

Small success stories are creeping in amid larger failures and remaining unknowns like the future of the planned Neonopolis entertainment center.

Experts say both the pace and the problems are part of the process, something that has taken more than 30 years in San Diego, the city on which Las Vegas is modeling its efforts.

Although Mayor Oscar Goodman considers delays and failures an affront to his goals for the city, he claims he's on the verge of breaking through the bureaucracy.

"Downtown is coming along," Goodman said in a recent interview. "I'm talking to people every day. It's like I'm fishing for business and sooner or later one of them's going to land me a whale."

But the waters aren't exactly stocked with the development equivalent of largemouth bass. Thus far the fishing lines have gotten snagged on steep land prices, crime perceptions and a parking shortage.

The mayor's current strategy -- make the private sector pay for projects like a sports arena or performing arts center -- isn't exactly being met with a warm response from the gaming industry.

Yet the city's efforts are beginning to reap benefits.

The 320-unit Campaige Place single-room-occupancy housing complex opened this month on Stewart Avenue and Eighth Street. The project is the city's first new residential development downtown in years.

Campaige Place developer, The Tom Hom Group, is planning two other residential projects along Las Vegas Boulevard.

Construction is also nearing completion on the towering Lloyd D. George Federal Building on Las Vegas Boulevard and on the City Centre Chiller Plant, a facility designed to allow downtown businesses to use one central air conditioning plant and free up space inside their buildings currently eaten up by aging coolant hardware.

The chiller plant is touted as the private sector's commitment to redevelopment.

Monumental redevelopment failures have led to the successful construction of the new federal courthouse and the proposed Pauls Corp. office tower at Fourth Street and Lewis Avenue.

The proposed Regional Justice Center and an expansion of the Clark County Detention Center are two publicly funded projects currently proceeding.

Yet amid the success is uncertainty over the future of Neonopolis -- the planned $99 million retail center at Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard.

"They want me to tell the world I'm supportive of them," Goodman said. "Yeah, well get it up."

Neonopolis was originally supposed to open on Thanksgiving. However, the project initially had no success leasing tenants other than movie theater anchor, Mann Theatres.

When Mann's parent company filed for bankruptcy protection last fall, Neonopolis lost its only tenant and any momentum it had from the start of construction on a subterranean parking garage.

Now the city is left with a two-story underground parking garage on land where dozens of businesses had to be bought out and demolished.

Developers remain confident they will soon sign an anchor movie theater, which in turn will help draw other retail business to the three-story center.

Eastman Kodak Co. is reportedly interested in working with a movie theater to develop some type of state-of-the art or digital technology theater. Yet until a theater signs on, Kodak's interest is like a role of undeveloped film.

"It's just a matter of signing a lease, and we intend to do that," said Robert Gorlow, president of World Entertainment Centers, builder of the project.