Two downtown projects approved

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, May 17, 2001 | 10:35 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council gave the green light Wednesday to two new mega-projects for downtown, but only one was embraced with enthusiasm.

The city agreed to purchase 10 acres from Union Pacific Railroad for $4.18 million and in turn sell the land to 21st Century Financial Systems Inc. for $4.97 million. The year-old company plans to build a high-tech campus that would include its headquarters.

Representatives from 21st Century presented drawings of an elaborate 10-story glass-plated office building. The company is proposing a 120,000-square-foot "cyber center" on the northern part of the property and a 200,000- to 285,000-square-foot office building on the southern portion. The office building would house the corporate office, including 500 employees and other "major tenants."

"This is going to be the start of something really, really big in Ward 5," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said. "There's not going to be another city that's going to be able to keep up with us."

But the mayor later was lukewarm to plans for the first phase of a 57-acre furniture mart nearby.

The council ultimately approved site plans for the first phase of the World Market Center, which will include a 10-story, 1 million-square-foot furniture showroom. The first phase will take up 36 acres at the corner of Grand Central Parkway and Bonneville Avenue.

Ground should be broken on the first phase in 2002, opening in 2003. The eventual project is envisioned as s 7.5 million-square-feet complex completed by 2008.

When attorney Bob Gronauer, representing the developer, Furniture Mart Enterprises, called one of the buildings a "warehouse," Goodman shouted out, "Over my dead body!"

Gronauer quickly corrected himself, calling the buildings "showrooms."

"I may have flipped out," Goodman said, "But unless it's at the level of the (Clark County Government Center), don't even bother coming back to us."

City Councilman Michael McDonald questioned how the company would fund the $750 million project.

Greg Borgel, a local planning consultant who is working on the project, said the company is working with "European financeers" who have the capability to fund the project.

The company had also planned to build a sister retail store that would sell to the public at the northwest corner of Alta Drive and Martin Luther King Boulevard. But Borgel said the project will not be built and instead a retail component will be included at the furniture mart.