Affordable apartment complex going up downtown

Diana Sahagun

Friday, March 29, 2002 | 11:55 a.m.

A Reno developer will break ground on a 300-unit apartment complex downtown next week, marking the first time in two years a residential complex is being built in the heart of Las Vegas.

Steven Biagiotti, president of real estate development company SDA Inc., is scheduled to break ground Tuesday morning on City Center Apartments, an affordable apartment complex with 2,000 square feet of retail space at Bridger Avenue and Eighth Street.

The new housing development follows a road that was paved by Campaige Place, a downtown housing development, built by the San Diego-based Tom Hom Group, which opened its doors in 2000. The 320-room complex on Stewart Avenue between Eighth and Ninth streets has consistently kept an occupancy rate of about 90 percent.

Although office and commercial projects have been planned and opened downtown, residential housing has lagged.

Mayor Oscar Goodman said his vision for downtown -- which includes a community rich in the arts and serves as a magnet for attracting business -- cannot be realized until more people are afforded the opportunity to live downtown.

"New housing brings people back downtown," said Faye Johnson, manager for neighborhood development at the city. "It also creates more interest by people wanting to develop downtown. Now, we're getting calls all the time from developers wanting to know if there are any lots available."

City Center Apartments will open with the help of the city's Neighborhood Services department, which provided SDA Inc. with a 20-year, $485,000 federal loan. The City Council also allocated $6.5 million in private activity bonds for the project.

Biagiotti said it took nearly a year to finalize financing through the state, but said construction should begin in the days following the ground-breaking. The project will take a year to complete.

"We think this will be something that will help the other activities in downtown -- shopping, retail, and entertainment," he said.

Biagiotti recently opened a similar 240-unit affordable housing complex -- Courtyard Centre Apartments -- in Reno. A majority of the tenants are casino employees who work downtown, and Biagiotti expects to attract similar tenants in Las Vegas.

City officials hope City Centre Apartments will soon have company in the form of two housing developments, which are being planned nearby by the Tom Hom Group.

The company broke ground on Kirby Lofts and L'Octaine in December 2000, but construction has yet to begin.

Johnson said bonds will be sold by the state and construction should begin by the summer on L'Octaine a 51-unit complex featuring studios, lofts and retail at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Gass Avenue. Construction on Kirby Lofts, a 276-unit single occupancy project -- which includes retail space -- at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Hoover Avenue, will follow.