Work begins on new downtown park

Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

Work has begun to tear up a small parking lot next to the historic downtown post office to turn it into a park, and the post office should be next for a facelift.

The Las Vegas City Council is expected to vote Wednesday to accept a pair of state grants to replace the air-conditioning system in the historic building, which is slated to become a museum.

These are the first significant moves since the city obtained the lease on the property earlier this year in an effort to control the landmark's destiny. By the city's 100th birthday in 2005 it could be what city officials are calling the Downtown Heritage Center.

"We are conducting a study of uses that under the terms of the lease with the federal government must be for educational or cultural purposes," said the city's Cultural Affairs Director Nancy Deaner, whose office is coordinating the projects. She, however, is lobbying for the building to be called the Downtown Post Office to recognize its historical significance.

The U.S. Postal Service and another agency that occupy the building have leases that expire in 2004. The city is negotiating with the U.S. General Services Administration to obtain full ownership of the building, which also was the city's first federal courthouse.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, an attorney who represented reputed mobsters, has said that he would like to see a museum for the property that includes the often overlooked underworld figures who played a major role in Las Vegas' early days, such as Flamingo hotel boss Bugsy Siegel.

"We are taking what the mayor said very seriously because it is a valid point," Deaner said. "The history of Las Vegas should be the whole history of Las Vegas."

Wednesday's council vote is expected to give the project $170,000 of the $203,000 needed to replace the old "chiller" unit on the roof with a state-of-the-art ground-level air conditioning system.

One grant from the Nevada Commission on Cultural Affairs is for $150,000. Another from the state's Historic Preservation Fund is for $20,000. A third grant has been applied for to complete the air-conditioning replacement.

Meanwhile, city workers this week removed 32 parking spaces and began tearing up the concrete in the post office parking lot to replace it with a grass-covered, five-acre park in the heart of downtown. The completion date is 2003.

The project would restore a portion of a large city park that once covered much of the area between Stewart Avenue and Bonanza Road and Casino Center and Las Vegas boulevards.

City Leisure Department spokeswoman Stacy Allsbrook said the city waited for the metered parking garage across from City Hall to open last month before the metered spaces of the post office were removed so as not to adversely affect premium parking in the area.

She said projects such as an amphitheater have been discussed for the park.