Neonopolis film fans may get parking break

Monday, Nov. 18, 2002 | 11:14 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday could decide to give Neonopolis moviegoers a break on parking fees in the city-owned underground garage when the gates go up at the end of the month.

Currently, there is no charge for parking in the $15 million garage on the southeast corner of Ogden Avenue and Fourth Street, but plans always have been to charge $1.50 an hour to recoup the city's cost of building the facility, Deputy City Manager Steve Houchens said.

Under the proposed validation program, those attending the 14-screen theater complex of the $99 million downtown entertainment and retail center would get two hours of free parking.

The validation program, which would kick in at month's end when the electronic ticket-dispensing parking gates are installed, initially would apply just to the Neonoplolis theaters. Perhaps down the road, restaurants and other facilities would join the program, city spokeswoman Elaine Sanchez said.

The council will vote to modify its contract with Neonopolis because the current development contract does not allow the city, which as the Downtown Redevelopment Agency owns the 600-space garage, to participate in a parking validation program.

Neonopolis is considered the core to redeveloping the area that includes the Fremont Street Experience.

Under the proposal, theater-goers would present their garage parking receipt to the movie theater clerk and would have the parking receipt validated after purchasing their movie tickets, Sanchez said.

The agreement, if approved by the City Council, initially would be for six months as a stopgap measure until a revised development and disposition agreement is formulated that would make it a permanent program.

City officials say the proposal will have no fiscal impact on the city because, technically, there are no revenues currently being generated by the garage, Houchens said.

"We had always intended to charge and we had always intended to have some validation program, so that is our reasoning for saying there is no fiscal impact," Houchens said.

The city would absorb the validation reimbursement costs for the first year, the theatres would absorb the cost after that, Houchens said.

The validation program would apply only to the $15 million Neonopolis garage. Those using the city's other main parking garage in the area, the seven-story site on Stewart Avenue across from City Hall, must pay metered parking that allows up to four hours at a $1.50 per hour.

The city staff has recommended that the council approve the short-term parking validation proposal.

The 240,000-square-foot Neonopolis project at Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street opened in May. The parking garage was completed while the rest of the project early on struggled to get off the ground.

The city has invested $40.5 million in the Neonopolis -- the largest taxpayer investment since redevelopment began in the mid-1980s -- and it is expected to take 20 years to recoup that money. City officials hope Neonopolis will pave the way for other redevelopment efforts.

Other efforts include city plans to develop 61 acres west of downtown on the old Union Pacific Railroad property and a new entertainment center along a rundown six-block area east of Neonopolis featuring nongaming supper clubs and nightclubs.

Proposed in 1998 Neonopolis was projected to open in November 2000. Construction was delayed when the project's first anchor tenant, Mann Theaters, pulled out after its parent company filed for bankruptcy.

In May 2001 Connecticut-based Crown Theaters was signed to open a multiplex on the third level of the complex.