Mall developer OKs new employment plan

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2002 | 8:41 a.m.

A downtown Las Vegas mall developer agreed to an employment plan that should help low-income residents land jobs at the mall, representatives of the company and groups that negotiated the plan said.

The Chelsea Property Group's existing employment plan would be replaced by the new plan if it is approved by the Las Vegas City Council.

Chelsea attorney Mark Fiorentino said the council could see the employment outline in November, and he expects approval.

Fiorentino said the new plan will be almost identical to one adopted for the World Market Center, the furniture mart project planned nearby on the former Union Pacific Railroad property.

The World Market Center has an employment plan that specifies a number of ways the company will reach out to the nearby low-income and minority community to find workers.

For example, the Market Center employment plan says the company will coordinate with the city's minority business officer and Redevelopment Agency representatives, advertise in local newspapers and hold a job fair.

The plan does not call for specific numbers of minorities or others to be hired.

Stan Washington, who represented the Nevada Disenfranchised Veterans Consortium in talks with the Chelsea Property Group, said his organization, the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups want Chelsea to get a new employment plan because the company's current plan is "very broad and very inadequate."

"It just states they'll abide by the city's 1992 policy, and that was amended in 2001," Washington said.

Chelsea and Market Center are required to have employment plans with the city because both projects will receive tax breaks.

Tax incentives for Market Center could be worth up to $40 million over 20 years. Chelsea could see tax breaks worth $1.5 million over 14 years.

"The ACLU is involved because taxpayers are helping to pay for the development," said Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, "and so it is imperative it benefits all segments of the community, especially those who have historically been left out."

The mall project will produce 300 construction jobs and 800 permanent jobs, Washington said.