Editorial: New plan gives hope to 61 acres

Friday, Jan. 10, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.

The city of Las Vegas in 2000 gave up $2 million and its 97-acre technology park in the northwest in exchange for a former railroad yard in the western downtown area. The deal for this 61 acres capped Mayor Oscar Goodman's first year in office and there were no superlatives too grand as he described its significance. He was right in drumming up excitement as the land meant tremendous potential for struggling downtown. Where he went wrong was in overestimating by a wide, wide margin the ease at which it could be developed. His staff put together a CD-ROM boasting of the acreage and sent it nationwide to developers, with the admonition that no proposal would be considered that wasn't world class. "People have to gasp when they walk by it," Goodman said on the CD. The city also placed ads in The Wall Street Journal and a national trade magazine for land devel opers and investors. Goodman wanted everyone to believe that city staff would be overwhelmed with responses.

Two and a half years later Goodman still believes a beautiful development of the 61 acres will be his greatest legacy -- and we hope it will be. But experience has now tempered the wildly optimistic manner of development. The upshot of all the advertising hype was proposals from four developers. They sought scads of city money or up-front tax credits or an outright gift of the 61 acres in exchange for proposals that were more ho-hum than gasping. None passed muster.

On Wednesday the City Council approved a sensible approach to development. It agreed that a team of accomplished development professionals should be assembled to gather proposals for the 61 acres. The city will retain approval power to ensure that its vision, which includes an academic medical center as the anchor, is realized. But the detail work associated with marketing and planning the development would be in the hands of people who know what they're doing. With such a team in place, maybe someday people will be walking by gasping, and not with exasperation.