Columnist Jeff German: Downtown store moved out of way

Tuesday, March 4, 2003 | 11:21 a.m.

When you enter the World Merchants-Importers store at Fourth Street and Carson Avenue, it doesn't take long to see that business is bad.

A large banner above the store, just one block south of Neonopolis, the city's latest redevelopment project, advertises a 50 to 75 percent discount for all furs.

Inside there are no customers as owner Elisa Del Prado and her son, John Del Prado, stand behind a glass jewelry case and pour their hearts out over their financial troubles.

The Del Prados, who've lived in Las Vegas for 40 years, ran a profitable business at Fourth and Fremont Street until the city forced them to relocate in 1994 to make room for the Fremont Street Experience.

Now they're on the verge of bankruptcy.

They're victims of broken city promises and a downtown redevelopment strategy aimed at keeping the casinos in business -- and few others.

They're an example of the worst that can happen when hard-working small-business people pin their dreams on the word of city leaders who don't have their interests at heart.

What's most troubling is that the city continues to turn its back on the Del Prados.

Elisa Del Prado wrote to Mayor Oscar Goodman 18 months ago to explain her precarious position, but Goodman passed her off to City Attorney Brad Jerbic. Unknown to the mayor at the time, Jerbic had earlier disqualified himself from having anything to do with Del Prado's case because of his ties to her family. Del Prado, it turns out, is the mother-in-law of Jerbic's brother.

Jerbic recalls passing Del Prado's letter to one of his top deputies, John Redlein, but doesn't know what Redlein did with it.

Redlein couldn't be reached for comment, but Del Prado says she never heard from anyone in the city attorney's office.

Over the last 18 months, Del Prado wrote Goodman three more times to get him to light a fire under the city attorney's office. Each time, however, the mayor never responded.

This is what happens to a small downtown business that doesn't have the same clout as a casino.

The downward spiral of the Del Prados began nine years ago after they agreed to move to Carson Avenue amid city promises that business would be great at their new location once the Fremont Street Experience was built. To keep them downtown, the city even gave the store owners money to relocate.

But since then, business has not been great. Almost immediately after they relocated, construction began on the Fremont Street parking garage, which is across the street from World Merchants. For two years, the Del Prados had to suffer periodic street closures, lack of parking and very little walk-in traffic.

Business never really recovered, but they kept holding out hope that things would get better. When the Fremont Street Experience didn't bring them customers, city officials promised that Neonopolis would be the answer to their business woes. No such luck.

Today, after having lost more than $1 million to the city's promises, the Del Prados have no hope. Elisa Del Prado sold her home to keep the business afloat and hasn't taken a salary in years. She pays her bills these days with her credit cards.

"The city put us in this financial disaster," an angry John Del Prado says. "We've given everything we've got to give."

All the Del Prados want is for the city to move them back to Fremont Street, maybe even Neonopolis, where they can have a chance once more to turn a profit.

They want to be able to make it on their own -- the way they did before the city messed things up for them.

The city owes them that chance.