Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Downtown Arts District finally becoming reality

Despite years of talk and the slow pace of development, promoters of the downtown Arts District say their experiment is about to become a success.

"There's a pent-up demand for nice urban living," said Jack Solomon, owner of S2 Art Group, which produces lithographs. "I know people have been saying that for a long time, but ... it's going to happen. I can't give a timetable, but it will be sooner rather than later."

Las Vegans and downtown supporters have been working on an arts district since at least the late 1990s, with efforts morphing most recently into the First Fridays program. The monthly event, about a year old, uses live entertainment and themes to draw people to Solomon's business and other neighborhood attractions.

Those include the Arts Factory, a building that fronts Charleston with galleries on the ground floor and artist studios upstairs. It also includes Tinoco's, a bistro that Mayor Oscar Goodman mentions every time he speaks of the arts district. The arts district is a component of the overall plan for downtown, which also includes a medical complex and performing arts center on 61 acres, a monorail stop, new public and private buildings, an outlet mall and a planned million-square-foot furniture center.

"Ever since Chelsea opened up," said Goodman of the outlet mall and its impact on the public perception of whether downtown development would catch on, "success breeds success."

He said property owners in the area are working toward collecting enough buildings and land to create "mixed-use" development, a term in vogue with planners trying to describe an urban environment that allows people to live close to where they work and play.

In Las Vegas, the term is being applied to development in which zoning allows apartments or condos above retail businesses, such as the new City Centre affordable housing project that opened about a month ago on Bridger.

One property owner, whom Goodman did not identify, is two weeks from closing on a parcel slated for such development, the mayor said last week. That's one of several proposals in early development.

Michael Mushkin, a lawyer with offices on Third Street, owns property in the area, and says he believes in an arts district for several reasons: It's located in the geographic center of the valley, it's a physical part of Las Vegas' 50-year urban history, and it's a way to develop a city culture that goes deeper than cookie-cutter subdivisions and gaming establishments.

There's a sense of continuity when buildings and memories linked to those settings have a physical place to reside. Mushkin said his father owned a shoe store on Fremont Street and he fondly remembers walking up Fremont to take dad's deposits to the bank.

"I want to be known as the guy that did this," Mushkin said of the revitalization that would come with a successful arts district. "I feel it in my gut. I want to give back to the community."

Until that happens, events like First Friday, and places like S2 and the Arts Factory, are among the seeds of the arts district. The city also is working out the details of a $50,000 contract with a Philadelphia company that specializes in urban redevelopment, and plans are in the works for a $1.5 million sculpture garden.

Michael Wardle, an artist who works and owns a gallery in the Arts Factory, said he's been in such urban centers as New York and the San Francisco Bay area, and Las Vegas has a unique feel that stands up to any other place.

"I defy you to find a cooler loft anywhere in country. It's right here in Las Vegas," he said. "We got a bunch of other art types in the building, and we got a lot of fun things going on, and we have open dialogue and discourse of art on different levels."

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