Condo high-rise is proposed for downtown Las Vegas

Sito Negron

Thursday, April 1, 2004 | 11:35 a.m.

Call Sam Cherry the new apostle of downtown.

Among the proposals sent to Las Vegas City Hall for use of about two acres at the corner of Third Street and Bonneville Avenue downtown is a two-tower condominium project by Cherry, the developer who is already building the Soho Lofts in the same area.

"We could have put any of these buildings anywhere in the valley, but downtown is the only area growing as a high-rise community as a whole," said Cherry. "You need an area that's dense with high-rise, both commercial and residential, and downtown is the only place that can truly support that."

He said he's not simply referring to condominium towers, such as those off the Strip, but true neighborhoods where the high-rises sit above street-level storefronts, and the activity is geared around pedestrians.

Cherry said downtown's street grid gives it an urban template, and "in my opinion, from Main to Las Vegas Boulevard, and from Charleston to Fremont, that corridor in there will just grow to the sky."

The deadline for developers to submit proposals to the city was Wednesday, said Iain Vasey, manager of the Office of Business Development. He said he had not seen the proposals yet.

Vasey said he could not discuss the proposals in detail until they go through a review process, which evaluates economic benefits to the city, including job generation and tax revenues. Reached late in the afternoon out of the office, he said he did not have the exact figure the city is asking for its land at Third and Bonneville, but said it was in the area of $3.5 million.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has promoted a vision of a redeveloped downtown that embodies the current phrase in vogue with developers -- a place where people live, work and play.

It involves the city-owned 61 acres just west of downtown, where a medical complex and urban village is planned, and to the south of downtown, where a nascent Arts District shows signs of life -- particularly on First Fridays, a monthly event showcasing the galleries and antique and vintage clothing shops.

It also includes a government cluster of local, state and federal courts, the Fremont Street Experience and Neonopolis, which was intended to be an entertainment complex.

There are problems, however. Neonopolis is struggling, the Regional Justice Center is extremely over budget and far behind schedule, and the downtown's image remains one of a struggling mix of seedy streets and old-school hotels.

But Goodman's incessant cheerleading and the ongoing planning and investments here and there -- Cherry's Soho Loft and Holsum bread factory loft projects, or the planned billion-dollar furniture mart, for example -- as well as change in ownership of some of Fremont hotels, makes downtown an enticing possibility for a growing number of people, particularly as the valley continues to urbanize and if, or when, it reaches physical growth limits vertically and starts growing horizontally.

Cherry's project proposal shows two towers, one almost 500 feet tall. Together, the towers would cost a little more than $200 million and include more than 600 units for sale. It would include about 1,200 parking spaces, and up to 100,000 square feet of retail space facing Third and Fourth streets.

"We hope we capture everything they need," said Cherry. "And if we don't get awarded the project we hope a project that is comparable will go in."