Plan for music, TV studio dies

Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 | 10:12 a.m.

A project designed to be a shot in the arm for economically depressed west Las Vegas apparently is dead.

Las Vegas Office of Business Development Director Scott Adams told the City Council Wednesday the CenterStaging music and television studio has "fallen out of contract" with the city.

The project, proposed by former pop star Johnny Caswell, previously was touted as a soundstage and television recording studio that would revolutionize the future of local entertainment and generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue from its west Las Vegas base.

The city on July 23 sent a registered letter to Caswell at his Burbank, Calif., production office, informing him that he and his company, CenterStaging Las Vegas LLC, were in default "for failure to provide a financial commitment, failure to submit construction drawings and failure to commence construction" on the project at Martin L. King Boulevard near Mount Mariah Drive.

Caswell, who as a singer in the 1970s recorded songs such as "You Don't Love Me Anymore" and "Carolina on My Mind," was to invest more than $17 million to build the studio and hire at least 47 Las Vegans at jobs that were to pay $12 to $15 an hour. The city, in turn, was to defer payment on the $1.15 million, five-acre parcel for five years, forgive the debt and convey the property to Caswell for $10.

The city's letter said Caswell's company failed to contribute its required equity contribution of $1.2 million and also failed to fulfill other requirements in the contract with the city by the Nov. 19, 2003, deadline. The construction drawings, structural plans and landscaping plans were due by Dec. 1, 2003, and also were not received, according to the city's letter signed by City Manager Doug Selby.

Adams, who recently was appointed to his position, said it was his understanding that the city wanted to give the developer every opportunity to meet the obligations in the contract before pressing the matter eight to nine months after missed deadlines.

"The letter was sent out because there was a general impatience over the failure to perform," Adams said after the meeting. "This is a subjective matter. You can either give a party every possible chance to make the deal happen or you can take a hard-line approach right after they miss a deadline.

"For a project like this you want to give the developer time because it involves an area where private sector forces are not doing as they should" to develop the area.

Traditionally, developers have steered away from potential projects in west Las Vegas.

Adams acknowledged that, had such a situation happened in an area of town where a number of developers were waiting in line to build on a particular piece of property, the city likely would have held the developer to the deadlines or moved on to the next best project for that site.

Attempts to reach Caswell at his Burbank offices were unsuccessful. Attempts to reach the project's local agent, attorney Ross Goodman, son of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, also were not successful. Oscar Goodman abstained from voting on the matter when it was approve in June 2003. Ross Goodman told the Sun after the council approved the four-story 50,000-square-foot project that the company sought "the aggressive schedule because we want to break ground as quickly as possible."

Caswell has until Aug. 23 to inform the city in writing how he "intends to cure this default," or the agreement will be terminated, the letter says.