Cleveland Clinic says no to Vegas

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 | 10:49 a.m.

The renowned Cleveland Clinic, citing fears of spreading itself too thin, has rejected Mayor Oscar Goodman's pitch to build an academic medical center on the 61-acre vacant site in western downtown Las Vegas, Goodman said Tuesday night.

Goodman said that will not stall plans for development of the city-owned land, development that he has said will be his legacy. He added that an academic medical facility will be built in downtown Las Vegas -- whether on the 61 acres or elsewhere -- "before I leave office."

Goodman said the city has had "parallel plans" to work with other medical officials to build the academic medical facility. He said he also expects the city to hire a master developer within 90 days to build an urban village on the former Union Pacific Railroad land obtained by the city late in 2000.

A woman answering the phone in the Cleveland Clinic's public relations office in Cleveland Tuesday said the clinic "has no plans to build in Las Vegas." She had no answers to further inquiries.

The Cleveland Clinic, which employs 29,000 people, including more than 1,200 doctors at its main center in Cleveland and at its two other hospitals in Florida, combines health care with research and teaching and is one of the nation's leaders in that field.

Goodman said on Tuesday afternoon he returned a call from Cleveland Clinic Chief Financial Officer Michael O'Boyle that was made to the city on Monday and got the disappointing news.

"He indicated they will not be coming here," Goodman said. "He said they had just concentrated on fund-raising for a heart clinic (in Cleveland) and there were concerns of spreading too thin."

Goodman said he was disappointed because he "had courted them."

"But we have not been sitting quietly waiting for them to respond," he said. "We have had parallel plans. We have talked with the University of Nevada medical school and we have talked with others in the medical industry, some of whom have told us that an urban village may not be the best site for an academic medical center."

Goodman said he does not believe the loss of one of the proposed anchor tenants for the project will slow plans to develop the prime real estate. He said a letter for a development plan will be sent to 10 development groups that are candidates to be the master developer for the property.

Goodman said potential developers will submit proposals within 30 days and that the city expects to hire a master developer from those responses within 90 days.

Last week Goodman told local reporters that the Cleveland Clinic's leadership was to consider a consultant's report on Monday about going ahead with plans to build in Las Vegas -- a study for which Las Vegas paid about $300,000.

When no announcement came, a City Hall spokeswoman Diana Paul said late Monday that perhaps the mayor was mistaken about which day the report was to be considered by the clinic but that Goodman expected to receive word "sometime this week."

The plan for the city's land is for an urban village that would include high-rise housing and a performing arts center west of Barrick Gaming's Plaza hotel and north of the Clark County Government Center.

To the north of the 61 acres is the Internal Revenue Service building being constructed by developer Irwin Molasky, and west is the under-construction World Furniture Market and an undeveloped piece of land.

Adjacent to the 61-acre project, on land owned by Barrick, would be the proposed Regional Transportation Commission's intermodal facility to replace the Downtown Transportation Center near City Hall on Stewart Avenue. It would be the final terminal for the monorail and would include bus and possibly light-rail service.

Preliminary designs for the 61 acre parcel provided about 18 acres on the north end for the medical campus, about 23 acres in the middle for the urban village and 4.43 acres on the south for a performing arts center. The remaining acreage would be roads and open spaces.

But if those plans have to be scrapped because of Cleveland Clinic's pullout, it would be just one more set of old drawings tossed in some well-stuffed file cabinet at City Hall, as a number of city officials have had varying visions for the old rail yards over the years.

One of the first concepts for the site in 1988 was for posh megaresorts to dominate a lush landscaped vista. Rumors swirled that Atlantic City gaming mogul Donald Trump would be one of the developers.

But by early 2001, just months after the city obtained the land, four developers opted to build projects that included a medical center, cultural arts center and a sports arena.

The one that most impressed city officials was a proposed downtown sports arena that was to have been built by 2005. It would have cost $445 million to build and projections were that the city would have received $3.5 million annually in taxes from the stadium.

When the ballpark plan fell through in October 2002, Goodman said he would take an active role in "overseeing development" of the 61 acres.