Downtown Las Vegas could get big boost

Sito Negron

Monday, March 15, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.

Las Vegas is set to ink a deal that could lead to the first major redevelopment project on a lagging portion of the downtown plan, the East Fremont Entertainment District.

An item on Wednesday's City Council agenda calls for selling the building at 601 Fremont St. -- a building formerly used by Metro Police for fingerprinting and other police services -- to a group of investors who will pay $1.3 million up front and another $500,000 "upon achieving initial leasing targets," according to backup documentation prepared for the council meeting.

The investors are a coalition of people who initially were competitors bidding on the project, said Jeff Bendavid, an attorney for 601 Development Co., the partnership overseeing the project.

The partners include such influential figures as John Moran Jr. and John Moran III, and Andrew Molasky, son of prominent developer Irwin Molasky.

"The city did a great thing by starting an entertainment district and launching it the way they have," Bendavid said. "It will be, I think, a very, very important asset to the city to have an entertainment district that rivals the San Diego Gaslamp Quarter and certain quarters in other cities."

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 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.

The vision has not been considered a success yet, with Neonopolis struggling, the Regional Justice Center well over budget and behind schedule, and the overall image of downtown as a struggling mix of seedy streets and old-school hotels.

But Goodman's incessant cheerleading and the ongoing planning and investments here and there -- the 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, particularly as the valley continues to urbanize and if, or when, it reaches physical growth limits vertically and starts growing horizontally.

"We want to put a great product out there and hopefully anchor the entertainment district," said Bendavid. He said the cost of retrofitting the building is initially estimated at about $4.4 million.

The building at 601 Fremont orginally was a Sears before the department store moved to the Boulevard mall in the 1960s. It was then taken over by Central Telephone Co. and then Metro Police. It became the fingerprint headquarters, where Southern Nevadans in the tourist industries visited to get sheriff's cards.