LV officials develop good feelings for builder

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2004 | 9:39 a.m.

The Related Cos. appears to have reinforced its position as the developer Las Vegas officials will work with to build on the vacant 61 acres downtown.

City Councilman Lawrence Weekly and former Howard Hughes Corp. President Dan Van Epp, who were among a group of eight city officials and advisers who visited Related's West Palm Beach, Fla., development last week, said the whole group was very impressed with Related's work and excited about what the company could bring to the former Union Pacific Railroad yard.

"They took an area with crack houses and blighted buildings ... and now it has to be absolutely awesome," City Councilman Lawrence Weekly said about Related's West Palm Beach development called City Place.

"All we could all keep saying was 'Wow.' Everyone was impressed," Weekly said.

Van Epp, who now owns his own real estate investment and consulting firm, said Related's City Place in West Palm Beach "was absolutely superb."

He said the company successfully transformed a once downtrodden and crime-ridden area into a new downtown with new retail, residential and office space.

"It's a beautifully done mixed-use project," he said about City Place, which includes hundreds of apartments and retail centers on 72 acres.

"Related has clearly got the experience, the willpower and the capital to get the job done," Van Epp said about a project on the 61 acres. "They have the endorsement of the committee."

Van Epp is a member of a volunteer group from the private sector that is helping city officials wade through the process of finding the right company to develop the 61 acres.

Related Executive Vice President Martin Burger said Monday that his company will probably enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city, which will require a $2 million deposit from Related, before the end of the year. Company and city representatives will then hammer out a specific development agreement early next year, he said.

City officials have named the planned development Union Park and come up with a draft plan for the land that includes an academic medical center, performing arts center, Alzheimer's research facility, residential and commercial buildings, and possibly a new City Hall.

Weekly and Van Epp traveled to Florida with Mayor Oscar Goodman; City Manager Doug Selby; City Engineer Charlie Kajkowski; James Betz of Juliet Properties Co.; Don Snyder, president of Boyd Gaming Corp.; and Myron Martin, executive director of the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation.

The city officials were then went to Pittsburgh to speak with representatives from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center about their possible involvement in an academic medical center.

Weekly said the Pittsburgh officials were "very, very interested," but said no decisions were made on their participation in the project.

The city also is in talks with the University of Nevada School of Medicine about coming to the planned academic medical center.