Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004 | 11:18 a.m.
Las Vegas should pick a winner in the 61-acre development sweepstakes within the next five to seven days, Mayor Oscar Goodman told an audience at a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday.
Three companies have submitted bids for the right to develop the city-owned turf downtown, just west of and across the railroad tracks from the Plaza Hotel. It's a piece of land Goodman has touted since 2000 as the "jewel of the desert."
Las Vegas officials hope to build what Goodman on Wednesday called "the new city within a city" on the 61 acres. The winning developer will be asked to work with a city-developed outline that involves the three elements that planners emphasize when they talk about "smart growth" -- a place where people can live, work and play.
For people to live in the area, the plan calls for the single largest piece of the land, about 23 acres, to be used for high-rise residential buildings. For play, about 3.5 acres would be an urban park, while close to five acres is dedicated for a performing arts center. And for work, about 18 acres has been set aside for an academic medical center.
The remainder goes for roads and other open space needed to create a functioning urban grid.
Las Vegas City Manager Doug Selby, reached by telephone after the speech, said that the space allotments could change: "We've left the door open for the master developer to refine that."
Although the Cleveland Clinic recently withdrew from consideration to build on the site, Goodman said during the speech that an academic medical center is a key to economic diversification in the valley.
"We are going to have that there. I promise you," he said.
And he emphasized the importance of a performing arts center, which could become part of a cultural hub downtown that would include entertainment, the Arts District and an agora -- a marketplace of ideas -- at the Fifth Street School.
Without such artistic, intellectual and cultural development, Goodman said, "we're just going to be a cowtown that gets bigger and bigger."
In fact, after the speech, when Goodman took questions from the audience, one woman said her 25-year-old daughter refused to stay in Las Vegas because of the lack of such activity.
Goodman responded by noting the success in recent years in attracting young professionals and families to the neighborhoods bounded roughly by Oakey, Charleston and Las Vegas boulevards, and Maryland Parkway.
"It is here. It's nascent, but it's starting," he said.
After the speech, the woman who asked the question, Phyllis Deet, said she saw the potential of downtown, but her 25-year-old daughter, who lives in San Francisco, just didn't see enough yet to stay.
"You need these kids who understand technology and software and they're just not here," said Deet, who has visited galleries in the Arts District downtown.
The three companies that submitted bids to develop the 61 acres are The Related Companies Inc. of New York, Triple Five Group Ltd. of Canada and MB Real Estate of New York.
The Related Companies built the 2.8 million square foot, $1.7 billion Time Warner Center, which opened in New York City in February. It also is involved in the financing of the World Furniture Market being built adjacent to the 61 acres.
MB Real Estate operates in Chicago and New York City and, according to its Web site, "is one of the Midwest and East Coast's most prominent real estate advisory and service providers in the areas in which it operates," with more than 7 million feet of office space and 15 million square feet of commercial and institutional properties.
Triple Five has diverse real estate operations and, according to its Web site, is involved in "banking, the establishment of suburban cities, urban entertainment destination, amusement parks, hospitality, residential, commercial and industrial real estate, technology, mining and natural resources." The company developed Boca Park in Las Vegas.
Selby said that the city will give the winning bidder 75 days to develop a full proposal.
"After that, if it all looks good, we go to the council and ask them to authorize us to negotiate a development agreement," Selby said. If that falls through, he said, "We still have two very good firms there that hopefully we can invite back to the table."
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