Bill helping businesses expand in West Las Vegas advances

Kirsten Searer

Thursday, May 26, 2005 | 9:56 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Assembly approved a bill Wednesday to give tax breaks to businesses that want to start up or expand in West Las Vegas.

Senate Bill 229 would also give incentives to any grocery store that wants to move into the neighborhood, which has not had a supermarket since a Vons closed.

"They have to go five miles in one direction or the other to buy their groceries or get their prescriptions filled,' Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, told the Assembly Government Affairs Committee earlier this month.

Horsford, who sponsored the bill, said he hopes it will encourage growth among new and existing companies in West Las Vegas, lowering the unemployment rate and revitalizing the area near Bonanza Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

"We want the same economic development that has occurred in most parts of our state,' Horsford said.

A growing movement is seeking a grocery store for West Las Vegas, including the Association for Community Organization for Reform Now, or ACORN, which plans to hold a forum on the issue at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Nevada Partners, 710 W. Lake Mead Blvd.

Assemblyman Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas, said he held a meeting last weekend with representatives of different grocery stores, the Nevada Retail Association and the International Council of Shopping Centers in hopes of luring a store to the area.

Munford said representatives of Albertsons expressed interest, though he would also like to see a Food 4 Less in the area.

"There was nothing that was firm, but we felt we had taken another step,' he said.

Munford said the Vons moved out of the neighborhood because of poor sales and high theft rates. Still, he said, there are plenty of residents who want to shop in their neighborhood, including seniors who have trouble commuting to the nearest grocery store, which he said is at Craig Road and Martin Luther King.

The number one complaint he hears from constituents, Munford has said in committee hearings, is that they need a local grocery store.

The bill now goes to Gov. Kenny Guinn for approval.