Water Street setting trends

By Mike Trask

Monday, Nov. 20, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.

Some might call it the "Field of Dreams" theory of how to make a neighborhood cool enough to attract hipsters and trendsetters.

Build it and they will come. However, in this case, it's not a baseball diamond in the middle of Iowa. It's Water Street in Henderson, a downtown area about 20 miles from one of the most popular streets in the world.

Water Street has jump-started the city's redevelopment, led by a few art galleries and investors willing to wager millions that people will visit an area once defined by houses built to blend in with the desert in order to camouflage them from potential Japanese bombers during World War II.

Academics call it building around the creative class. First a city gets some artists to set up shop in town to draw foot traffic. The foot traffic draws restaurants and apartments. The restaurants and apartments draw residents. And soon the neighborhood offers treats like abstract paintings and skim-milk lattes.

It's worked in cities across the country, with Denver, San Diego and Oakland being among the success stories.

"It's a proven formula," said Michelle Romero, project manager for the Henderson Redevelopment Agency. "It's worked in other places and it's working here."

Nearly $310 million in projects are either finished, planned or under construction in the 1,400-acre Downtown Redevelopment District.

Offering a little of everything for everyone, the projects total more than 230,000 feet of retail, residential and office space in the area around Water Street.

Among them:

The progress has dramatically changed the oldest section of the city, where not long ago dilapidated buildings were the most visible sight for drivers headed to City Hall.

In 2003 the Henderson Arts Council opened an Old Town Gallery on Pacific Avenue. In the following years some UNLV professors opened a6 Gallery and another group of artists started City Lights Gallery in the same area.

The gallery openings marked the unofficial start of downtown Henderson becoming an urban center. The city redevelopment agency pushed projects to improve storefront facades and widen the sidewalks. It also added new lampposts and benches along the street. An artist has painted murals in unexpected locations, including the sides of a 7-Eleven and a muffler shop.

The millions of dollars in building projects added to the experience. Now it has the coffee shop - It's a Grind - that every little arts neighborhood needs, in this case with Miles Davis and Ray Charles portraits on the wall and blues on the stereo.

Small boutiques have popped up throughout the neighborhood, including a jeweler and a used book store.

The Downtown Henderson Business Association also sponsors Third Thursdays, an art festival on the third Thursday of each month, and a farmers market each Friday.

Last Thursday, few people roamed the street for the city event on a chilly evening. Some of the stores were closed and, in Nevada fashion, the crowds were at the casinos near Water Street rather than the art exhibits.

However, the city drew about 100,000 people downtown for a car show in September. It's the type of turnout that Henderson hopes to see at future events as it attempts to turn Water Street into an "it" place.

City officials said it will take some time for Thursday nights to get popular. But national experts say the city has been making the right moves as it tries to draw people downtown to browse, buy or live.

"I think people are looking for genuine experience in their lives," said Steven Pedigo, a researcher at the Greater Washington Initiative and a nationally recognized expert in urban planning.

"If you're looking to rebuild an area it's not about the Olive Gardens and the big box stores. It's about something unique to the area."

Henderson also has added a pavilion attached to City Hall for concerts and festivals offering cheap entertainment for families. A recent music festival featured jazz, a flamenco guitarist and a Caribbean steel drum band.

"The market for the adult - 'What happens here stays here' - already exists," said Bud Pico, program manager. "If we tried to compete with that we would fail. We don't have the budgets they do on the Strip. We're looking for emerging artists. We want to create that hip new feel."

Henderson seems to be well on its way to doing that.

Last week, Josh Kimball sipped a coffee while running some morning errands. While he has not yet attended any special events, he likes Water Street.

"Maybe they'll be able to make it kind of cool," the 22-year-old Kimball said.

Businesses owners and city officials hope so, too. And the artists who are key building blocks in the urban resurrection are confident.

"We have space to work and space to show what we're working on," said Chris Waters, one of three founders of the a6 Gallery. "It's building up. It's nice to be part of the foundation of the building up of Henderson."