Plans under development to make Sparks a major tourist destination

Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006 | 7:44 a.m.

A Las Vegas-based casino company is waiting in the wings to build a 1,000-room hotel in Sparks, part of a larger project that may qualify for state financial assistance because of its tourism focus.

Sparks wants to form a tourism improvement district to be anchored by the Legends Project, a massive retail undertaking at Sparks Marina that would be built by RED Development of Kansas City. RED is partnering with Olympia Gaming to build a $500 million hotel at the site. (Olympia expects to break ground in Las Vegas early next year on the $2 billion Southern Highlands resort.)

If the Nevada Commission on Tourism concludes that more than 50 percent of the retail sales at Legends would be generated by out-of-state visitors, Sparks would be allowed to create the improvement district and, in turn, issue bonds backed by the anticipated sales-tax revenue from Legends to help build the project.

Project proponents say the only way Legends can be built is if Sparks, through the tourism improvement district, can float the bonds to help with the construction.

This is the second time that the tourism commission, under a new state law, has been asked to weigh in on whether a project would get most of its sales revenue from tourists. Because they're new at this, commissioners and their staff had several questions about the Sparks project, and have delayed a decision until next month.

Sparks officials are enthused that a Las Vegas company would be interested in participating in the project. Olympia's plans include building a private beach on the lake, just off Interstate 80 east of Reno.

The Drive is cruising.

General Motors said April 10 that it would give its test-drive attraction behind the Sahara at least a six-month run before deciding its future. Well, the six months are up on Oct. 10, and its future has not been announced.

It would make sense to keep the novel track open at least through October because of the arrival of 100,000 car enthusiasts for SEMA, the Speciality Equipment Market Association trade show. Talk about a perfect bunch of customers to visit the GM test track and take Corvettes and Cadillacs for spins, or Hummers and Chevy Silverados over a course of hills, rocks and moguls.

"It's meeting expectations, doing better than they thought," said GM spokeswoman Christie Conti, adding that The Drive draws about 12,500 visitors a month.

The Drive hit the 50,000 visitor mark in early August. That was the goal for the six-month experiment. So now it's time for its six-months-or-50,000-customers checkup.

On a recent weekend, a 15-minute wait kept visitors milling around the vehicle displays and the On-Star and GMAC demonstration booths at the tent that houses The Drive.

That's good news for GM because it gives company reps the opportunity to familiarize people with GM products, which was why the company built The Drive in the first place.

A Las Vegas taxi company owner has come to the defense of a regulated cab industry in Clark County, and he says it has nothing to do with greed.

In a letter to the Nevada Taxicab Authority, Nellis Cab Co. owner Ray Chenoweth decried "the bad old days" in the 1960s when taxicabs were unregulated.

"In 1966 I was driving a cab in Las Vegas during a long and violent strike," Chenoweth said. "The industry was on strike because of a glut of cabs. Cabs were burnt, drivers were injured and Las Vegas received a publicity black eye nationally."

The Nevada Legislature weighed in, and today Clark County's 16 cab companies are regulated. Cab operators need permission not just to do business in the county, but for where in town they can pick up their passengers.

In response to recent news stories and editorials about the challenges of getting a certificate to operate cabs in the county - and to Taxicab Authority Administrator Richard Land, who said cab companies don't want to deregulate the industry because they are motivated by greed - Chenoweth said deregulation would result in a glut of cabs and chaos.

"The creation of the Taxicab Authority," he wrote, "had nothing to do with profit-mad owners or greed."