Guest columnist Don Snyder: A performing arts center will have a transforming effect on Southern Nevada

Don Snyder

Thursday, Aug. 9, 2007 | 7:08 a.m.

Since moving to Las Vegas almost 20 years ago, I have had the pleasure to work on projects that have positively affected our community. I have been proud to stand alongside others who have been committed to making this city a better place to live, to raise our kids and to recruit skilled workers.

We have made progress in many areas. Thanks to projects such as the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute and the Nevada Cancer Institute, we are now embarking on a journey that will have a remarkably transforming effect on our community.

And, late next year, the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation will break ground on the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, Clark County's new world-class performing arts center. I am thrilled to be a part of this project and believe strongly that nothing will touch our community more deeply or broadly.

The Smith Center will attract extraordinary music, theater and dance productions to Las Vegas from around the world, including many that do not or cannot come to Las Vegas now. The theaters will provide a wonderful setting for audiences and performers alike.

Located at the heart of Union Park in the new downtown Las Vegas, this project has been in the planning stages for several years. Now, design plans for all three buildings in the center are well advanced and a construction timetable is set. The design by renowned architect David M. Schwarz will be timeless and elegant, adding a strong element of permanence to the Las Vegas community.

While the buildings will make a strong architectural statement, it is what will happen inside the buildings that will change Las Vegas in the most profound ways for generations to come. Programming will reach all segments of our community, while partnerships with our schools and with local arts groups will create the foundation for a new cultural infrastructure.

We are the largest community in North America without a world-class performing arts center, and we will never be able to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse and sophisticated workforce without this type of facility.

I have believed since the earliest planning days that this performing arts center is the most important project to be built in Las Vegas in our lifetimes. When people hear why - how it will reach so broadly and deeply into our community - they too become enthusiastic. In a city where so much is built for visitors (and often torn down within 40 years), this center is for those of us who live here, and for our children's children.

The Smith Center has overcome numerous challenges on its road to deep and widespread support in both the public and private sectors. When we first went to the Nevada Legislature for support in 2001, we encountered some reservation. But once the legislators understood the power of the project, they unanimously passed a joint resolution in support of a performing arts center in Las Vegas.

Initial reactions were similar at the local government level. When we first approached Clark County about enacting the car-rental fee that the Legislature authorized, many wondered if the County Commission would approve the fee, which would yield $7 million a year.

This public funding source was not only unanimously approved, but the commissioners received a lengthy standing ovation. This was the same reaction the Las Vegas City Council received after agreeing to provide the land, parking and infrastructure in support of the project.

Even Fred Smith, the chairman of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, cautioned that a performing arts center might not be a philanthropic match for the Reynolds Foundation. But within three months after learning how the project will change the community, the Reynolds Foundation had committed $50 million for an operating endowment - the largest single private sector contribution ever made in Nevada. This leadership gift provided the opportunity to name the center for Fred W. and Mary B. Smith.

We are now working quietly to secure additional private funds to complete the funding for the $400 million project. The Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation is pleased with the progress, and expects to open Phase I in 2011.

Although there is much left to do, a growing number of dedicated business leaders and citizens are standing solidly with us. As we march on toward the public phase of fundraising and the Smith Center's opening night, the message will just get stronger as people throughout the community will come to understand the power of this project.