LOOKING IN ON: CITY HALL

Tuesday, May 15, 2007 | 7:31 a.m.

The co-founder of DLC UrbanCore, the company that had an exclusive negotiating agreement to bring a grocery store to West Las Vegas, thinks he got a raw deal from the city.

Steve Ifshin said his company was close to bringing a Food4Less to the area in January but after a management change at the Kroger subsidiary, executives cooled on the deal.

"They said under no circumstances would the economics work out for them," Ifshin said.

He said he also had a deal in the works with Tesco, the European grocery store chain that is bringing its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets to Nevada.

"The city said the Tesco stores weren't big enough," Ifshin said.

The city has indicated it wants a 40,000-square-foot store on the site at Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards, and the Fresh & Easy stores average about 10,000 square feet.

Scott Adams of the city's business development office said in December that Las Vegas' efforts to attract a grocer might be hampered by the negotiating agreement because some grocers might want to deal with their own developer.

After DLC UrbanCore couldn't deliver, despite the one-year agreement and a 30-day extension, the city began looking elsewhere in January.

Ifshin was livid when he found out that the city is considering a proposal from Tesco for a 14,000-square-foot store and that local developer Laurich Properties was ready to sign a deal with Food4Less, pending approval of an agreement with the city.

Ifshin said the $5 million capital incentive package offered by the city allowed him to "practically give the site away" to Food4Less. Because of that, he doubts Laurich Properties could make a better offer.

Adams said DLC UrbanCore had its chance and failed to pull together a satisfactory deal.

"It is generally not the city's position to interfere with private-to-private negotiations among parties," Adams said. "Food4Less is free to work with whomever they deem the best - suited developer they believe can perform on their behalf."

Ifshin said he is considering his options and has not ruled out legal action if either Laurich Properties or Tesco gets the deal.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is working with Metro, neighborhood services and other groups to try to stem the day laborer problem.

Goodman said officials are considering attacking the problem at its source.

"We are not looking at punishing the day laborers, but the guys who hire them," Goodman said. Options on exactly how to do that are being examined.

Day laborers, who are often immigrants, wait on street corners to be picked up and offered work for the day. They are usually paid cash, have no taxes or Social Security withheld and, of course, get no benefits.

Goodman said the growing problem needs to be addressed and solutions are hard to come by. Even the courts have a hard time coming up with a consistent decision on the matter, Goodman says, "so, we have to try our own shot."