LOOKING IN ON: CITY HALL

Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007 | 1:28 a.m.

The proposed downtown arena project is looking like less of a sure bet. The deadline for REI Neon/Warburg Pincus to complete a development agreement with the city is Oct. 31.

REI said weeks ago that money was harder to come by because of higher interest rates. Meanwhile, Harrah's Entertainment, teaming with proven arena-builder AEG, announced plans to build a 20,000-seat arena on its property near the Strip. The rumor is that it will house a professional hockey team.

The question then becomes, what bank or investment team would want to fork over money for another arena in the same city? Especially when there is no guarantee any professional team, basketball or otherwise, is going to use the arena as its home?

Sources in City Hall say although REI Neon might have lined up the multitude of property owners on 85 acres, most are betting the developers are going to have difficulty finding money.

Then, they say, REI Neon will do what many developers in Las Vegas figured it would do from the start - sell the property to the highest bidder.

Mayor Oscar Goodman, however, said it appears that REI Neon has come up with enough seed money to get the $10.5 billion project started and the resources to raise more.

Skeptics can be forgiven their continuing doubts, because an item on this week's council agenda indicates that REI Neon - which a month ago asked for a one-month extension to Oct. 31 - wants to push back the deadline until Dec. 19.

Meanwhile, three developers whose arena projects were turned down in favor of REI Neon are waiting in the wings.

If you're a betting man, Las Vegas often is the best place to be.

Especially if you like to bet against the likelihood that some sky-high development will ever get built.

During the boom years of the early 2000s, which seem so many eons ago, more than 100 plans were proposed and submitted for high-rise developments throughout Las Vegas.

One, at Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, promised to stretch 90-plus stories into the sky. Advertisements for the structure - with investors based in Australia - promised it would become the most high-tech wonder of the modern world.

What happened?

Nothing.

But you can substitute any number of developments into the story line and most of them come out the same.

Which is why it came as no surprise to Goodman that he won a bet - that a developer would not call with news of investment money - with Councilman Gary Reese last week.

The bet came after a presentation to the City Council in September. Island Development LLC held a public hearing to get permits to build a mixed-use, 544-foot-high condo structure at 401 S. Maryland Parkway.

This area of town, which can be described as still awaiting the trickle-down benefits of all that Strip wealth, has never seen the likes of such a building.

And maybe it never will.

After Island Development got its permits, Goodman asked one of the presenters to give him a call by Oct. 2 if the investment money for the project came through. The presenters, bursting with smiles, assured him they would be making the call.

Then Reese and Goodman bet, with Goodman saying the call would never come.

It didn't. And Reese paid up.

"He's the quickest paying mayor pro tem in the country," Goodman said at his Thursday morning news conference.

And if you're betting against Club V opening in the Fremont East District, bet again.

Franchise manager Rick Pecora said work has not been proceeding recently on the 15,000-square-foot interior because it has taken longer than expected to get through the city's permitting process.

Pecora expects to open after the first of the year.

He also said the name probably will change.