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StumbleCity quietly ends arena talks with REI Neon
City now free to pursue other potential arena options
Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008 | 11:22 a.m.
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The Las Vegas City Council today officially terminated the Las Vegas Events Center Request for Proposal process.
This brings to an end the 14-month negotiation between the council and REI Neon, the group that was chosen as the preferred arena developer.
REI Neon had announced plans to build the arena as part of a $10.5 billion mixed-use development on Main Street and Charleston Boulevard downtown.
In the agenda summary page, city officials cited the softening economy and difficulty in securing equity for the project as reasons why REI Neon could not deliver on its proposal.
By terminating the request for proposal, the city has no further liability to the agreement or any of its components.
This frees the city up to pursue other potential arena options and to negotiate with other developers on the current City Hall site and an adjacent 12-acre parcel, which are owned by the city and were included in the memorandum of understanding with REI Neon.
Unlike the approval of the arena proposal, which was done with much fanfare, the termination vote was placed on the consent agenda and was voted on with no discussion, along with several other procedural items.
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No to any downtown arenas. Stop wasting taxpayer money!
They can not even "give" away downtown Vegas.
Open the land up for one big tent city, the campfires would look nice for the 2 people who live in the downtown condos.
It's a very late comment, but the fact of the matter is REI Neon never really had any 'plan' for an arena. No One, including folks at REI Neon, ever saw anything showing what this would look like. Ergo, no plan.
I don't think any such project should ever be explored again, without the developer actually having some type of visual/structural/infrastructural mock up, of what they want to develop.