Larry Bender

Interviewed by Brian Sodoma

Friday, July 24, 2009 | 6 a.m.

Larry Bender

Larry Bender has made a career of seeing potential. The economic development and redevelopment professional has worked for a variety of agencies around the country, including Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio prior to arriving in Las Vegas in 1985, where he oversaw the city’s redevelopment efforts for a decade. In 1995, he started his own redevelopment consulting and commercial real estate business. But in 2005, Bender seized the opportunity to become redevelopment manager for the city of North Las Vegas.

“I was very happy in the private sector, but … with all the things going on over here, it seemed like a real opportunity to do what I do best, which is redevelopment,” he said. “They were starting from the ground up and hadn’t done many redevelopment projects. It was just a great opportunity.

What are your responsibilities as North Las Vegas’ redevelopment manager?

The responsibilities of the redevelopment manager are very simple. (It’s to) revitalize downtown and eliminate blight, and you do that by working with private sector developers and creating public-private partnerships. That’s a buzzword we like to use. A city and agency doesn’t have enough money to revitalize on its own, so what you do is use resources and (work to) interest developers in taking on private sector projects in blighted areas. … We’re the ones that have to go out and initiate things and make things happen.

Tell us about the city’s redevelopment plans. What are some of the major pieces?

Los Flores is really important to us. It’s a 350,000-square-foot regional shopping center, a $100 million investment. The other big pieces are the city hall and the 250,000 square feet of office buildings in that area; and also the potential expansion of Jerry’s Nugget once Fifth Street gets completed, and also the potential expansion of the Silver Nugget, when the economy improves. … We’re also looking for a major developer to do retail, office and possibly some residential on what we call the “Lake Mead Island.” It’s on Lake Mead (Boulevard), right off the I-15 interchange, and finally, the expansion of North Vista Hospital.

How has the recession impacted the city’s redevelopment efforts? How have you had to adjust plans?

Los Flores still wants to move forward, but it’s on hold until retailers come back to the table. … We’ve had the Silver Nugget slow down on expansion plans. … Those are probably the two main areas where we’ve taken a step backwards.

Tell us about the North Las Vegas you envision 25 years from now?

A thriving regional retail environment, where people all over the valley come for specific retail offerings we have in North Las Vegas. Las Flores is the keystone to that. The government sector will be consolidated and compacted into one location. The new city hall and the administrative functions, along with the nearby justice complex, will be in place. (There will be) a large medical community anchored by North Vista Hospital and a lot of medical offices used as an adjunct to that medical community. And finally, revitalized and upgraded housing in downtown, particularly owner-occupied residences and condominiums. We envision, in this downtown, that people will be able to live by and walk to well-paid jobs in the legal, government and medical fields. With those kinds of medical, legal and government jobs, we feel the residential neighborhood will be revitalized.