Las Vegas isn’t viewed as a place to set up shop

Dick Geyer, Las Vegas

Monday, April 4, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

Regarding the story in Thursday’s Las Vegas Sun, “Why out-of-state companies reject us”:

Wow! So many experts and politicians have so many ideas that seem to make some sense, but aren’t they all missing something? Image and perception, which becomes reality.

I moved here from New York City in 1995 with my family after 25 years with major advertising agencies that took me on business trips to most of the country’s major cities, including Las Vegas. Believe me, for most of my fellow executives, Las Vegas was viewed as a gambling, drinking fun town worthy of a visit for a few days for a convention or vacation, not a place to locate a business.

There is no true city here as they know a city to be, with a downtown core of high-rise office buildings. From what they see, it’s all casino-hotels.

It’s not the poor schools or lack of college graduates or prostitution in the hinterlands that creates our image as a poor place for locating a business, it’s Las Vegas in all its neon-lit glory.

On the other hand, as a 75-year-old, I think Las Vegas is a great place to retire. It has no income or estate taxes, low housing prices, many deals for seniors, plus plenty of golf courses and constant sunshine. That’s the real opportunity to bring wealth to the valley.

Let’s create a Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority-type coalition among the businesses in the county and cities to go after retirees in places with colder weather and higher taxes. Las Vegas is a great place to enjoy those golden years.