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Monday, Feb. 21, 2011 | 2 a.m.
Thomas A. Thomas
Sun archives
- Developers put early plans for UNLV stadium, retail district on display (2-1-11)
- Regents to hear UNLV arena plan for football, basketball (1-31-11)
- Mayor: UNLV domed stadium wouldn’t conflict with a downtown Las Vegas arena (1-27-2011)
- Report: UNLV domed stadium plans will be unveiled Tuesday (1-27-2011)
Beyond the Sun
Thomas A. Thomas, a member of one of the valley’s founding families, was present at the creation of modern Las Vegas.
So his endorsement of a proposal to build a sports arena at UNLV carried special weight.
His father, E. Parry Thomas, who will be 90 in June, helped finance the casino industry and was an adviser to Howard Hughes and Steve Wynn.
The elder Thomas’ banking acumen and the real estate savvy of his business partner, Jerry Mack, helped create what is now UNLV. Parry and Jerry are the names behind Thomas & Mack Center.
The younger Thomas, 53, spoke recently for the plan by Ed Roski and Craig Cavileer to build a 40,000-seat sports center on campus. The center would host the Rebels and possibly an NBA team. The developers would also renovate the Thomas & Mack, which seats 18,000 but is nearly 30 years old. There would also be an extensive retail component and student housing.
Thomas is the managing partner of the family firm, Thomas & Mack Co.
Where does your enthusiasm for education come from?
My dad was raised in a Mormon community in Utah, and Jerry Mack was raised in a Jewish community in Los Angeles. Embedded in Mormon culture and Jewish culture is an almost singular focus on education.
What’s wrong with the Thomas & Mack Center?
Go to the Thomas & Mack and Staples Center in Los Angeles. They’re similar in size. Thomas & Mack is sized for NBA numbers, but it is not designed for NBA patrons. It does not have all of the luxury boxes. It does not have a wonderful restaurant that looks out over the game. It does not have standing-room areas where people can be in a restaurant or bar, then watch part of the game and then go back and socialize.
Why do you think the Roski-Cavileer plan is better than the off-campus plans for arenas?
Wouldn’t it be ideal to have a stadium that brings football onto campus, as well as the NBA and the Rebels? And for millions of people coming through McCarran (International) Airport and hitting Tropicana (Avenue), the first thing they would see is UNLV with one of the finest state-of-the-art stadiums, and a mystique that any campus in America would die for.
Why is UNLV as a residential campus important?
Las Vegas has 2 million people. We have just one university, UNLV. Our focal point has to be in making UNLV the very finest on-campus experience that we possibly can.
Can hurdles, like building near McCarran, be overcome?
From a development standpoint, due diligence is starting with a piece of dirt and analyzing everything, from the underground utilities to the height restrictions of the FAA.
What about the next 50 years?
If you’re going to build a stadium and student housing and other amenities, you also have to tie that into the vision of graduate programs. Will UNLV have a medical school, for example? All those things have to be taken into consideration because this is a landlocked campus.
This interview is absurd. If he wants to pony up the money great, otherwise he is just another guy with an opinion. So what?
Ok, time for some facts.
Thomas has no vested financial interest in the UNLV Now! project. The T&M building is named, in part, for a member of his family.
The project IS privately financed. Private money + public land = stadium, renovated T&M, campus housing, retail, and hotels. Private company fronts the entire cost and takes all the risk-INCLUDING IF IT FAILS, YOU NAYSAYERS. They hold and manage the property until they make their money back plus profit. Then the whole thing gets turned over to UNLV for no cost.
The only problem with this scenario is not with the plan, but with nutty Republicans. Nutty Republicans in this state like Sandogibbons want to destroy higher education before UNLV Now! is even built. So, if Democrats can stop the nutty Sandogibbons and his crowd, private business can help our state take a big step out of the recession by creating a fantastic public/private partership that has succeeded in plenty of places elsewhere (take ASU for example).
Then again, nutty Republicans could ignore the private sector, blow the whole thing up, and then blame someone else. Taking responsibility is not their strong suit, after all.
Mr. Hilton--The project will rely on sales tax monies diverted to securitize the bonds (a dedicated flow of cash). That is not private money. It will require the legislature to create a special district encompassing the UNLV campus. The project will use UNLV land (public university property) Tell me how this is private?
Mr. Hilton:
Please join reality and check your facts. If it were a matter of private money, the University could forge ahead. It is not, sir. There is no shortage of hotel rooms and shops sitting empty in this town that were financed by private investors. Right now, these folks are in a heap of trouble.
Now comes UNLV, where the public will underwrite this project through the diversion of tax revenues to carry the debt. See the lesson of the stadium in Reno where the Aces play.
Thus far we have seen very little of billionaire real estate developer's cash. I wonder why?
As for the fantasies expressed by Mr. Thomas in this article, he can certainly pony up to pay so millions exiting the airport can view this white elephant.
Mr. Thomas is just giving an endorsement, which means nothing when it comes to financing the project. The company that want to build this arena is owners of the Silverton Casino. Why can't they just finance the project because they do not want to take a lost, they rather see the tax payers lose. Sure the arena would be great for UNLV but not at the tax payers expense. I rather see a arena built in the downtown area that is suitable for NHL and NBA using a 1% sale tax increase in the surrounding area, which is the whole idea in the first place.
Monitoring UNLV stadium stories to show his disdain for the project has become a full-time job for Turrialba.
Thankfully, it seems a majority of the city sees the need and wants this built (and disagrees with the troll(s)).
I agree with everything Mr. Thomas mentions in this article; building something like the proposed arena and campus renovations would transform UNLV and would help cement it as a residential campus that could attract high-quality students from neighboring states. I also agree that this would help make UNLV more of an icon in Las Vegas and would help retain some of the premier events Vegas hosts in the T&M (and likely attract news ones, like an NBA team).
Care to correct errors in my statement snyderm?
Stop using tax payer money to fund YOUR ideas and your investments. If you believe in the idea so much than put up the money.
When did tax payer money becoming investors credit card?
@ snyderm - Who is the majority? Certainly not I. And your logic is that anyone who disagrees with you is a troll? Right... How can that logic be wrong.
A lot of people want the arena. It is just no one wants to pay for it. That is the rub.
This is completely gratuitous. Let the younger Thomas pay for it if he wants it that bad. Is the LV Sun endorsing this arena?
So a good ol' boy trust fund baby likes this latest version of back-room wheeling, dealing, and stealing. What else is new?
And 'Thomas Thomas' (this family apparently fancies themselves as local royalty) is not particularly bright. I found stupidity in most everything he said.
The T&M "...is not designed for NBA patrons (because one can't) watch part of the game and then go back and socialize... in a restaurant or bar."
This is the same hustle developers preach all around America, even though such is NOT the experience of the majority of ticket-buying fans. Only the 'Thomas Thomas'es' out there care about going "back to socialize" while a game is going on.
Then there's this nonsense about arrivees seeing the "mystique" of this dome first, when landing at McCarran. Tourists see the Strip even before they land, and continue to marvel at it (the Luxor, the emerald MGM Grand -- ALL of the Strip) while their plane is taxiing in. A glimpse of lump of metal on the cab ride isn't going to count for much, and especially won't if the fares are getting long-hauled through the tunnel.
Ditto the rest of his idiot comments. By why bother further?
Ok, Turrialba. Pay attention.
The sales tax monies this project needs are created by the shops, housing, arena, hotel, and other commerce that will be built first. No current sales tax monies will be lost or diverted. If not for this project, there would be NO additional sales tax monies, Get it?
There will be no public cost. The land you mention is being used as a race track for tumbleweeds and closed rental car shops. Its not being used for anything else. So, again, no public cost.
It is a matter of private money. Private corporations will build it with their money, bringing 2000 construction jobs to the valley, and the special tax district will pay them back through the sales tax. When that is finished, the sales tax will revert to the state, since its a state institution that will run it (UNLV).
The billionaires, as you call them, have not put up any money yet because its not time to build. If you spent the time to listen, you would learn that they want to hear from UNLV and the county first regarding their design. Then they will need the legislature to pass the special tax district this session. They are prepared to change the plans to meet the needs of the university and the community at large.
And I think I'll trust the expertise of those who built the Staples Center over a blogger. Thanks.
OH Hilton don't be a fool. You seem to suppose that first, these are a diversion of revenues, tax revenues used to support services.
The assumption is first, that revenues will be sufficient to cover costs and that any revenues will not siphon revenues from other businesses. If this were private monies than there is no need to go the legislature.
To date I have seen no private money. Any private monies that flow will be guaranteed by the public (hence the need for a tax district and secured revenues).
The boys who built Staples can't even tell us what the project will cost. Feel free to trust your money to these guys, just don't trust mine. The roadsides of the US are littered with this stuff and the public will be held holding the bag if this doesn't work financially.
I would be happy to have the university donate the use of property, but let the boys bring their own money.
If this project is OK with the University, and there is absolutely no way any tax money will be involved (this appears to be the big objection), I think it's great!
I also agree with Mr. Thomas that the University should have a medical school, however University medical schools are usually not located on the campus but in or immediately adjacent to a medical center (hospital) so that should not be any problem.
Upwinger,
"...there is absolutely no way any tax money will be involved."
Hey pal, you walked in on the wrong party, because you sure don't know what you are talking about, HERE. Go back and get up to speed on this topic.
Turrialba,
One wonders if William Hilton is actually getting remunerated to shill and lie about this ripoff, or if he really hallucinates the things he says to be true (??).
Contrary to his horrible claims, this is NOT "a matter of private money." This would be funded by government levying taxes on businesses, confiscated monies which would then be given to the investors to pay off Majestic's debt. How nice! If any taxes are to be imposed, they should be to pay for public services, not private enrichment! And this tax regime will be doubly odious, because it otherwise occludes the ability to ever capture any such tax revenue by the public, going forward.
Also, it is a bold-faced lie to say that the 150 choice acres of land (land, by the way, which belongs to YOU and ME) is only going to waste, or, as Shillton puts it, is "tumbleweeds and closed rental car shops." This acreage is right on the campus and is currently being used for athletic fields, precious student parking, a field house, and even some student housing. Even if it WERE not currently in use, it has high intrinsic value and is publicly owned. But it IS currently being used, by the University, for the students.
You are a liar, William Hilton. Your posts speak for themselves. I seriously question your motives, though I do allow for the tragic possibility that you simply are doing bad by everybody else, for the same reason some women, to this day, offer marriage proposals to Charles Manson.
I realize the money for this stadium is not coming out of the state's budget, but it's obscene to be talking about a project like this when UNLV is about to suffer cuts that will seriously impact its ability to educate this state's college age students. The current priorities should not include football.
I love how all these kind of projects around the country, start out as being private.
Then somehow end up being dumped on the taxpayers.
We hear the same sales pitch each time.
We get the same results. They come back for more. And we buy into it again & again. Then people wonder why the country is going to the dogs!
AMAZING!
Tasty,
EXACTLY! Thank you.
Personally, I want the Arena. But then again, I also want a city that has a positive identity, supports education, and can come together to solve a budget crisis.