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March 29, 2024

Neighboring businesses smothering under Firefly’s success in Henderson

Hordes visiting restaurant leave few parking spots for customers at other shops in strip mall

Firefly Henderson

Sam Morris

A full dining room is seen at Firefly in Henderson on Thursday, May 3, 2012.

Firefly - Henderson

This is the building housing Firefly and The 052 bar Wednesday, May 9, 2012. Launch slideshow »

Firefly and The 052

Tucked in a strip mall on Eastern Avenue in Henderson, The 052 bar has carved out a niche as a popular neighborhood watering hole for residents of nearby Anthem since opening in October.

“We just want to be the local pub and grill,” manager Rick Peterson said.

For the first six months of operation, regulars at The 052 enjoyed easy access to the bar due to low traffic in the complex, which includes a spa, a dance salon and a tutoring center.

Then, last month, everything changed when the popular tapas restaurant Firefly opened its third valley location on the second floor of the building it shares with The 052.

The initial buzz from Firefly’s opening has drawn hordes of diners to the strip mall at 11261 S. Eastern Ave. The wait for a table on the weekends can run up to two hours. Firefly also has become a popular lunchtime destination, drawing more noon-hour traffic than its sister locations in Summerlin and on Paradise Road near the Strip.

The restaurant’s arrival has revitalized a property described by its owner as “desolate” at this time a year ago.

“It’s a lot livelier and a lot busier than it has been in the past,” said Greg Uyeda, a manager at Uyeda Holdings, which owns the strip mall. “We’ve lost tenants because the center was not busy enough.”

While the extra foot traffic would be viewed as a positive for many businesses, Peterson and other business owners in the strip mall said Firefly’s presence has created a parking nightmare in a lot with too few spaces.

“It has severely hurt our business,” said Peterson, who estimated revenue at the 052 was down 25 percent since Firefly’s opening. “We have an older clientele, and a lot of times they can’t find parking. They don’t want to walk three blocks to come to the local bar just to have a drink or eat a burger.”

On a recent Thursday evening, cars circled the parking lot outside Firefly again and again, anxiously searching for an open spot. Vehicles lined nearby side streets and lots for adjacent businesses. Some patrons parked down the block to make the walk to the restaurant.

“It’s been hectic,” Firefly General Manager Dan McAdam said. “We’ve got 175 seats (in the restaurant), and I wish we had 175 more.”

Although the property has enough parking spaces under Henderson’s municipal code — which uses a ratio involving the square footage of a business to determine parking requirements — owners of other businesses worry the lack of parking is keeping their customers away and that heavy traffic is creating safety hazards.

Firefly has started offering a valet service on Friday and Saturday nights to cut down on traffic and is currently working with the property owners to acquire a vacant lot south of the restaurant to turn into more parking, McAdam said.

Uyeda said immediate plans to address the parking concerns included re-striping the lot to add spaces. He said he’s waiting for Firefly’s initial post-opening surge to level out before determining what other actions are needed.

Although The 052 has seen a downturn in business since Firefly’s opening, Peterson credits the restaurants owners for partnering with its neighbors to find a solution to the problem.

“We’ve all been dealt a hand we weren’t expecting. Nobody thought it would be this crazy,” Peterson said. “Even though they’ve affected our business, they’ve tried really hard to help solve the problem.”

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