Construction of $935.1M Las Vegas Convention Center starting
The last puzzle pieces for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s $935.1 million expansion fell into place Tuesday and construction equipment should begin moving into place on the site within days.
The LVCVA’s board of directors approved a guaranteed maximum price of $758.1 million on a 1.4 million-square-foot building that will include 600,000 square feet of new exhibition space at the northwest corner of Paradise Road and Convention Center Drive. 
The guaranteed maximum price is a part of a $792.1 million construction-manager-at-risk contract the LVCVA has with a joint venture of New York-based Turner Construction and Martin-Harris Construction of Las Vegas.
Under a construction-manager-at-risk development method, the manager provides a maximum price and must deliver the building by a set deadline with failure resulting in a series of financial penalties. The LVCVA is counting on a completion of the new exhibition hall by Dec. 1, 2020, in order to prepare for the arrival of CES 2021. The contract with Turner Martin-Harris includes $34 million in contingencies.
In addition to that contract, the LVCVA, guided by consulting project manager Terry Miller of Cordell Corp., agreed to three additional related projects as well as locking in a 67-foot shift of the entire project footprint to the west.
The new projects will include building landscaping and wall buffers along Paradise Road and Elvis Presley Boulevard and a canopy over the building’s loading docks for a total of $10 million. The LVCVA also is contributing $10 million for hazardous materials remediation and site improvements for newly acquired land west of the building.
LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill said shifting the project slightly to the west would produce more room for trucks to access loading docks on the east side of the building for trade shows moving in and out of the exhibition space.
“I’m really glad we were able to negotiate that shift,” Hill said after Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s probably something we would have regretted not doing in the decades ahead if we hadn’t done it.”
He explained that trucks entering the loading dock area would have had to squeeze through an 18-foot pinch point near the SpringHill Suites by Marriott property near the southeast corner of Paradise Road and Elvis Presley Boulevard.
Moving everything to the west was possible thanks to the LVCVA’s June 12 acquisition of 8.3 acres from the Irwin Kishner estate for $49.8 million. There was only one problem: An apartment complex on 1.24 acres at 3064 Kishner Drive was under the control of The Siegel Group.
On Tuesday, the board authorized a land swap with Siegel. Under terms of the deal, the LVCVA will get the 1.24 acres and 0.9 acres of Kishner Drive in exchange for 0.8 acres fronting Convention Center Drive and $9.8 million cash. Siegel will retain ownership of commercial property just west of the Kishner land while the LVCVA will get 9.64 contiguous acres that it will use for parking and outdoor exhibit space. Hill said holding that land would enable the LVCVA to plan for an attractive point of entry along Las Vegas Boulevard.
Total value of the transaction is estimated at $64.3 million — roughly $6.67 million per acre and below the $7 million-per-acre appraisal value.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.
Here comes Bagelmania
Steve Siegel calls it a win for everybody.
The land the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority traded to The Siegel Group — and the LVCVA rarely trades or gives up land — is going to become the new location of Bagelmania, a homegrown bakery and deli.
“We actually make our own bagels, sell bagels wholesale all over the Strip and have a whole bunch of customers all across Vegas,” Siegel, the president and CEO of The Siegel Group, said Tuesday.
Siegel explained that last year he acquired Bagelmania, which has operated since 1973 at Twain Avenue and Swenson Street.
“We’re in 2,200 square feet and just the (new) front building alone will get us over 7,500 square feet and we’re going to have a full back-of-the-house bakery where we’re going to be able to increase our volume of bagels and pastries that we make for the deli,” he said.
There are few food outlets near the Convention Center with the exception of the Italian fine dining restaurant Piero’s, only open at night.
“I think we could become the Piero’s of breakfast,” Siegel said, noting that he hopes to have the new location open around the beginning of the new year.
