Lady Luck plans are mystery

Given, a principal with CIM Group, the Hollywood-based company poised to take over the down-and-out hotel casino, won’t even say whether the firm sees gambling in its vision for Lady Luck.

“It won’t help to clarify it now. It is not time to talk,” Given said in response to questions about Lady Luck, described by one city official as a “gaping hole” in the economic vitality of downtown Las Vegas.

But if Given’s e-mail-limited chatter with Las Vegas officials is any guide, CIM Group will at least consider restoring Lady Luck as a casino.

CIM recruited Las Vegas-based architects at Cunningham Group Architecture to organize a meeting to generate ideas for the Lady Luck in part because the Cunningham has casino experience.

The meeting on Wednesday went beyond gambling, however, to cover how to reopen Lady Luck in the short term and integrate the property at Third Street and Stewart Avenue with other downtown attractions such as the Fremont Street Experience and the mob museum under construction in the old post office building by Frank Wright Plaza.

“First and foremost, we need to focus on key business plan moves relative to the reopening of the Lady Luck,” Given wrote in an e-mail that invited city officials to the idea meeting at Cunningham Group’s offices on Charleston Boulevard.

In another e-mail, Given said CIM chose Cunningham Group because the architects have gaming experience and the two firms have worked together in the past.

The plan for the idea session was to consider how Lady Luck fit into downtown Las Vegas.

“We want this to be in the larger context, so our approach will be deductive from downtown in to the site,” Given wrote.

It looks as if CIM is already putting its money on the line for the project.

On Friday, Clark County recorded $25 million in financing by CIM/LL Manager LLC, which operates from CIM’s Hollywood mailing address. When contacted Monday, Given wouldn’t comment on the financing.

It wouldn’t be the only loan against the Lady Luck. Since current owners closed the hotel-casino in February 2006, county records show multiple loans against the property, the largest of which is $66 million. Andrew Donner of Downtown Resorts did not return calls to comment on the financial status of the Lady Luck.

City officials say they just want someone to reopen the property as soon as possible and are confident CIM Group has the experience and financial backing to do it.

Much of CIM’s backing comes from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, called CalPERS, which has pension fund assets worth $245 billion.

“If they are seriously committed to a project in Las Vegas, that is a very positive sign for Las Vegas,” said Mike Woo, a former Los Angeles City Council member who is still on that city’s planning commission. “There are good developers and bad developers. CIM group is considered very serious, very credible. Their projects are very high quality.”

One high-profile CIM project in Los Angeles is the Hollywood & Highland Center. It is a mixed-use project with 630 hotel rooms, 350,000 square feet of retail and is home to the Kodak Theater, which hosts the Academy Awards, and the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

In downtown Las Vegas, CIM group would also be working around historic projects. One of the key components from the city’s perspective is that the project complement the historic post office building at Third Street and Stewart Avenue and act as a conduit for foot traffic between the Fremont Street Experience canopy and Stewart. The post office is being converted to a mob museum.

“A big issue there is creating an exciting ground level that would cause people to want to go from the Fremont Street Experience down to the post office,” said Scott Adams, business development director for Las Vegas.”

Even more important, Adams said, is that the Lady Luck reopen as soon as possible. The current owners closed it in February 2006 and had promised to reopen it within a year.

“One of the biggest concerns we have it is closed,” Adams said. “It has been sitting there as a gaping hole in the middle of downtown.”