‘A reason to bring your family’: Water Street seeing growth, renewal

Henderson was one of the fastest-growing municipalities in the country last year, according to census data, and the trend appears to be continuing into 2023 as various enclaves across the city are booming.

The western part of Henderson is seeing the most growth, with residential and commercial projects sprouting up on what seems like a daily basis, but the east side of the city is also experiencing a massive wave of gentrification.

The eastern and southeastern sections of Henderson have finally taken off after years of false starts — particularly Water Street, which runs parallel with Boulder Highway just off Nevada State Route 564 — said Grant Traub, senior vice president of investment sales at Colliers International Las Vegas.

“I’ll be really candid because I’ve been in Las Vegas for 25 years,” he said, “and they have talked about making over the Water Street area at least two other times in the past 25 years. They tried to do something and it didn’t get traction and they wanted to make it more important to Henderson and they wanted to make it more vital, and it didn’t work.”

Traub added Water Street, which features a slew of new restaurants and bars, along with the Vegas Golden Knights-affiliated ice hockey rinks at America First Center, has now undergone that makeover from being a “place where people get arrested or go to the government office” to a family corridor as Las Vegas continues to become a hockey town.

“Now there is a reason to bring your family there, and your kids, there’s thousands of kids playing hockey all over the valley now and (American First Center) has become a really vital part of that community,” he said.

The city of Henderson’s Redevelopment Agency has designated five areas of the municipality for redevelopment and revitalization, two of them being the eastside and downtown. Anthony Molloy, redevelopment manager for the city, highlighted three key areas poised for redevelopment within the eastside, the first looking at the downtown core in and around Water Street.

“The Fiesta (Henderson former casino) site was purchased with plans for a multiuse, indoor sports facility on part of the land,” Molloy said. “The community will weigh in on other amenities it would like to see at this gateway location to downtown Henderson.”

Molloy said the city’s redevelopment agency sold some land on Water Street to national homebuilder Lennar Corp., where Aqua, a 25-unit townhome project is currently under construction.

“This project will increase homeownership opportunities in the Water Street District,” he added, along with “the Watermark, a 151-apartment complex on Water Street that will include five ground-floor tenants that is approaching completion. All of the commercial spaces have been leased and pre-leasing of the residential units has started.”

The redevelopment agency also is currently negotiating the sale of three parcels at the southeast corner of Water Street and Lake Mead Parkway, where a 20-story mixed-used project has been proposed on 13 vacant parcels with a total land area of 2.15-acres. This project will have 38,000 square feet of commercial space and 284 luxury apartments.

On top of this, the agency is also in talks with a developer for the sale of property at Water Street and Ocean Avenue for an apartment complex, and there has also been a request for the sale of two parcels at the southeast corner of Lake Mead Parkway and Atlantic Avenue.

“The project being proposed involves the complete remodel of an existing office building, the construction of a new office building, as well as several commercial pad sites that will include options for eating and drinking establishments,” Molloy said.

Jared Smith, director of economic development and tourism for the city of Henderson, explained how the city is handling its wave of new growth and trying to develop in a sustainable way.

“We have a very well-rounded economic development strategy that promotes great vitality by recruiting new companies and supporting existing Henderson businesses,” he said. “Our team is currently updating the city’s target industries to create a list that best matches Henderson’s assets and workforce. Through this project, we are creating an innovative system that will monitor these industries and provide real-time updates to help guide our team and how we proceed with targeting.”

Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.