Decatur corridor rising anew
A little more than a year ago, properties on Decatur Boulevard between U.S. Highway 95 and Sahara Avenue were struggling so much that Las Vegas officials started studying whether the area could be considered blighted.
Such a designation could make development incentives available.
Since then, the corridor has started showing signs of economic life, with businesses opening up or planning to move in even without public inducements.
Even so, it’s too soon to tell whether the area simply fell victim to a down economy or whether something more systemic is working against economic development there, said Bill Arent, director of Las Vegas’ Office of Business Development.
The city will continue to study expanding its redevelopment area, he said, a process that has about nine months of work left.
"It’s kind of a balancing act, more art than science, trying to figure out what areas are at risk of decline," Arent said. "In a good economy, blighted areas stick out like a sore thumb. In a down economy, it’s harder."
"Some of those large corridors may come back on their own, but we’re going to continue to take a look at them."
Several businesses have liked what they see on Decatur.
Cardenas is the most high-profile new arrival, opening a large grocery store at the corner of Decatur and Meadows Lane in what used to be a Mervyn’s department store.
Opportunity Village’s thrift store moved temporarily into a vacant storefront in the same shopping center after their Main Street building burned down.
Diagonally from that complex is a nearly empty shopping center that is scheduled to see two new tenants soon: a WinCo food store where a Von’s grocery used to be and a new Dotty’s slot bar in a space formerly occupied by the Aces and Eights tavern.
Michael Eide, Dotty’s chief financial officer, credited Cardenas for providing the spark that got business flowing again.
"That’s probably the driving force for us," he said. "They went in and spent a lot of money. It’s an area of town that used to be a popular area, and I think that there are still a lot of people (living) there."
"It’s a nice area of town. I think it’s going to get nothing but better."
Cardenas spokesman Marco Robles said the Hispanic-market chain looked at a few locations in that area before choosing the former Mervyn’s, which faces both the highway and Decatur. It’s a good neighborhood to serve Las Vegas’ growing Hispanic market, he said.
"It’s not a unique issue to the city of Las Vegas so much as it is demographic changes around the nation," Robles said. "This particular store has a lot of that opportunity. We have become the anchor tenant, and we have created additional suites for storefronts to develop."
The neighborhood dates from the 1950s. Because of that, many of the retail spaces are dated, particularly along Decatur north of Charleston and on Charleston between Valley View Boulevard and Decatur.
Several factors are used to assess an area’s economic viability, Arent said, such as crime, property values, visibility and the amount of economic activity taking place.
Another factor comes into play here, he said — "functional obsolescence," where available buildings simply don’t meet the needs of modern businesses.
That’s a challenge the city’s redevelopment programs could help with. If a developer were to demolish a building to construct something new, the city could help with improvements to streets, sidewalks and other infrastructure, and increased property taxes from the new development would pay for the work.
Las Vegas has employed those resources to attract development downtown, including new nightclub districts, a mall, the World Market Center, a medical research facility and a corporate headquarters.
The existing redevelopment area is 3,948 acres, most of it downtown. The city is studying adding 690 acres and establishing a new redevelopment area of 874 acres, which would include the Decatur corridor. Properties must meet a legal definition of blight before the City Council can consider adding them.
The new business locations might signal positive news for the economy, but it also shows that companies have funds to invest.
"The companies with deeper pockets can weather the storm," Arent said.
Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate @reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.
