NLV Gateway aims to revitalize downtown North Las Vegas

The city of North Las Vegas celebrated a milestone Tuesday for the mixed-use NLV Gateway project designed to revitalize the downtown area.

The morning event commemorated Agora Realty and Management’s closing escrow on 19 acres of dirt off Lake Mead Boulevard and North Fifth Street. The parcels are strategically located at the gateway to the city, east of Interstate 15, along Lake Mead Boulevard and north along Las Vegas Boulevard, the city said in a release.

“This is our gateway into North Las Vegas,” Mayor John Lee said at the event. “We’ve been expanding out of the Apex and all the industrial areas.”

The project will “create another exciting destination in North Las Vegas for residents and visitors, bringing almost 1,000 new jobs into the city and new services and amenities to folks,” Lee said in a separate release about the project.

He noted that he and the City Council have been working for the past eight years to create “the right environment and processes for this to happen.”

“Agora has already made a tremendous impact in our downtown area, and we look forward to working with them on this next project to continue to bring our vision to reality,” Lee said in the release.

Construction could begin as early as the first quarter of next year with completion set for mid-to-late 2024, the release said. The master-planned project aims to transform the area into a walkable, downtown community with plazas, multifamily housing, public space, national retailers and space for small businesses and restaurants.

Councilman Isaac Barron, who represents Ward 1, where the new mixed-use center will be located, called the project “historic, not only for downtown North Las Vegas, but for our entire city.”

“One of my biggest goals has been to transform our downtown into a district where people live and gather that is rich with shops, services and amenities,” he said in the release. “This is a major step in making that vision a reality.”

Barron noted North Las Vegas’ diversity, highlighting the potential for NLV Gateway to open the door for more cultural opportunities.

“There’ll be some open plazas they can use for for either for small cultural events, or maybe even slightly larger ones,” he said at the event. “For instance, there are many schools that feature Ballet Folklorico and/or mariachi. There’ll be open plazas where you can actually have performances.”

Addressing needs

One of the most important additions to the district will be medical offices and services. Barron said the community is “drastically underserved” in those areas. A 22,000-square-foot medical office will be the first addition to the commercial district.

NLV Gateway also will include a focus on helping small businesses and entrepreneurs. Small-business owners will have opportunities to rent up to 1,000 square feet of space in the plaza to help grow their businesses.

Lee, a North Las Vegas native, said he hopes to bring back the small businesses he remembers as a child.

“When I grew up we had little bitty shops, little bitty companies. Eventually, with the downtown move — when the Walmarts and everything started going up, Craig Road, Costcos, this area kind of started dying. So now we’re revitalizing and bringing forth good products that care for our community.”

Lee said he hopes Gateway will help diversify the economy of Southern Nevada.

For the past eight years, Wards 1 and 2 have seen new additions, including Cristo Rey St. Viator College Preparatory High School, Maya Cinemas and an Amazon last-mile facility.

‘Working hand-in-hand’

NLV Gateway will soon join their ranks, Barron said Tuesday.

“The idea was, you know, years ago to acquire pieces and assemble them so a developer could come in and actually create something new, an entire entryway into our city,” he said.

Agora Realty, which had previously acquired Fiesta Plaza on Civic Center Drive and Lake Mead, has been working with the city on the revitalization plans.

“What attracted us to North Las Vegas in the beginning, before we started investing, (was that) we were able to put retailers in the area and they are doing double or triple the national average,” said Aaron Lefton, president of acquisitions and leasing for Agora.

Ever since, Agora and North Las Vegas have remained close business partners with Lee even describing them as “an answer to prayers.”

“We have been working hand in hand in the city for years and have been talking on this for years,” Lefton said. “They are very pro-business and pro-development.”

Review-Journal business intern Emerson Drewes can be reached at edrewes@reviewjournal.com or via Twitter @EmersonDrewes.