Another arena dream
Whether it’s another downtown Las Vegas pipe dream or a project to transform the city’s core, a $9.5 billion, 85-acre proposed development, which includes an arena, is stirring passions.
The proposal is opposed by some in the Arts District because it will take out 2 1/2 blocks of the downtown neighborhood designated for artistic uses. Property owners in the area south of Charleston Boulevard and west of Main Street see it as a sign of hope for an area more dominated by muffler shops and budget furniture stores than art galleries and cafes.
Still others are skeptical the project, being put together by Real Estate Interests Group (REI), will get off the ground.
“I think it’s great,” said Councilman Gary Reese. “But they’ve got to get it built first.”
Reese, who said he hopes REI succeeds in building the project, has the Arts District and the proposed development, known as Project Pulse, in his ward.
The Las Vegas City Council today will consider granting a number of approvals needed for the project.
In recent years, a string of proposals for high-rise condos and other developments downtown have never materialized. Developers have instead tried to sell the rezoned land.
Jon Weaver, president and a partner of REI Group, said the group intends to build. His group doesn’t own any of the land, but it has agreements with 120 landowners and expects to close escrow later this year.
“This is a very, very exciting and transformative project,” he said in an interview.
Weaver has encountered skeptics at community meetings and at the Planning Commission who believe the company doesn’t have the wherewithal to complete the project.
“I don’t know where they have a basis to say something like that,” he said.
The proposal is by far the largest project undertaken by REI, which is based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. But Weaver said the group has made complicated deals work.
He offered as an example Waterstone, which he described as a mixed-use development built on a gravel mine in the suburbs of Detroit. He said the project has 2,000 homes and 1 million square feet of retail space.
But the proposal for downtown Las Vegas is even more ambitious.
Phase 1 would include the 22,000-seat arena, slated for the southwest corner of Charleston and Main, some retail space and a “sports mart,” a permanent exhibition space for athletic gear and apparel, Weaver said.
The mart would offer sports apparel and equipment manufacturers the same service the World Market Center provides furniture makers, he said.
The plan the council will consider today includes 1,500 residential condominium units, 6,000 hotel rooms, 1,600 time shares, 1.2 million square feet of commercial space and 300,000 square feet of gaming space.
With everything falling into place, Weaver said, construction could start next year.
Even if the group gets the council’s approval today — it’s seeking a zoning change, expansion of the gambling district overlay, a special-use permit for the sports arena and asking the city to vacate some streets — a number of obstacles remain.
The larger challenge for REI might be getting the city to select the company as the best developer for an arena. Six other developers have said they intend to submit proposals for a downtown arena. The city will choose one.
Mayor Oscar Goodman has said getting the zoning changes and approvals sought today wouldn’t improve REI’s chances of getting the arena deal.
Weaver said city support, in the form of a property tax rebate, is vital for the arena to move forward.
Without the arena, the project will fall apart, he said.
The council today will consider a property tax rebate for REI that would give the company back as much as 65 percent of added property tax revenue from the arena. Similar agreements, called tax increment financing, have been used for other downtown projects, including the World Market Center.
Reese said: “We’ve offered it to other people, and we’re offering it to him if it’s needed. We’re not going to give away City Hall.”
Even if City Hall won’t be affected, others feel that the Arts District would be hurt because the development would change the character of the neighborhood. The arena would take up 2 1/2 blocks of the Arts District, causing a number of activists and artists to oppose the project.
“It would be the destruction of the Arts District,” said Todd VonBastiaans, who owns a lighting business and art gallery where the project is proposed. He also lives near downtown.
“I believe in development, but I’m very leery of a developer who has never done a project in Vegas,” he said.
