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Jan. 31, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Developer proposes casino downtown

By ALAN CHOATE
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL



Plans have been filed for a 47-story hotel-casino in Union Park. If it's built, it would be the first new casino downtown since 1979.

Construction is not imminent because the developer, Forest City, must build a new city hall before it gets access to the 6.4-acre parcel in Union Park where the casino would go.

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    • The new city hall, however, faces a challenge at the ballot box later this year, and a powerful local union and candidates for the Las Vegas City Council are saying that a new municipal building is too risky a project to take on when the economy is in the dumps.

    A Forest City spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

    Next week, the City Council is scheduled to consider a zoning change for the Union Park parcel, the proposed building's height and a site plan.

    The new resort would be 1.6 million square feet, with 120,000 square feet of casino space and 1,000 hotel rooms, as well as a restaurant, meeting rooms, and a spa and health club. A city fire station also would be on the site.

    The casino is part of a glittering and complicated pitch that Mayor Oscar Goodman makes frequently about downtown. After Forest City, with co-developer LiveWork Las Vegas, builds the new city hall at the corner of First Street and Clark Avenue, he has said, it will swap the land underneath it for the Union Park parcel, which is city-owned.

    "They build it, they do the swap, they do the casino," city spokesman Jace Radke said.

    The blocks around the new city hall are planned for office development. The current city hall site would be joined with 12 city-owned acres across the street from the current City Hall for further commercial development.

    That, along with the new casino and other planned downtown projects, would bring in revenue to pay for the new city hall while creating more than 13,000 jobs, Goodman has said repeatedly.

    The debt incurred for building a new city hall has been estimated to be $150 million to $267 million.

    Chris Bohner, research director for Culinary Local 226, said the city should sell the Union Park land to a developer and forgo the new city hall.

    "There's no reason whatsoever that they can't sell that land right now and get cash into a budget that is in deficit," he said. "We reject the premise that you have to build a brand-new city hall to have a new casino downtown."

    The union has filed two ballot measures related to the new city hall. One would require voter approval of "lease-purchase" financing agreements for city projects, thus challenging the financing method being considered for the new city hall. The other asks voters to say yea or nay to the redevelopment plan, which offers incentives to development in blighted areas.

    Union officials say the city shouldn't be pursuing an expensive project at a time when many basic public services are being reduced or eliminated.

    Goodman says the union's real agenda is getting the council to pressure the developer into labor contract talks. The mayor said he thinks the project is protected from any kind of ballot challenge because a de facto contract exists with the developer.

    City officials hope city hall construction will start this year.

    Though there have many expansions, remodels and re-namings the past three decades, the last new casino to open downtown was Sundance in 1979, according to a time line compiled by the UNLV Architecture Studies Library.

    It was renamed Fitzgeralds in 1987.

    Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.

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    netone wrote on February 27, 2009 02:07 PM: "my favorite"

    obviously you have never been to a "real Ghetto"

    yep downtown LV is sleazy, dirty, and OLD-----but a palace compared to a real Ghetto!!


    vickie wrote on February 27, 2009 02:03 PM: uh, yes James you are the only one that doesn't go there-L.O.L


    paco wrote on February 20, 2009 12:09 PM: Regarding comment by Chubby Fact Checker
    There was a casino called "Holiday International Hotel: from 1977-1980 on the sight of Main Street Casino. The present building, then known as "Park Casino" was built in 1987. It had trouble a few years later until it was acquired by Boyd on December 15, 1993.
    ----
    So, I agree with you that UNLV is wrong. It would be more correct to say it is the first brand new piece of property in the downtown region to be zoned for gaming since 1979 (when Fitzgeralds got their license).


    paco wrote on February 20, 2009 09:23 AM: I thought Union Park was supposed to encourage the existing casinos to renovate. Golden Nugget is already adding a new tower. The Cim Group would like to renovate Lady Luck. And Tamares badly needs to put some money into their casinos. It seems crazy to kill those efforts by building new casinos to suck out all the business.


    Joe Bama wrote on January 31, 2009 11:09 PM: Will they put one of those sell your blood places in this new casino? Downtown could use another one.


    Vegas Vic wrote on January 31, 2009 10:48 PM: 4 words describe ALL the downtown plans...It Will Never Work. It's that simple, especially in the area where the proposed casino is planned.


    cheri brown wrote on January 31, 2009 09:28 PM: why is more and more casinos being build while schools and education are going down the toliet? help our kids who deserve a education.


    Chubby Fact Checker wrote on January 31, 2009 07:29 PM: This is the funniest proposal since the casinos out on North LV Blvd. at the National Guard Armory. And about as likely to happen.
    "They build it, they do the swap, they do the casino," city spokesman Jace Radke said, neglecting to mention that they will rape the city on the lease payments that will pay for all of it.
    I also just gots to say I think UNLV is wrong about 1979. Seems to me Main Street Station was built in the early 90s.


    Free Nevada wrote on January 31, 2009 06:39 PM: 1. Annex the Strip to City of Las Vegas (it's in unincorporated Clark County right now, which defies common logic.)

    2. Partner with developer and MGM-MIRAGE to put the real LV City Hall upstairs and a casino downstairs in one of the soon-to-be-vacant skyscrapers at City Center. Something tells me they would be open to that, ya' know?

    3. Profit!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Amt30_QVQ


    ET wrote on January 31, 2009 03:03 PM: Monorail to the Airport is good for all.Run one up to Red Rock and Blue Diamond,too.


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