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NEW LAS VEGAS CITY HALL: Commission OKs search for financing for new Las Vegas city hall

$150 million project called risky by union, other critics

The proposed Las Vegas City Hall moved another step toward approval Friday when the Clark County Debt Management Commission voted 11-0 to allow the city to seek up to $267 million in financing for the project.

The proposed building, and the means of financing it, are also on the agenda for Wednesday's Las Vegas City Council meeting.


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  • Culinary Local 226 members, who have vigorously opposed the city hall proposal, tried to stop the commission's approval by citing problems they saw in a revenue study that accompanied the request. A Culinary spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

    The city must also get approval from the state Tax Commission before building the proposed seven-story city hall on a block of land bordered by First Street, Main Street, and Lewis and Clark avenues.

    As envisioned, the $150 million building will be part of a larger office complex on what is now empty or underused land. The new building would free up the current City Hall site for commercial redevelopment.

    When the new city hall is complete, developer Forest City would get land in the city-owned Union Park site to build a hotel-casino. Forecasts say increased tax revenue from downtown development would pay for the new city hall.

    The union and other critics, however, have said it's too risky to take on a large, expensive project that will add to the city's debt load when the economy is sour and the city is trying to cover expected budget deficits over the next five years.

    Culinary union members organized a successful petition drive to put a measure on the June 2 city elections ballot requiring voter approval for "lease-purchase" construction projects. The city is considering such a financing method for the new city hall.

    After Wednesday's hearing, the city expects to get Department of Taxation approval by March 4. A lease-purchase ordinance and an agreement with the developer could be introduced by March 18, with the financing closing by April 19. Those dates could change.

    Mark Vincent, the city's financial guru, has said it could be hard to sell the financing notes until after the June vote.

    The city has about $392 million in outstanding or authorized debt, about 7 percent of its $5.29 billion debt limit.

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

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    shane wrote on June 17, 2009 04:08 PM: i want it, you gotta spend money to make money. that neighborhood needs something new cause it is tore up. so i'm all for it.


    Lisa wrote on February 15, 2009 01:51 AM: Citizen - you have two city council seats to vote for this election. In Ward 6, you can vote for Jennifer Taylor over incumbent Steve Ross with all his conflicts as a labor union boss. In Ward 4, you can vote for Stavros Anthony instead of Glenn Trowbridge who is simply the handpicked stooge of former CIty Council Goodman crony, Larry Brown.


    Mamamia wrote on February 14, 2009 07:05 PM: Citizens! Rise up and protest this!
    Don't let that drunken mayor buffalo his own agenda on our already burdened budget. That guy is nuts on his own importance, and nobody wants a new city hall. Not one of that goof's plans has ever worked to benefit Las Vegas. He has the business sense of a wino, with a pickled brain. He's wasted enough of our taxes. Throw the bum out of office and keep the city hall we've already spent a fortune on.


    warren jeff's construction company wrote on February 14, 2009 02:01 PM:
    warren jeff's built the springs preserve, and look what you get over there
    for less than $600 million dollars.

    all the springs preserve needs now is the $51 million dollar art museum funded by the tax payers too.


    $heeee$h!


    citizen wrote on February 14, 2009 01:54 PM: This is an unneccessary expense. When do we get to elect a new commission?


    taxpayer wrote on February 14, 2009 10:58 AM: Remember - Oscar Goodman said"I'll run this city any dam* way that I want." He is making himself bigger than the city; Dictator Goodman and his croonies. Sounds like we are living in Russia, China, or North Korea.


    WASTE LIKE THE COUNTY wrote on February 14, 2009 09:56 AM: This is another waste project, just like that ugly County Mausoleum next to the railroad tracks. Who ever built and approved that waste of space should be put in a mental ward. It is truly one of the worst buildings in the county. Architecture doesn't fit, tremendous waste of space, overpriced of course, ridiculous office space, and inefficient to move around in.


    WE DON'T NEED THIS! wrote on February 14, 2009 09:51 AM: Why is the city hell bent on this craze? Better to put these employees - er, public servants - in trailers on F Street. Give them a dose of reality. Pass time to eliminate government "pensions" on the taxpayers' nickel, time to reduce their overpaid salaries for such little performance. Same for that d*mn Congress we're lumbered with, that doesn't do the will of the people. Cut their "pensions" and reduce their pay drastically. Better still, it's time for Nevada to declare null and void all Federal laws and become Sovereign state, as it should be.


    speaking of unions wrote on February 14, 2009 09:24 AM: Ed Beaman used money from union members dues to buy land, in the promise of building a union hall on Sahara ave. but after the land was bought the union hall was never built as Ed promised ,once Ed had the land subdivided
    and shortly after this,a Farmers Insurance building on Charleston was chosen as the new location for the hall.
    Yet the money and profits from the land deal remained with the Beaman family.
    What family has a direct connection to the Farmers Insurance building obtained by the Beamans.
    Union local 1908 is not operated in the best interest of the majority of dues paying members.


    since nobody wants it wrote on February 14, 2009 09:15 AM:
    since nobody wants this, and all rallied to make sure it won't happen.
    may aswell start looking for funding for it huh ?

    wow, did a mormon write this article ?


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