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Nov. 04, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Council OKs study for downtown sports arena, entertainment project

By ALAN CHOATE
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

This land east of Las Vegas Boulevard and Stewart Avenue could be the site of an arena. The City Council on Wednesday agreed to let The Cordish Companies study building a sports arena, an entertainment district and a hotel-casino on the land.

The Cordish Companies and the Las Vegas City Council cemented their relationship today, with the council approving an agreement for the developer to study building a sports arena, an entertainment district and a hotel-casino on city-owned land downtown.

“We’re counting on you, because this is our dream,” Mayor Oscar Goodman said to Port Telles, Cordish’s development director.

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    • The main part of that dream would be a 20,000-seat arena for a professional basketball or hockey team, surrounded by streets of restaurants and nightclubs.

    The current City Hall site would be redeveloped into a hotel-casino, since plans call for the city’s headquarters to be moved to Main Street.

    That move is not a done deal, however. Councilman Stavros Anthony, who opposes building a new city hall, questioned whether Cordish would proceed with the project if City Hall wasn’t moved.

    “We’re not a company that gives up easily,” Telles said. “It’s something that we would have to look at and analyze.”

    The study area includes the current City Hall site at Las Vegas Boulevard and Stewart Avenue and 19.75 acres the city owns between Las Vegas Boulevard and Eighth Street, from Stewart to U.S. Highway 95.

    The agreement calls for Las Vegas to contribute up to $150,000 for studies to evaluate the project, with Cordish paying for work beyond that amount.

    If the two-year agreement expires without a development deal being reached, the city will keep the studies it paid for to use in marketing the property.

    No National Basketball Association or National Hockley League team has been identified as a likely tenant for a new arena here.

    Cordish has built projects across the country, including Hard Rock hotel-casinos in Florida and entertainment/retail districts affiliated with sports arenas and racing tracks.

    The last new hotel-casino to open in downtown Las Vegas was the Sundance in 1979, according to a timeline compiled by UNLV’s Architecture Studies Library. It is now known as the Fitzgerald.

    Goodman talked about the potential project today as though it was a done deal, even though the agreement only sets up a two-year period in which the Baltimore-based Cordish will determine if the project is feasible.

    “Today is one of the final pieces,” Goodman said. “This is the tipping point.”

     

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

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    Oscar is a Boob wrote on November 04, 2009 11:17 PM: We already have a stadium - T & M.

    Let's expand that arena, develop the area around UNLV into a University Village with restaurants, shops, etc; just like UCLA's Westwood.

    We don't need to pay for Oscar's egotistical legacy.


    Not Wasting My Time wrote on November 04, 2009 11:14 PM: I'm not going to waste my time posting something on this forum since the story is only going to be repeated in tomorrow's online edition as well.

    C'mon RJ! Carry over the comments from "breaking news" will ya?


    perkins r f i d cards will save residents from privacy wrote on November 04, 2009 10:14 PM:
    red pill ?

    blue pill ?


    woodbury tollroads !! wrote on November 04, 2009 10:12 PM:
    save las vegas through greed


    new law that makes sure no elected person has anything named for them ! wrote on November 04, 2009 10:12 PM:
    no book deal or they face prison


    i crooked brain building is a terrible thing to waste ! wrote on November 04, 2009 10:09 PM:
    how does the average las vegan get into the gravy train line of hand outs
    instead of the free flu shot line.

    the money to pay for a worthless study comes from where ?

    obama stash ?


    Julio wrote on November 04, 2009 09:52 PM: The best place for the arena was the then-vacant land where that horrible furniture place is now. They wasted that space, then allowed an office building (only 20% full by the way) to be built on the other end of the parcel. Goodman lost his chance for a downtown arena. The "New" proposed site is a joke, not big enough and too much junk around it to adequately buy up properties at decent prices. You fumbled Goodman, admit it and move on. The only place left is some hole in the desert out towards the speedway or over by the Silver Bowl - both ridiculous solutions, but the only ones left. Thanks Oscar!!


    2zero wrote on November 04, 2009 08:36 PM: Mexicans don't watch basketball or hockey, sorry Oscar your demographics suck!


    See ya wrote on November 04, 2009 08:26 PM: Goodman will be gone in less than a year when his term expires. Stavros Anthony is the only voice of reason right now. Now is nto the time to be building anything like this. How about that huge pit that is sitting basically empty (Neonopolous). Goodman only wants his legacy to stand by way of a stadium.


    John wrote on November 04, 2009 07:39 PM: “We’re counting on you, because this is our dream,”
    So, it's the mayor's "dream" to spend taxpayer's money on more boondoggles? I'm glad he's not "dreaming" of a new space station!

    Spend, spend, spend.


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