Clark County Redevelopment Agency - Regular Meeting

Hello? There we go. Okay. Good morning. Mister Jones has stepped in the back but he'll be out. This is the redevelopment meeting for May 2222 2025 '21. '21. '25. Okay. May 20 '1 '2 thousand twenty five. So, I'll turn it over to the county manager and turn it over to the redevelopment director, Shani Coleman.

Good morning commissioners. The first item in your agenda would be to see the first section set aside for public comment.

All right. This is the first period for public comment. Anyone wishing to speak on anything on the redevelopment agenda, please feel free to come forward. Good morning. Good morning. To assure you my name is

David Johnson, j o h n s o n. I live at 892 Vegas Valley Drive in the Las Vegas International Country Club Estates. I'm a board member of the Master Association. I represent 1,337 residences and approximately 3,000 people. I'm here to express my concern with the report that you're gonna receive this morning.

I understand you're just receiving a report, and I'd like you to consider not moving on anything because I don't know how our 1,337 units and 3,000 residents weren't considered stakeholders, but we were not engaged. And we would appreciate the opportunity to give some input and participate in this process because it seems like we've kind of put the cart before the horse. So we would appreciate your consideration on that. We heard earlier neighborhood meetings were held on development projects and nothing of that nature was done here. We'd also like to consider environmental impact, noise, and traffic. I appreciate your consideration. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Good morning commissioners and my my fellow neighbors. I'm Monica Gresser architect and owner of Brazen Architecture located at 900 Liberace Avenue Suite C 111 in Las Vegas. I am here to speak on item number three for the vision plan. My firm works in the neighborhood. We work with the children.

We work with our neighbors, our business neighbors and we have intimate knowledge of the neighborhood and its people. We've in my office we've looked at the vision plan. We haven't heard anything about the vision plan yet in terms of specifically what language goes along with it. We have had meetings and so when we look at the vision plan I see that it doesn't specifically describe the area of a small town but we're talking about elements of a small town because the current scale of Commercial Center is relatively small in a vast sea of concrete and paving. And we don't have a people space right now.

From my office at Liberace to walk to Vicki's on the North Side of Commercial Center is a quarter mile. And between those two businesses, know on a hot day or on a very windy or cold day, it's not people friendly. And when we talk about creating spaces for people, I think that the vision plan has a good start to it. The sketch quality of the images that are in the document are considerate I think of the potential for flexibility for a loose idea of what can come. I realize that there's nothing concrete in the plan which is what I see when I read it and I hope that that remains true so that allows for some flexibility as we go through time.

If you look at and remember how Town Center came about, Town Square came about and there was not a whole lot going on there at the time but it took a lot of work and a lot of energy to make that a more vibrant place. And I hope that we can do that with Commercial Center. I look to my neighbors to work with the county and future developers, our neighbors to connect Commercial Center to the neighborhoods whether they're on the North Side, the South Side, or either to the East and West where we might have level, variety of levels of income of generations and how we might make the space more vibrant kind of like and evolve over time. So I'm looking forward to the presentation. I hope that it's a good thing for all of us and that we can all work together to make that a really good development.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is James Baron. I live in the same community as mister Johnson, I live in Regency Towers. Interesting that you focus on the history somewhat, but first time I came to Vegas was in '73. This community is the difference between a firecracker and an atomic bomb. It's how dramatic the change has been. And I understand the frustration and the work you've been doing for years and the need of a commercial center, but I think you need to step back for a minute. And I appreciate your positions. In my young day I was in politics. I served under two presidents. And I was number three at the infamous GSA, so every government building was under me.

So I understand some of these processes. But I think you really need to consider the community and best use of real estate and how the world has changed. And I think that the use that we're talking about tries to protect what was the history. But commercial center is not gonna ever go back to the seventies. I love the seventies. I'd like to go back to the seventies. Same here. But I think this is the wrong use and not the best use for the community. And I'd be happy to sit and talk with you with some ideas that I actually have gotten from some other gentlemen who've had experience in this. And and it's underserved.

And these communities we see today, they're master plan communities. They they plan everything for the community, entertainment and so forth. Winchester hasn't never had that opportunity. And I think the opportunity is a commercial center. So not to consider this plan, but I think you need to step back, maybe think differently. And the same problem we have at Regency Towers, man. We're hanging on to the seventies. The only way we can compete is be today. You don't don't implode the Tropicana and put up a baseball stadium because the Tropicana is best use. The stadium is the best use because it's a changing Las Vegas.

Fantastic thing to happen. And that's what I'm asking you guys to do today to to consider this, but to step back, look at the needs of the community and the best use of what that property could do for the community. And so I thank you. And then my father would say, what you're doing is an act of reckless courage. So good luck. Thank

you. Anyone else? Seeing no one, we'll close the public comment period and turn it over to county manager Schiller.

Commissioners, your next item is approval of the agenda with the inclusion of any emergency items and deletion of any items.

Mr. Chair, I move approval.

There's a motion cast to vote. That motion passes.

Commissioners, before we move into our posted agenda items, we have a correction to read into the record. We would like to read a correction on item number on page five of the presentation. We would like to include Damian Costa, president of Pompe Entertainment, and Warren Cobb, associate dean, UNOV, College of Fine Arts, who were inadvertently not included on the page of participants.

Alright.

Alright. Item number three on the agenda is to receive a report from consultant Gensler on the visioning and redevelopment plan for Clark County's historic commercial center.

And

by way of introduction, we had approved several $100,000 for this study and report to look at what we might do at commercial center and this is the result of that first, this is the report from that contract. Morning everyone.

Thank you very much Commissioner Segerbloom and thank you to all the Commissioners for allowing us to work on this exciting project. We spent about the last year working on this project under Commissioner Segerbloom's creative leadership. So thank you very much. So my name is Dylan Jones. I'm a principal at Gensler, an international design and planning firm. I'm here with my partners Midori Mizohara and JF Finn. We're gonna give you an overview of the vision plan that we've submitted. So we set out to take a look at

And I apologize, but by way of record I think there's a 50 page or a 500 page document online that you're summarizing.

That's right, somewhere between fifty and one hundred, and I promise you we're not going be sharing 200 pages today. So the historic commercial center, we came out and took a look at it. Obviously it's over 50, possibly 60 years old, built in the early 60s. It's a large kind of historic center with a lot of creative tenants and restaurateurs, etc. Some vacant spaces, older buildings surrounding a gigantic parking lot.

It's got a really colorful and unique legacy and history. It's interesting, I took my boys to see the Grateful Dead at the Sphere last year, and you know they played here decades and decades ago. It's you know the Rat Pack hung out here, there's all kinds of legends, some are myths, some reality, but it's got this fantastic kind of history that you can feel when you're out there and you can feel the echoes of it in some of the businesses and the folks and the characters that still inhabit there. It's got this incredible location. It's centrally located within the valley.

It's right adjacent to the new Maryland Parkway BRT that's opening soon links the airport to downtown through UNLV. It's got this great kind of strategic location as an anchor on that corridor. What we did as we began as designers, sometimes our first instinct is, well let's just dream something up and drop it down on the community. What we wanted to do is start off this first step of this effort moving this thing forward by talking to people. And we did that, we had numerous meetings with a number of tenants, building owners, stakeholders, restaurateurs, institutions, museum directors, educational directors, the RTC, public servants, etc, to talk about what their engagement in the center has been, what it is today, their challenges are, and what they see the opportunities are to creating this kind of creative incubator for the valley and something that can come alive and become vibrant and leverage this incredible public investment in infrastructure in the RTC.

So we learned a lot, and you know we're at the beginning of this journey of learning about this place, it's going to take time to develop, and here are six key things we learned. One, a cultural and arts renaissance is happening now in the Valley. We hear that over and over and we need space for that to happen, not just in its evolved form, but also the people starting off. We want to create a destination for both locals and tourists. And we want to leverage the legacy to relaunch a unified brand for commercial center that's relevant today.

We want to use temporary activations as a springboard for the community and for all of us and a way of very efficiently getting this thing going. And we want to stay authentic, don't repeat the mistakes of other arts districts and retail centers by going overly commercial and focus primarily on safety and accessibility, a place where kids, families can feel safe and come to and enjoy. So we used that, we came up with a series of plan principles, a number of those, and we were very careful to align those with the county's master plan core values. The county has done a lot of planning work already. We wanted to make sure that these principles are in alignment with that as well as the state's economic goals, the seven economic principles.

And with that I'm gonna turn it over to my partner Midori Mizohara who's gonna present the vision itself.

Thank you Dylan. And so all of that engagement and research and planning really led us to this one sentence which is a draft vision. We see the Commercial Center as a place to be a cultural epicenter known for celebrating the legacy of Las Vegas while also incubating new experiences through innovative arts, dining, entertainment, retail and residential environments. And so what do we, know how does that really manifest in a physical place making opportunity? We took a series of snapshots and loose vignettes of what that potential could feel like and look like.

We see that future, the vision plan sees that future as a place where a walkable mixed use neighborhood exists where local residents from nearby neighborhoods, children, families, tourists, artists, students, college students can all coexist in a sustainable walkable environment. We see that as a place where flexible community programming can happen where every community member in the county could have a chance to activate this place with you know on a daily, weekly or seasonal basis. And really importantly leveraging some of this excess parking for creating spaces for people arts and community to gather and connect with

one

another. Large scale arts and cultural activations not only important for music festivals, events and highlighting the great cultural renaissance that's happening in the valley right now, but also as a platform for incubating creative industries which are one of those seven strategies of the state for economic development and really a platform for spurring investment and third party partners. And finally a new front door on Maryland with the acquisition of the furniture store lot. This creates tremendous potential to have a welcoming front door and gateway off of Maryland and really leverage that TOD oriented development energy and density around the new BRT line along Maryland. And so the vision plan is structured around six catalytic key projects and we really see this as strategy to not only leverage the county's existing properties and investments to go farther, these six projects really help attract and spur those third party partners and investment partners.

So we're gonna walk through each one of these pretty briefly but the longer document, the 200 page document has a full chapter for each one of those. These are those six ideas ideas on a map of the commercial center. So I'm gonna kick it off with the first which we're calling parking lot and public space which we really see as part of that phase one initial group of projects that could be started right now. And this would do a tremendous amount to change the perception and brand and really welcome a human centered walkable environment that's activated that really invites people in. And so this imagines the Southwest quadrant of parking of the parking lot as a people oriented plaza and almost park.

A temporary intervention that utilizes art and color and outdoor family dining experiences and installations. And you see on the left hand side of the screen where the former commercial arts building once stood which is being demolished soon as a place for further event infrastructure such as stages or other event needs and also public space. So this kind of glue really knits together multiple destinations in the commercial center. As you can see here looking south, how the temporary shade structures and walkable environments as one commenter said, how do you walk across this place, it's a quarter mile with pathways and environments, temporary trees. And you can see some of those kit of parts very easily deployed for different community gatherings such as farmers markets or art festivals.

And all to say that this is very flexible as a design. This is a zero edge curb condition which means it's completely flat and can be reverted back to parking 100% if needed. So very flexible, it could be half activated, half parked. It's a really flexible design that could be changing as programming needs arise. The second catalytic project we're gonna talk about is the future Clark County Arts and Cultural Center imagined on the site of the Commercial Arts Building now.

This vision for this is to partner with educational and arts institutions to create a hub for the entire county and its communities to exchange ideas, to share skills and knowledge, to create a marketplace and share multicultural and multigenerational gifts with one another in the county, and a reflective art sanctuary somewhere where you can learn and reflect. And so our design team at Gensler, we studied three very high level, these are sketch options. Even though they're rendered, they're still sketches to us. A village, a shed, and a loop. And I won't go into the details, but all three of them have some common attributes, really large and flexible spaces spaces that are not precious at all but are easily changeable for community and artist needs and programming and performance needs, large shade structures to create human comfort, and really flexible indoor outdoor environments that allow the blending of programming indoor and outdoor and a relationship with the parking lot plaza that I just spoke about.

So that brings us to our third catalytic project which I'm gonna hand over to JF, my colleague to talk about.

Thank you very much, I'm JF Finn, I'm also principal with Gensler. I'm Midori, you should probably drive, you're a better driver than I am. So as Midori mentioned, some of these projects that we're looking at are very community centric, very community focused, bringing in the community and have an opportunity for the county to be able to service their community. And obviously we talked to a lot of people, haven't talked to everybody. This is the start of a process.

But we got a chance to dream a little bit. We are very privileged at Gensler to be able to work throughout the world on, with a variety of different cities and communities, municipalities, and in that privilege we get to learn a lot. And what we are seeing repeatedly, particularly in today's environment, is that public private partnerships are the best way, really the only way to make sure that our cities are thriving for all of its residents, all of its participants, all of its businesses. And so in that public private partnership, there's an opportunity for the county to be able to do these catalytic projects. And so New Orleans Square is one of those.

And obviously Monica came up and talked a little bit earlier about, you know she's obviously a resident, she's a business in New Orleans Square. Best and highest use from a developer's point of view might be to tear down New Orleans Square. We don't think that's appropriate. We think in fact New Orleans Square is a really unique legacy project and it also has some unique attributes including small spaces. It's got great courtyards, it's connected, it's got a fantastic history to it.

And so in the vision what we are recommending is that New Orleans Square in fact become an incubator for public private types of uses. So bringing in UNLV. We've had a tremendous, in the outreach we've had a tremendous amount of interest in New Orleans Square and bringing people into it. But those small spaces allow us to then catalyze and incubate different types of uses that may not have an opportunity to be engaged in other places. It also brings a vibrancy to it. And know groups like Brazen who are already there who made the commitment can still be there and to thrive. And we did an analysis and you can see on the diagram, I won't go deep into it, but many of the spaces right now are move in ready. You can move in tenants into the space immediately. It increases rent but it also increases activity and we'll be able to service some of the businesses in the area. The second project is next door.

This is the old Ice Palace. Again a unique space that's already set up in many ways to be able to be transformed easily, retrofitted and sort of reimagined into a potential entertainment venue. We've understood that there is a group that's looking at that space and is ready to go to make the investment to bring back kind of its history. And Dylan mentioned you know some of the bands that have played there in the past. Know bands that I knew when I was growing up because I happen to be at that age group.

But it's a chance for you know for for the Ice Palace to then come into its next legacy, its next history into bringing space. Keep going. And then the next recommendation we made is for entries and signage. Obviously one of the things about creating a place is the identification of those spaces and places. And Commissioner Segerbloom talked a little bit earlier about this retro.

We actually think this is a place that is very vibrant for an analog sign of solution. There are signs, Las Vegas obviously is famous for its signs, but also something that's very simple, not precious. It can be really fun, a little you know a little bit irreverent, a little bit referential to the history of Las Vegas, and a very analog type of an approach to signage and the look and feel. But also to sort of make sure that we're advertising commercial centers back. And it's a place for the entire community to be in.

And celebrate a little bit about that retro history of Las Vegas. And then lastly there's the opportunity that has been presented by the RTC in putting a hub here at the Maryland BRT station and the purchase of the furniture store provides a really unique opportunity to take Maryland Parkway, present a new gateway into Commercial Center that right now is pretty tough. It's a pretty rough way to get into Commercial Center. As Monica talked about the length of the walk is huge. But that also allows the opportunity to then come in and be able to do some types of development.

And one of the properties which you can see that's outlined in blue, of the L shape at the bottom, belongs to a private developer, a very successful private developer who is extremely interested in coming in and working with the county at the scale that the county has recommended to bring in residential and mixed use and other types of things that will create that walkable community that Midori and several people have already talked about in this hearing today. So we think this is a really great opportunity for for the county to participate and to help to catalyze these types of projects and these types of uses. Again we're dreaming a bit. There's a lot of process that still has to go through. We know that this is a long effort to really bring something back and bring the vibrancy back.

But these six catalytic projects we started, this is a starting point that could be implemented now. If you go through the parking lot that's available, it can happen now. New Orleans Square exists. You could be retrofitted in a pretty simple easy way to get moving. And then there are private investments that want to come here based on the vision that we presented. And that will allow that catalytic project to then spin off and bring other projects into the neighborhood. But more importantly is keeping it as a place that the county can represent as a place for the community, as a public private partnership. And with that I'll turn it back over to the commissioner. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present this.

Thank you.

Thank you. This isn't a public hearing so we don't need any comments but does anyone wanna make a comment? Mr. Jones.

Thank you Mr. Chair and thank you for the presentation. Is pretty amazing. I guess my question is, in order to effectuate this when you're talking about public private partnership, that really in my mind requires a master developer. I guess do you have a concept for how that would work? Recommend that we sort of bring in a master developer to sort of make this happen over the next decade?

Think that's a great question. I think it does demand a little bit further study, but our hunch is that if you take a look at some of the things that the county controls, whether it's New Orleans Square, the parking lots, things like that, I think there's a very efficient way of going in and getting New Orleans Square cooking a little bit, like doing some temporary activations or what we call tactical activations within these broad parking lots that can engage the community, that can start bringing forth ideas from the community and get their buy in and their interests. And I just think the very act of doing that will start to spur some of the other building owners and other business owners to start working kind of around the edges. We don't think, and I'm not certain of this, but we don't think the right approach would be to one master developer to come in and try to do a full program. I think it's the most successful if it's many people moving in the same direction at the same time.

And it will retain vibrancy, diversity, and I think create a lot more buzz in the broader community if it starts to feel that way in a more authentic way. It just means more engagement. It's like an engagement led development program. When we say public private partnership, I don't we say it in the formal sense of like a P3 development. I think we say it more in an engagement sense of how do we engage the stakeholders and the community.

I'll add one more. Is it part of what our focus was in that is that these are projects you can implement starting right now without having to go through that process. County has the tools and the resources to do some of those projects. They're fairly low lifts. They're not gigantic engagements. They're not $100,000,000 projects where someone's coming in. All due respect to the Domanis who've presented something really spectacular today earlier. Those are big projects that require that kind of wherewithal of a developer bringing in. The county has all the tools right now to do the things we're talking about in that first tranche of work. Going forward probably would require more of that type of engagement that you're talking about.

But catalyzing that and making it attractive to bring in the right types of development teams downstream. But also opening up to allow that flexibility for more engagement and to understand how this can service the community better in a much broader sense as opposed to jumping in and doing one large project which we don't think is appropriate for this.

Right, and just to be clear I wasn't suggesting that a developer come in and redo the whole thing. I mean I'm thinking along the lines of what Gardner is doing at the Harry Reets Research Park, they are the purveyor of the project itself, but they're not the ones that are doing the development themselves on that. So Given the legal hurdles that we face with regards to the parking lot and that there's going to have to be, I don't know, 50 different negotiations with every one of the individual property owners, Shawnee's and department is amazing, but quite frankly they don't have the resources to do all that, so I just think it's something that we ought to be considering in order to actually accomplish the goal.

Any other comments? I will say the man of the hour is Rob Orhola. So Rob, can you talk about the parking lot and potential ways we can take advantage of our ownership of that lot?

Yeah, the parking lot, there's CC and Rs that limit the use of the parking lot to pedestrian use and also parking only. And so what we're trying to do is just use that Southwest Corner because we own the buildings in the Southwest Corner. So I think we have more flexibility in the Southwest Corner. And that's where this vision plan is focused for the first phase of the vision plan. But we're also trying to do is trying to make up for parking spaces that if we use that Southwest Corner and lose parking spaces, that we're trying to make up for the parking spaces by restriping other areas.

And also removing the medians between the parking spaces. And one of our things that we're emphasizing is that for existing businesses we want to keep sufficient parking in close proximity to those businesses. But as far as the Southwest Corner, right now I think we can use that Southwest Corner for some events and also for pedestrian friendly areas. So eventually I think when we purchase buildings, we can calculate the required parking for those square footages and then use those areas for other things as we move along with the rest of the commercial area, the commercial center.

But you see a way that even with the restrictions we can capitalize on those parking lots use them to promote the center?

Yes. Because the vision plan proposes to use those as pedestrian friendly areas. But also we can have some events in those areas as long as they're temporary events. And so, but I think what we're trying to do is focus on the Southwest area because we purchased most of the buildings in that Southwest Corner. And so we're trying to focus on that area first. And the idea is that there's fewer private businesses in that area. So actually we own the buildings and so the parking that was originally required for those buildings we can use for pedestrian friendly areas which is allowed on the CC and Rs, but also for some events in those areas.

And to Gensler, I noticed you showed a lot of tents and things in the parking lot. Those were all you could put them in and take them out, right?

That's correct. It's all designed to be highly flexible and demountable at a moment's notice.

Obviously is to your concern, Monica. Just in the summer, it's basically a heat trap. So, we can do to put some tents in there and some type of shade structures. And even we saw some things where we'd have trees on portable, movable things where you could bring trees in and bring them out, and even lights and things like that.

Yeah, I mean our suspicion is if we can activate these lots and it drives a lot of activity and engagement, all of the business owners that are tied to those CCNRs will be highly supportive of updating them because it will ultimately drive more business to their bottom line.

All right, but well, no one else seems to have a comment. So just to summarize, you think commercial center is worth saving and enhancing and We

think it's a fantastic asset. I mean the kind of identity, the kind of experience that we can support there and build there is unique within the Valley and I think will be appreciated by the communities of the Valley. We're really excited about it and we'd be thrilled to support the county as this moves forward.

All right, thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Alright commissioners, your next item number four is to receive a report on the Clark County Redevelopment Agency proposed expenditures and authorize funding for redevelopment project or take other action as deemed appropriate. I can use this. So the next item is we're going to look at current cash balance that the redevelopment agency has on hand and then go through a number of, thank you, a number of individual projects and show how those projects impact that available cash that we have on hand. I will note that this does not address fiscal year twenty six. So we had our budget hearing on Monday, and this does not address any of those proposed funds coming in for fiscal year twenty six.

This only deals with actual cash that we have in the bank. So from that, right now we have some projects and some items that have already been approved or funding has already been allocated. So you can see here we have the commercial center planning, that is the Gensler contract that they've been working on. Our commercial center grease trap program, that program has finished, but there's still outstanding balances from a couple of businesses who have not submitted for their reimbursement yet. The board at the last BCC meeting approved a new grant program for real property improvements in Commercial Center.

We provide twenty four hour security for commercial centers so that is the remaining balance of that. There was a project manager that was hired last summer, that is the remaining balance for that project manager. We do have a collaboration with UNLV. Originally, this sponsorship was for $325,000, so the 143,000 that you see is the remaining balance. As has been mentioned, we own 925 East Sahara Avenue, which is also referred to as the Commercial Arts Building.

We are in the process of demolishing that building. The demolition was originally slated for about $3,000,000 and so this is what is remaining. Cultural district enhancements, we're doing some art projects in Chinatown right now. And then miscellaneous vendor payments, so all of that rolls up to about $4,200,000 so if you remove that from the existing cash balance, that leaves us with about $29,000,000 for additional projects. So an item that we'll bring before you just after this item is to approve and ratify the purchase of the furniture store.

As you can see from the vision plan, this furniture store provides a new opportunity for entrance off Maryland Parkway to Commercial Center. There's not an immediate plan right now, so we would leave the tenant in place, the retail tenant in place. They pay roughly $13,000 a month in rent and so that would just be additional revenue that would go into the redevelopment agency. But with that purchase, that brings our cash balance down to about $22,800,000. And so now what we're looking at are other areas that were added into the redevelopment agency.

So back in January, the board voted to expand the redevelopment agency and we added areas around Chinatown, Koreatown, and then we added some areas along Boulder Highway. So the next few projects will address projects in those new areas. So the first one is Chinatown where we're looking to do a visitors and a welcome center. This is actually for a lease of real estate. We anticipate tenant improvement for a project of this type would be around $2,000,000.

But in addition to the tenant improvements in the lease expense, because this is an off-site location, we would need to hire employees to actually operate the facility. Again, all of this cost would come out of redevelopment agency funds And I'll let Commissioner Jones speak a little bit to the thought process and the idea, the vision behind this visitors and welcome center.

Sure, as the board's aware, about a year ago we started the process for a visioning plan for Spring Mountain. We've had multiple stakeholder engagements and are in the waning stages of publishing the final of that report. We'll have the, I think, round of the draft coming out here very soon. But in terms of the feedback that we've gotten from all of those stakeholders, is that what they really need is some centralized hub for information for tourists who are coming into that corridor and for safety, which is one of the biggest concerns that have been raised by the business owners along the corridor. And so in talking with Metro, in looking at the kiosk locations that they have along Fremont Street in front of Resorts World, that is one of the things that we've talked with Metro opportunity for the county to take the lead, but also partnering with AAPI Chamber and other potential tenants for this location to provide services that aren't currently in the corridor, including locker rentals, which is something that you see in many tourist type locations, but also a safety hub with Metro in that corridor.

So the concept is to work with a potential landlord. We've talked with 4425 Spring Mountain, that's XYZ, which bought the old Wells Fargo property there as a potential tenant, and then we also have another developer who recently approached concept. The idea here is to provide some supervisory positions there in order to oversee the project itself for operations purposes.

So with that, what we accounted for was the potential first year, so that's roughly that $2,600,000 Obviously there would be ongoing costs with employees and or lease rates and so with just accounting for the first year that roughly brings the balance down to $20,200,000 remaining. The next item also addresses Chinatown. We have some, as commissioner Jones mentioned, some public safety concerns. So there's an idea that security cameras and some infrastructure work would be appropriate in the area. Grants and incentives similar to what we've done in commercial center, looking at the area and identifying grants and incentives for developers.

And then place making, signage, artwork, different things that elevate the place of the community and we've allocated roughly $2,000,000 for that. And so with that, that brings our balance down to about $18,200,000 and I don't know Commissioner Jones if there's anything you'd like to add regarding these potential items.

No, again this is just based on the community input that we've gotten from the redevelopment plan that we've been going through. We're already pushing forward with the muraling project, already hired the contractor for that, and they're already working with existing business owners on a public private partnership. They have to chip in half of the price for that, so this is just continuing that work. And on the grant side of it, similar to Commercial Center, we do have a number of more legacy properties in that corridor, not quite as old as Commercial Center but certainly running up against some of the utility concerns that we have in that corridor. And so I've been working with the Water District and water reclamation for assistance for business owners in there to upgrade grease traps and backflow prevention meters, etcetera.

So next we will turn to the Boulder Highway area. So this is a new area, another new area, it's roughly around Boulder Highway and Stephanie. And we've been working with Commissioner Gibson's office. This particular area has had some challenges with the unhoused and so we believe there's a broader opportunity to upgrade the area the entire neighborhood. And so again, there are a couple of properties that we are looking at as potential acquisitions for public private partnerships.

And we've identified that and we're going through the process now of appraisals. We have again set aside funding for grants and incentives for businesses and property owners and then also funding for place making. With that I'll turn it over to Commissioner Gibson.

We've been interested in and have spent an enormous amount of time, we, code enforcement, the Southeast Area Command, this is an area that is kind of a no win area unless we take action. The area, some of you will be aware or recognize the area, is at Missouri. There's a light on Boulder Highway at Missouri, and we have a rec center that is just a block to the west of Boulder Highway in this area. So we have a significant investment that we're worried about and we've had some issues there over the years. It makes all the sense in the world in my estimation for us to do something to shore up the properties that are owned by and operated or overseen by and managed by the homeowners association, the Duck Creek Village, while at the same time taking advantage of an opportunity to extend our influence all the way out to the frontage along Boulder Highway, which is full of really challenged properties and businesses.

So we're not finished looking at what may be available out there. There are motels that we're not really aware of what goes on there. There are other properties that are challenged and people have reached out to us with an interest in seeing what we might be able to do. This would enable us to take some of the vacancy out of the area and put some purposeful development there that would make an enormous difference. That's really what we're aimed at. We don't know what the uses might be of the property that we're looking at, but that's something that we're very much open to. So that's kind of a summary of what led us there and what we're thinking about.

Thank you, Commissioner Gibson. And finally is opportunities in commercial center. So just heard the vision plan for commercial center. And while everything did not have a dollar amount, we do have some estimates in reference to some of the items. So first on our list is New Orleans Square, is 900 Liberace Avenue.

And so you heard the recommendation from Gensler that they felt keeping the building in place could be beneficial. We've provided some what we have we have some ideas on projected cost. If we were to keep that building and do a rehab that would give us bring us to a vanilla shell. We believe the estimates are around $14,700,000. We also did an estimate, for tearing the building down if that was something that the board, wanted to look at.

We believe that demo is, around $3,500,000. The cultural center, so this is for the September site. So this is those the the three building types that Gensler showed in their vision plan. We don't have an estimate of what it would cost to build either any of those potential buildings. However, before commissioner Miller left, he had allocated 9800000.0 Dollars to go directly to that project.

And so there is some funding available for the rebuilding of that site. And then as was discussed, the parking lot, if the vision plan were implemented, the parking lot would need to be restriped and there would be FF and E in reference to the the movable furniture and trees and other items. We do not have a cost on that. So based on the cost that we know, if we were to do a rehab, as you can see there, there's not enough cash in the bank right now for that. But as we talked about and as was stated in our budget hearing on Monday, this only deals with cash on hand and doesn't deal with future revenue coming into agency.

And so anything above and beyond that for the rehab of New Orleans Square, we would then tap into those future revenues coming into the agency for fiscal year twenty six and anything beyond. Obviously if there was a decision made to not keep New Orleans Square, that would leave us with a little bit more cash on hand. But those are based on the numbers that we have, that's where your cash balance would be depending on those choices. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions.

Just to clarify, Shani, the $10,000,000, approximately $10,000,000 that commissioner Miller gave, that is not part of this budget, right?

That is not part of the 34,000,000, that is separate and set aside specifically for that new arts and cultural center.

So the intended use of those dollars is a redevelopment expense. It's something that would be specific to the activities of a construction, the fitting out, the design, something that is a redevelopment expense. Nothing related to the other operating expenses that might come along with operating a redevelopment agency.

That is correct. That money, it was very specific, very specific in the agenda item. That money has to be used for the potential build out of that arts and cultural center.

So when you say potential build out, what does that mean?

Well we haven't designed the building. You saw the presentation from Gensler, they have different recommendations on there. Anything that would happen out of these projects, all of those items would need to come back before this board for the board to vote on them. And so until the board makes a decision, I say

potential. Okay, thank you.

Alright, do we need to take a vote or

Well, for authorizing new funding today, you'd have to take a vote. I'm not sure if that's the case. So yes, then we need to take a vote.

Mr.

Chair, as the Vice Chair, I'd love to make the motion to approve the recommended allocations of funding.

All right, there's a motion. Cast your vote. That motion passes. Anything else on the agenda?

We do have one more item on the agenda commissioners. So the item is to approve the purchase of 2625 South Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109 comprised of an existing, plus or minus 20,000 square foot retail building with an existing tenant located on 3 adjacent and contiguous partially improved and vacant parcels of land comprising of roughly 3.54 acres on APNs 16210502015016 And 024, fund the purchase price of 7,120,010 thousand dollars for closing costs, ratify the appraisal performed by Southwest Property Consultants Inc, and authorize the director of operations to sign escrow documents and any other related documents to complete the transaction and management of the lease.

And just for edification, this is the furniture store?

This is the furniture store purchase.

Mister chair, can I ask Yes? We've we've done full due diligence, we've confirmed there's no secret basements or other surprises on this one?

We have done due diligence. We do real we we did there is no secret basement but we did find a we did find a secret sewer line that has an easement or that does not have an easement. So there's an there's a sewer line that runs through the back of the property that was not properly recorded that we have found. And to date that is the only thing that we have found that is not relatively visible but could have an impact on the property.

Okay, but that's reflected in the purchase price?

It's reflected in the purchase price and we are working with Water Reclamation to figure out how to deal with that sewer line.

Very good, with that I'll move for approval agenda item number five.

Was that a motion? No, there's a motion cast to vote. That motion passes.

Commissioners that completes your items posted for this agenda. We now have set aside time for the second public comment period.

Alright, I see some people here from commercial center. Anyone wanna give their 2¢ worth and give us a haircut? Anyone wanna do? We have some pretty amazing people here. Commercial center is packed with all kinds of interesting folks. Miss Midby, nothing? You're happy? Alright. We'll go Oh, she doesn't want to say something? Okay.

Cheryl Midby and I am a Pull property

the microphone a little closer to your face there.

Cheryl Midby and I am a property manager for two of the buildings within Commercial Center. Village Square and the H Building.

You wanna make this is just the time for public comment. Are you happy with what you saw? You're not happy with what you saw? You're

Yeah. Hi, I'm Tonya Heeres, h e e r s. I'm actually the daughter of the there's five owners Village Square, and I'm one of the daughters of one of the owners. My uncles also own what they call the H Building, which is part of the Orleans Square, as you're familiar with, chairman. We just would like to say that last we're super happy with Gensler's vision plan.

It looks great. Everything looks amazing. I like the we like the idea of moving in the Southwest quadrant, you know, moving slowly since you already own building and the parking and the temporary structures and all that sounds absolutely fantastic. The only concern would be, and I know there was a lot of talk with Gensler about rehabilitating the Orleans Square. Obviously, Village Square wasn't addressed, so we'll table that for another time, but which is the middle building, which is important.

But the Orleans Square, Gensler was clearly a proponent of rehabilitating that building and rehabbing that building. But now as we see in the financial picture, there's a huge disparity between rehabilitating it at $14,762,000 and demolishing it at 3,500,000.0. So I know there's some concerns there because, you know, that's a hugely disparate number between the two numbers. Obviously speaking on behalf of my family and again the owners of the Village Square, which is the center building, and the H Building, which is the Orleans Square. Initially, my family built the Orleans Square.

It used to be called Carriage Trade Center. And my grandfather and my two uncles actually built that building and then sold it down the line to I don't if we sold it to Mcminnamy or who we sold it to.

Somebody else.

Somebody else and somebody else sold it to McMinimy and it's gone down the line. But my uncle still owned that H Building. There is a separate wall and separate structure between the H Building and between the Orleans Square, and I know some of you know what I'm talking about. But there is a concern there because obviously if you demolish the Orleans Square you're leaving this freestanding small building there, which you know might be awkward and weird next to whatever you're planning to build there. And I know that hasn't been decided, and I'm kinda getting the cart in front of the horse. But the money scares me. The money makes me concerned. So I just wanna, you know, keep that in everyone's mind, the importance of the cultural legacy. And we talk about bringing back old Vegas, you know, that might be something we're spending the extra $10,000,000 on.

I I think we did approve that. So, I think we did approve the rehabilitation.

Well, I the rehabilitation was approved demolishing, right?

No. Without. It's not gonna be demolished.

Well, was in the budget lines. That's where I'm concerned and maybe she can speak to that.

We didn't?

Because they were both in there. It wasn't like one or the other.

Alright. Well, I guess we'll have to come back. But, anyway, just so you know, I'm with you. I don't want to demolish that.

Okay. Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Tim.

Alright, anyone else wishing to speak? Real quick.

Hello. My name is Tracy Simon. My husband and I own Get A Haircut barbers hop in New Orleans Square in Commercial Center. If you haven't been there, it's a rock and roll themed barbershop. We do traditional barbershop haircuts in a rock and roll environment. And we're really excited about the possible changes that are coming, hopefully, and we're hoping, fingers crossed, for the rehab, not demolition, because we really like it where we are. We're sad we lost a lot of our funky, eclectic neighbors, but so be it. We'll get more. My husband's only concern is losing parking spaces. We moved to commercial centers strictly for the massive parking spaces, and we're busy all the time.

We get a lot of walk in traffic, foot traffic, both tourists and locals. So the locals need place to park as well. So that's our biggest concern because that was why we moved there. We moved from downtown. We were at the Jewel Building where there was no parking. We thought there would be, there wasn't. So that's our biggest concern. But if these changes go through, we have some changes and renovations that we would like to do to add to our business to make it more friendly to what possibly could be coming. So thank you, and we hope for renovations in rehab and not tearing it down.

Alright. Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright. Anyone else? Seeing no one, we'll close the public hearing and we're adjourned.