There we go.

Okay, if we're ready, we can call this meeting to order.

Chair Doherty.

Excuse Vice Chair West.

Present.

Member Cherry.

Present.

Member Schlottman.

Here.

Member Johnson.

President.

Member Neldberg.

Present.

Member Riley.

Present.

Member Ortiz Thompson.

Excuse.

Do have a quorum.

Wonderful.

This time we'll have an announcement regarding the compliance with open meeting law.

We are compliant.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Public comment.

Comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters on the agenda for action.

If you wish to be heard, come forward and give your name for the record.

The amount of discussion as well as the amount of time any single speaker is allowed may be limited.

Excuse me, Chair, for the record.

If you can close public comment or to move it on to the next agenda item just for the record, thank you.

Seeing that we do not have any public comment at this time, we will close public comment for the record.

Um, our current update is uh the new parking garage had its topping off on Friday.

So we're really excited about the progress that we're making down there.

We're hoping that uh the garage should be completed um by the end of August, and we'll be able to start moving parking equipment and infrastructure into the building and hope to have it possibly open by fall.

Uh we have 500 parking spaces in there.

We have 9,000 square feet of retail space, uh, which we've had some interest in.

Uh UD has walked a few um businesses through there looking at it, so we're uh hoping that to have it uh rented uh shortly.

Uh the next update is 500 South Casino Center.

That lot opened on February 1st.

We have 59 parking spaces over there.

We opened that parking lot to augment the displaced monthly parkers from the 201 Utah lot, which is currently where the parking garage is being built, and then on 1501 South Main, the Weiss Guys building was recently demoed by the property owner, and we are working diligently with them to clear that space and to add an additional 20 parking spaces to that location.

Um they are working on entitlements down there, but it'll probably be several months before something starts.

Um, so that will help augment some of the parking frustrations that are down on Main Street, and that's our current updates for parking.

Any questions?

I I will just make a comment.

Thanks for the the update and congratulations on the parking garage and everything that's moving along.

Um question I've had from a few few people is is that when the parking garage open, will the temporary lots be not renewed?

Will they just fall off?

And it sounds like you're working with property owners to actually add some more still.

So I think the hope is that you can fill the parking garage and fill those lots, which is fantastic for the business.

We have no um plans to close any of those parking lots, they are all leased lots.

So the city of Las Vegas does not own any of the parking lots that are down there, they are temporary, they are renewed every three years.

We assist the property owners with that process with public works so that it's a smooth transition, and um our hope is that the garage will help augment when redevelopment does occur down there and people do start to take those properties offline that were prepared.

Yeah, and that garage is actually um able to be expanded to a few additional floors, so we can add, I think 250 additional parking spaces in there if needed at a future date.

Um at a cost, obviously.

So but we will continue to work with the property owners down there.

Uh, we do work very closely with um our development and redevelopment team uh for new businesses coming in.

We get updated lists from business licensing on a regular basis, so we try to pre-plan for new properties that are being um open for retail to ensure that we have the proper parking that's available down there to help support the businesses.

That's great.

Thanks, Maria.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Chair, through you uh one more question before you go.

The parking are we still offering free parking during lunch hours?

Yes, we currently do have free parking during lunch hours.

And what what hours are those?

Currently, right now they are 11 to 2 Monday through Friday.

Okay, perfect.

And is parking still $2 an hour down there?

No, it hasn't been two dollars an hour for about six years.

Oh, really?

Yes.

What is it?

It's four dollars right now.

I should know.

I'm I'm down there all the time.

But it's okay.

But if you have monthly parking in the 10-hour spaces, it's $50 a month.

Oh, okay.

How do you get monthly parking?

You can go to the City of Las Vegas parking services website, and we do have a drop-down for monthly permitted parking.

It provides the options that are available in the parking lots that still have a monthly parking available, as well as the on-street monthly parking.

And is that typically if you get a monthly parking pass?

You can park in one parking lot, or that gives you multiple.

If you choose a parking lot, that would be the parking lot you'd be assigned to, or if you choose on-street, it's any 10-hour parking that's down in the arts district or downtown, depending on what you choose.

Um, we are going through a process right now of reevaluating all the parking, the parking options and the rates, and we hope to roll something out in the next month or two.

That's great.

I'm gonna go to your website and look at that.

I didn't didn't realize that you you had that.

Could you explain what a 10-hour parking so the 10-hour parking spaces on street are usually on the furthest area, and those ones are three dollars an hour because they're further away from everything.

As you get closer, there's four-hour and two-hour parking.

Those are not made for monthly parking, those are made for turnover for the businesses, so that we don't have employees crowding in and not enough room for guests and visitors to park.

Okay, that makes sense.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Anything else?

No.

Any other questions?

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

This time, item five report by economic and urban development staff, Tracy Rich regard, forgive me.

Regarding regarding progress on the establishment of redevelopment area three.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Uh Tracy Reich, uh redevelopment manager for the record.

I've got an updated schedule here.

We are cruising right along on the establishment of redevelopment area three.

I don't know if we can show this on the screen or not.

Um we are about a little bit about a month behind because of the notifications and put in getting spaces for all of the public comment areas.

However, the blight study is completed.

The draft redevelopment plan is completed.

We are looking to be at planning commission in June.

We had hoped to be in May, but with um we want to make sure that we get adequate public comment.

And to do that, we have pushed the planning commission date till June, and then it'll go to RDA and City Council in July.

We plan we've already um asked for comment in the ward three newsletter, and we will be having two to three public meetings on top of that, as well as the notifications that go out for planning commission.

So we're almost there.

Once we get public comment, then I will bring um a kind of a synopsis of the blight study and the uh redevelopment plan for you all to get updated on that.

Okay.

We have any questions?

Yes, Chair, through you.

Yes.

So the the establishment of RDA3 is you uh gonna be in by city in planning commission in June, but then city council uh when in July?

Mid-July.

And once that formally gets adopted in mid-July, that's when we'll establish the baseline of wherever the tax roll is, and then it'll be another year before we see any difference in in funds for that particular area.

Is that correct?

Yes.

So once the once the ordinance is passed, then it'll be um filed with it notified to the county, and they will lay the baseline, and then we wait.

But that only means we wait for the money to come in.

It doesn't mean we wait for working on the redevelopment, start my data mining farther into the property owners talking with them about upcoming plans and things.

Has there been any any uh discussion with the property owners and any excitement about this uh or do they not know what it's about yet or what?

We we've sent out the flyer through the ward three um newsletter, have not received any comment or feedback on that.

Um while they were out doing blight study, they did talk to a couple people, but no real feedback on that either.

So we're hoping at the public meetings that we will get more feedback from the from the constituency in that area.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Okay.

We're ready for next one.

Yes.

Item six discussion for recommendations regarding potential redevelopment of city-owned properties in the downtown area, including consideration of development strategies, potential issue in issuance of a request for proposals and related opportunities.

Good afternoon, Tracy Rikry Development Manager for the record.

Is there a way to get the state?

Oh, awesome.

Okay.

So for what I want to talk about today is the city owns this land.

So this is Las Vegas Boulevard, Stewart, the on ramp on to um Interstate 11.

This is the alley between 7th and 8th here.

So the city is on this land.

This is um internally called the option parcels.

We had an agreement with Amazon, Zappos, and then Amazon when Amazon bought out Zappos that they were going to expand their campus in this area.

Since that point in time, um Amazon has released their option on that, and we the city now has full control over the property.

We had sold this property here and have reacquired it.

This property here was owned by DTP, and we assembled that into that piece.

What we're looking to do is to issue a request for proposals for a development there.

And what I was hoping to do is just a little bit of brainstorming with you all today as to what that potentially could be.

This is more of an aerial view.

Most of you are familiar with it.

It's the big blank spot in that corner of downtown.

What we are looking at in our have talked with the councilwoman about is how do we draw people off of Fremont Street and the surrounding neighborhoods into this area?

What is it that would be a destination draw for that?

It is almost 11 acres.

We can vacate this street, this street here, and this street here in this cul-de-sac, and create that's why it's 11 plus or minus acres because depending on what we vacate, depends on what we can add back into that.

Without that, it's about nine acres.

And so really trying to look at what kind of mixed mixed use property would be there.

Is it residential?

Is it high-end residential?

Is it mixed income and residential?

Is this an entertainment facility?

Is it both?

Is it there's a whole village within a village type of concept?

Um, like we're doing in Symphony Park with Cello and Origin Village within the bigger Symphony Park area.

What is it that we're kind of trying to draw there?

Right now I have a really generic description, and so I was hoping you guys could write off the top of your head.

Tell me what you would like to see in this area and what you think would thrive in that area.

These are the kind of discussions I had hoped when we first started this committee, we would get into so um it's our first time to be kind of close enough together to do that.

All righty, floor is open.

All right, Chair through you.

Um so I I feel that one thing that we don't have is enough housing units in in downtown.

You know, we I have redeveloped in Texas and Dallas, um, and and their downtown areas and every little area that we expanded to, like the arts district or you know, the Fremont East areas and in Dallas.

We're the pioneers, we're the first people to go in there.

Um kind of like down here in Vegas when we moved here.

Um we were the pioneers down on 11th Street and and uh in Carson and Fremont between Bruce and Eastern and you know, Sam brought in Newport Lops and Soho Lofts, and but what I typically seen in a lot of these other cities that we developed in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, um and and now Vegas, the difference between those other three cities was they had tons of residential, and then come the commercial.

Vegas has done this backwards.

Not that that's wrong.

It's part of the yeah, but it's been a side and ride for the past you know 20 years out here.

Uh I like commercial, I like the bars, I like the restaurants and the food and beverage, and I like the entertainment aspect where the entertainment capital of the world.

But you know, for for years we we struggled trying to get people to come down and support the bars during the week, and now we finally hit this.

We finally hit this velocity in the arts district where you know you you have people coming down on Fridays and Saturdays and Thursdays, and if the weather is nice, so I mean Sunday afternoon, they're out riding their bikes and and and stopping at different bars.

But until we get this this mass of people down here, um, you know, we need we need more housing to support these places on a Monday night on Tuesday night when people come home and want to go to grab a snack or go go grab uh a cocktail, meet up with some friends, and and it's not just the you know, the 350 on Cedars and the 350 people over on the uh um the uh the other one, I'm forgetting the name, the Southern Land.

Gemma Gemma.

Gemma.

Yeah, it's not just those 700, it might be a thousand people by the time you get a couple of people living in each of these units, but on top of that, it's the friends and the family and stuff from the suburbs that will be coming down to visit and hang out with their friends.

And so I I and I feel that we finally are getting this in the arts district.

I don't feel that we we have this yet over in Fremont East.

And you know, I I feel with the the limited number amount of land that we have left in in Las Vegas.

It's not it's not a huge supply.

I mean, plot analysis was telling city council six months ago uh once the market like takes off again, so three and a half years supply of land, that's nothing.

Wow.

So that means that we'll all come back down here.

So that means that we'll all come back down here we all all start building and making this downtown greater than we've ever seen but um the arts district has so much velocity right now and so how do we get that going over on Fremont East and everybody keeps asking me and I keep saying it it's gonna happen because we're almost going to get priced out of the arts district land owners are are asking so much for their properties and then construction costs is so much and then you know we almost don't have any buildings left over there to remodel so they're gonna be ground up buildings.

So when we look at Fremont East what is attractive about Fremont East well one we have plenty of land so we can we can put in a lot a lot of households so I I really feel that that's what we should be attracting not just a uh an apartment complex that just uh will will sit on the ground be nothing but apartment unit site I'd like to see ground level retail so um you know mixed use so kind of like the is it the Elijah or the it was the old F9 uh the new Eli on Fremont yes or Eli I guess that's the new name yes I I like it how they they have all the re ground level retail it's just Wolf who was the developing partner didn't want to have anything to do with it.

Now I think we we actually have almost every one of those full but I mean I I see every one of those in the arts district uh in at on commerce and uh Gemma uh filling up like really quick I'd I'd it'd be amazing to see you know some sort of retail cleaners bars restaurants something else for the the residents come down if you have 11 acres you could build a a a massive project which will bring a lot of lot of people down which will help further facilitate the growth of that area so that's my thoughts.

On the residential just a quick question do you have ideas on is it midrise is it high rise is it a mix is it you you know you can grow houses Sam's gonna laugh he's heard me talk about brownstones forever so look I I'm not gonna say I have have the answer on that one but I I like the the fact of building brownstones or building apartments you know four five six stories tall uh whatever makes sense um before it it it becomes um Sam what what height does it uh jump up exponentially is that uh after 75 feet so about how many floors is that can you go up to okay so I mean it it seems like that six seven floors is where it it has this sudden shift to a much more expensive building so if they can keep in that six seven stories that's cool is great I like jewel I think that was a great building it it it spreads it out and believe me I love looking at high rises but when when you can when you have this much vacant land spreading it out a little bit and and having more ground level retail and more walkable areas so Betsy Fretwell Jorge Cervantes Tom Perigo uh Chief Nolan uh or council people at the time um and probably about 15 20 of us went out to California to look at some new developments when um when when we uh were looking at revising code I was just talking Sam about um and which you know alleviated some of those things when if you kept your building underneath 75 feet and I I'll have to go back and find out what that was but it was a it was a class A product um and just the landscaping that they they they uh put out in the streets how walkable they made made it feel uh they're the way that they curated all their retail spots and and things like that it was it was really truly over the top and if we could find something like that and I'll I'll have to go call a couple of retired city officials to figure out where that was I I can't remember the name of it but uh Tom talked about it quite often so yes I think I have it noted somewhere.

Yeah perfect I got a couple of questions um the land to the south those parking lots um I don't know for sure but my guess is they are owned by the casinos yes they're they're owned by El Cortez.

Okay are they used much they or are they just kind of overflow that's a difficult question.

They are and they're it's like anywhere else parking's up parking's down depending on the days and things but they are used.

It's a little isolated though.

Um and it's kind of cut off from these parking lots.

Um but uh if there was a I'm not suggesting that the city get back into the business of buying land, but um, you know, if you could if you could tack on a couple of uh couple of pieces of those parking lots, uh it suddenly becomes a much more desirable um development for a real estate developer.

Yeah, the one thing the one thing, so this is the this is the one piece that we would would like to get back in here.

This is the pump and snack on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Um property owners been amenable, not a minimal, a minimal, not a minimal.

So we we're keeping an eye on that one.

This is the expensive relocation.

We haven't even started the talk about to them.

This is the El Cortez power plant.

That's all I'm gonna say.

You can put the price tag on it, and you're probably still underpriced on how to remain how to move that one.

Um, but we we want to at least have an attempt with them to see is there a plan?

Is it sufficient or will they need to expand in the future?

And if they need to expand in the future, is it now that we take a look at can we relocate that in type of thing?

But we haven't had that conversation yet, because that would then square off this piece up here and make it been able then to try to start to move towards those parking parking lots between um fortunately the map is hard.

Let's see if this one you've got, yeah, you've got uh Ogden here, and then Cortez is over here.

If you're doing mixed use, my feeling is I love brownstones, by the way, but you probably have to go a little higher to to make it pencil out economically.

I don't know if brownstones one of these days, but it would be great to have a grocery store uh downtown, but uh you know, again, that's an economics issue for for one of the chains.

Oh, yeah, we're we're firmly aware of that one.

But question.

Um if if you were if you were able to build brownstones in this area, how many brownstones would that could fit in this area?

Oh that's a good question.

Let's see.

I'm just going to spitball off the top of my head, and you've got two developers sitting on the other side of you, so don't laugh at me.

Just on one side.

Just on one side, okay.

If I took this half a seventh and just ran a strip of them here as a border on this property, I'd say 16 to 18.

Okay.

Those would be connected, true brownstones, connected one room one after the other three-story.

Yeah.

And I just like the thought of uh I like the thought of brownstone and or um architecture that goes along with the art district.

I like when I visit cities and I can just admire the the architectural structures of homes that just look different from other homes.

So through the chair.

Um Tracy, is there any indication from Amazon what they're thinking of doing with the building, like their headquarters?

No, they're looking to lease out portions of it.

So I am I am anticipating that they are downsizing to that point because they're looking to lease some significant portions of the main building out at this time, and so we've toured a couple of businesses through there for that.

And and I feel like the El Cortez has considered plans over the years.

I mean, I've toured them through stuff and conversations, and I I don't know, like if you go a different direction, say it's um MLS you're trying to get, and I've met with a lot of the different team owners, and there's this big struggle between the strip and wanting to be with proximity and the support that you need from the different big casinos to make that type of product work.

And I remember the lights were trying to do something at Cashman, um, which is now gonna be homes, I believe, on the other side of the street.

It will be homes, yeah.

Single family and uh attached and detached and some apartments.

It it just feels like it the closer you are to Las Vegas Boulevard, and you look at the the buildings in the back having some density that kind of tapers off as you go farther east, kind of makes sense.

I mean, we we have a property two blocks to the east of this five story um sticks out a bit, but if you look at the lesion down to the on Fremont, you know, it's in scale with that, and on Maryland, there's another five story being built right now with I think Nevada hand.

And Justin Martinez is working on his plans, and I think that is 17 stories.

Yeah, yeah.

I and you know, the central plant, that's uh that's a big deal.

Yeah, uh it's a massive lift.

Um you know how it's it's it's tough to think of a sizable um departure from housing that's like a sphere or MLS or MBA that could actually work and be supported and properly make it in a in a location like this.

And I feel like there was a moment in time where there's a chance maybe at Symphony Park, but I think the strip sees the dollars associated with it.

I think you know the WMBA looking at one point to to do something as well, and looking in downtown, and it just everything goes back towards the strip with the dollars associated with something of that scale and size, and uh it's questionable.

Like, I don't know if I'd want to be the original investor in the sphere, you know.

Um it's doing well today, but um financially what does that mean for a return, you know?

So and downtown's that much harder, I think, um, of a lift.

So you start to go back to uh density with residential and and in mixed use and everything that you know everybody was just saying.

I think you know, there's gonna be parcels where you can you can do a 17-story and and have mid-rise adjacent to it and have brownstone adjacent to that with just some scale and some mix on a parcel of the size.

I mean, this is a this is a big uh we were we had uh plans for a um 38 story 420 unit building on third and gas on 35,000 feet, so um less than half that city block.

Um and so just to give context, Soho Lofts is on 30,000 feet, Newpur Loves is on half an acre, you know, so you you can really get some density going on on uh a project of this size.

I will say it is nice, you know, we're in the apartment business today, but we've done for sale product, and it is nice when there's ownership associated with it.

Um it felt like the Ogden at one point in the CCNRs were allowing Airbnbs, and it was kind of just like it was because of its proximity was just kind of like inundated with it, and the actual owners were frustrated, they I think cleaned up their docks and um it's not allowed like it used to be, and then the licensing through the city to have an Airbnb, but it's proximity to the epicenter with Fremont.

It's nice to have something that has some transiency to it too to help pick up um the hope of more uh people coming downtown in the future as downtown grows, you know.

So hotel condo comes to comes to mind.

Something about to say, what do you think of yeah, yeah.

So stuff like that.

And I I I never, you know, hotel condo is an odd thing to me because I've always like, well, if I just you know, for what it costs to to buy and maintain, I'll just try to get a suite, you know, for the one or two times a year on out of the 180,000 hotel rooms that are in Las Vegas.

But it works all over.

All the all the higher end product is is building stuff, you know, that's for sale that they put back into like a pool or program.

Um and I think I think you're gonna see after that first iteration back in like 06, 07, 08, when it was like a hot topic and then fell off.

I think a lot of lessons learned of how to come back to market with that.

Um and I think that's something that the casino owners would get behind because it's just it's more you know, transiency that would come to their establishments and down to Fremont Street.

So don't have a clear direction, but that's a lot to think about.

That's exciting.

It's a big parcel.

It's I mean, it's the one that you know it's huge.

The the plaza has 12 acres to the south.

Um, this is right next to it as far as in downtown of size, it's adjacent to really anything that's left.

I think Black Rock has the stuff next to World Market Center that's 20 acres, I think.

22 acres.

So there's like three sizable.

Thinking is a little iffy with all the easements on it.

Right.

So so I mean there's there's not that much more beyond it unless someone's out there kind of cobbling together, which happened at one time in the arts district, if we remember, when that I think his name was Robert was assembling a bunch of stuff to pitch the stadium.

This isn't like again 0809 time, and then everything went sideways.

Um it would have been a much different arts district if that would have gone forward.

But um cool stuff to think about.

Thanks.

Any other discussions?

Yes, chair, through you.

I just a question for Mr.

Jerry.

Um can you talk about pricing for um on these mid rise, high-rise apartments because uh like the one that's being developed in in Symphony Park?

I mean, I don't know my numbers on that, but you do.

But I I something tells me that Tippins or somebody was telling me that it was like 800 or 1200 bucks a foot to build.

And how's that compared to the six or seven story uh building?

And and do you think that there's that much appetite for that in the near future?

And is there even finance and available for these condo towers?

If we went uh and offered it as a um condo development.

Yeah, I think I think numbers have gotten much closer than you know, for the last I don't know, 10 years, there's just been inventory that just didn't make sense that you could buy well below build cost, right?

And so hard to hard to think about something new, and then condos after the downturn, it just became something that architects, GTCs, no one wanted to deal with because of the construction defect litigation associated, the OSEP that you had to get for insurance.

Um, what's being what Patrick is has going on at Symphony Park, it's it's on the high end of things.

It's very nice, you know, it has a grocery store component associated with it.

It's it's um um it's on the higher end, I would say, of things.

It's it's more preferred per foot than Queensbridge is as far as um on the buy side.

So um it's a it's a big jump from the product we're building, the the four and five story that can be done with wood or or metal, but wood, to you know, even say a 17-story building that's concrete or steel.

It's just uh I mean it it's over a couple hundred dollars a foot more um in jump.

Now the prices should be aligned with that on the other side, but you know, uh you're talking about million and multimillion dollar condos being built in Symphony Park right now.

And that that's a that's a that's a big lift, and it's gonna when it's done, it's gonna show the market that it can be done.

Um, and I don't know how much I don't know what the depth of it is.

We've always felt that like you know, you go to Chicago, not everything has to be like high end glitz clin.

There can just be urban infill high-rise that doesn't have you know uh a wild HOA fee associated with it and amenities scaled appropriately with it on a price per square foot.

And we were we were hoping that we'd see more of that.

Um you know, in the downtown area.

Uh it just the luxury market keeps growing and growing exponentially, and um I know I'm rooting for Patrick, and it's a big thing for downtown and kind of more proof of concept again of something that hasn't been done in a long time.

So it it not the cleanest answer for you, Trinity, but um a little context, I guess.

Thank you.

Uh and and share if I may.

Um so I I would say uh maybe you you have to open it up to the developers and kind of keep it somewhat flexible to see what the development community wants to bring uh to this parcel.

But I would also encourage you to make sure that somebody doesn't come in and propose high-rises across the entire thing because I we've seen that happen before, and we've seen a lot of our housing bust and projects not go forward if they don't pencil, um, then it slows down our our progress in downtown, and I'd like to see the momentum could continue.

So uh hopefully we can be open to bringing different product mixes down there, but um with uh uh caution on just allowing pure high-rise.

The one I have right on the screen now is when we talked to councilwoman about uh this is McGregor Square in Denver.

You have uh the union uh station area, you've got the rest of downtown, and then right here not shown is the Rockies ballpark.

What we like, what I like about this particular development is I was talking about how do you draw people in with this.

You've got hotel, residential, ground floor retail, additional residential and office.

You have there's a skywalk.

This picture isn't the really easiest one to say.

There's a sky bridge across these two pieces.

It creates this pull to bring you into the piece, and this is entertainment.

It's just it's wide open, walkable space that they host various different um things on.

They have, you know, baseball games on, you can have a gathering out there and things and stuff.

This is something that we were trying to look at.

Do you think this is feasible?

In you know, I mean, this is only one city block, so I mean it takes up less than a third of what we're we're proposing for space-wise.

I mean, I'll quickly comment like it's hard for me to say it's not feasible because I had a line of people that said I couldn't build a high rise too.

So um, you know, so um it it it just the economics of the mixed use on the ground floor very difficult.

You know, it has a stadium there, right?

So it's in the ballpark district, it has a neighborhood that's really looking out for each other.

It the dynamics of everything that's happening around this building work well.

Not to say that it couldn't be here in downtown, it just doesn't feel like we have that yet.

That's why I started thinking like, well, what is Amazon gonna do with their building?

What is El Cortez gonna do with their building?

What are what are some of those other houses to the east?

I know one low landowner wants to do something with his his property there.

Um you know, it's it's like you you look at the ground floor, and there's probably the the pub on the ground floor when you walk outside of the the the ballpark and you you you lose one of those big spaces and it just kind of like a domino, you know.

You when we've seen every what town square go bankrupt, downtown Summerlin, the storefronts close.

Like it's just a such a different dynamic than anywhere else in the the country, to be honest with you.

Um I'm um I'm a believer anything can be done because that's how I've got to the point of that.

Uh and I'm an optimist, but this would be a this would be a big lift, I think.

I think it'd be a big lift.

I I I'll echo the same comments, but um, I I would also just state that I'd be cautious about any any kind of office that has that many office spaces.

We have so much office available downtown I could bring you through, which I'm sure you know.

Um, you know, 10 different buildings where there's significantly over 50 percent vacancy, and I think even after COVID, it it even hit that much harder.

So uh I I think it was a beautiful project.

Uh, I would I mean it would be great to see something like this.

I just um in and if the city locked up a developer who said they're they were gonna build this, uh I wouldn't be offended.

I would think that it's great.

Uh however, I just want to make sure that whatever we're locking up, we're not locking up for you know five years, and then finding out they don't have the the funds and they need another few years extension, and then we're 15 years down the road and we don't have anything built on that parcel.

So that that'd be the only thing I'd say.

I plan on retiring in three years.

I want this in the ground before I leave.

So any other thoughts.

Uh Johnny, just a bit.

Yeah.

Um the I really love the discussion.

It's actually incredibly exciting that to think about what's possible.

Um the things uh I was I was hearing, and you know, I'm I think um several of the ideas are a really strong one, you know, in particular around residential uh support.

What is the way that we could kind of measure demand uh for residents uh for residential or the types of resident people would want?

Uh I think that might also be one of the things that that could help drive our decision.

Uh I know you know the economics have to work and and and all that, and you know, if if we understand what people want, what types of uh residential um environments people want in that in that area, it might uh help make it a little simpler of uh economic uh decision because we know that there's already a strong demand for something.

Okay, I got one more for you.

So let's go back to we've got 11 acres now.

Fire station one needs to be rebuilt.

It's currently now what it was going to be in the path of the end dot redo of the freeway, no longer happening at this point in time.

Fire station one still needs to be relocated and things.

If we were to build a mixed income community here, a mixed use mixed income community with a lot of residential in here.

How do you feel about a fire station tucked on this?

How do you think it would impact being able to draw residences or it's been a lot of fires in the neighborhood lately?

I mean, there has.

I said look out my window and I can count six in the last two weeks.

In this area, I mean well, it's just and and why there's just older structure, you know, and and and so and the fire department's great at putting them out and reacting.

And I I always I think a fire department's a positive thing.

I don't look at it as a negative thing, you know.

Me personally.

I would have to research that one.

I like the thought of a new fire station.

I just don't think I've ever been driving and said I would like to live next to a fire station.

Yeah.

That was where I was.

I need to research that one.

I will through the chair.

I will say, I mean, it's very common, like in in Chicago, you know, it's at the base of a building or New York, you'll see it.

Um high-rise, high rays, high rise, and then a four-story building that's the fire department, you know, and um uh which way it's it's facing and how it's positioned when they throw their their engine lights and and sirens on, you know, that's all conversation that you have, but it's not uncommon in other cities.

I would I just point out.

Yeah, thank you.

I I feel that it's not the highest and best use of the land.

I feel that we have a lot of other land.

Um I feel that there's a very limited amount of land right here on Las Vegas Boulevard, and the highest and best use.

I don't necessarily feel is that fire department.

I feel that you know, utilizing the land for something else, housing or retail or or something else would be a better use.

And then I mean, I'm sure we can buy a couple of parcels just north of uh of the highway.

I mean, uh I mean there's probably a whole slew of other places where we could locate this, and so nothing against that.

But I I and I I know it happens in big cities and everything else, but um honestly I don't live next to a fire station, but I live on Fremont Street.

And you would think that I had a fire station right outside my door.

I hear this every night.

I'm just down the street from the fire station, and I think they intentionally drive down Fremont, no matter where they need to go, they drive by and blare their their sirens as loud as they can, wake me up, and uh then they'll call all their buddies and they'll come like 15 of them in a row and wake me up, and then so I I personally wouldn't want to be any closer to a fire station than I am right now, and I'm I'm probably about a half a mile away from one.

Any other thoughts on that?

I got one more thing to throw at you.

So I'm I'm curious.

So we asked for mixed use, high density, open space, and a fire station.

And they threw this at us.

Now, this is they also made Stuart a freeway.

So um it's not exactly to scale.

We didn't even say anything about the street.

No, Dean and I are both going, when did Stuart get to be so wide?

Um, but it's so if we were to look at a fire station with that, but what do you think about and I mean this literally it's AI, you know, starting to creep into how we take a look and do some planning and things and stuff.

What do you think about the park concept and open space in there the mix of high end high-end uh mid-rise buildings?

I will yield to those who have experience with New York living.

I again I like I I like thinking of a fire station, but I just think if we're if if we're gonna dream, I just don't see a I see something beyond a fire station there.

Uh sure three years.

Yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead.

No, you go ahead.

Um I I I get the community value of a of a fire station and and that's evident.

Um how much additional uh I mean are we like how many fire stations do you need in a in a in a general vicinity to feel like the fire station that they're able to kind of cover ground and is this a necessity that we have to put there or are we just I guess what's the the reason why we're thinking about this here?

You know, like I don't know if there need to be five fire stations within you know a hundred mile radius.

I don't know what the ratio to is and and why we are why that might be one of the things we need.

So so the fire station one is currently on the other side of the of the freeway, uh uh tucked a little bit basically behind the Amazon building.

Yes, back there.

That building needs to be redone actually.

The whole thought process is it needs to be moved because of the in egress and ingress in it is making it more difficult to respond quicker to fires.

And so they're looking at a new place to close that one down and relocate somewhere in the central area, pref preferably somewhere around the Fremont area, uh, with that the fire station.

The fire station, the other piece of this is is they whoops, uh they uh Chat GBT gave them the nice neat little thing.

It would actually take up this next building up here as well.

They would need about two acres.

We're working with them to understand the suburban model of fire station needs to be more of an urban model of fire station, not horizontal, but more vertical in in peace and stuff.

But we're working on that.

Um someone had suggested that, and I said, Well, wait, we're about to do this, let's get some feedback on that.

And so that's why we're why I'm asking you to give me some opinion.

Uh cheer through you.

I uh I think I think the uh Chat GPT did a great job.

I I we were kind of thrilled with that.

Yes.

I mean, Chat GPT works amazing.

Gemini also does a really good job uh with rendering some photo.

Um a couple of things that I see that I really like is I I like all the landscape and I like all the trees, I like the parks that are on top of the rooftops.

When um Jorge and Perigo and myself and about 10 of us went to Manhattan, um it sounds like we took took a lot of trips and we we we have to say LA Manhattan.

Yes.

Um but it it was to look at parks and to look at landscaping.

We looked at the high line and and we we've seen a lot of parks and open spaces on rooftops and it kind of like what you're showing right here, and it was it was really cool.

It gives people a place to go hang out.

Um we don't have many parks downtown, so um if there's uh a a green space, and I I know that we also have to find out ways to manage parks, and um we visited Bryan Park Bryant Park and it was a private park, so they were able to have additional rules like um can't lay down uh can't lay down uh and sleep in the park.

Um Tom Perigo and I found out that you can't stand on top of a park bench in the park.

Uh you know, they they they had these uh people you were there too, right?

I mean, and so there's uh all of these rules which made Bryant Park work.

And uh those are some of the things that that we would need to look at here.

But I I like this.

I I I think it's great.

I think it's a good vision.

With with the exception of the fire department.

Okay.

Through the chair.

Uh I'm excited you're gonna be surrounded by fire stations.

Uh I mean we you're talking at least 700 million dollars, maybe north of that, you know, in in development.

If you just start counting down the high rises, the mid-rises, the the parking associated with it.

Just it's and so maybe in phases I could see um, but to Trinity's point, locking it all up without the show me the money, the real money.

And we've seen it happen in the past over the years, it's locked up for a decade and it's not moving.

This is you know, long time ago we start we saw that stuff, and just be nice to, you know, if it's gonna be s something in this direction, it's it's someone have to do it.

It's like a master plan with a page phased approach, you know, because it's the this kind of money that that developer can go anywhere in the country and and make the best deal that they can make, you know, when you start getting into the hundreds of millions of dollar range.

So just a thought.

On the on the fire station, I just want to throw out I'm I'm not wild about it.

I hate to complicate things, but might be a better use of space in a this is gonna be an isolated area, at least when it gets developed, is to have a police substation.

Small one, kind of like uh what they have at the Fremont Street experience in the parking garage.

It's not a lot of square footage, but it uh does a lot for prevention when you have a when you have a small presence there and you can put it in the ground floor of uh of a building and and Metro can lease it out.

So just a thought there.

Any other thoughts or comments?

So you really want a fire station.

She really wants it.

You know me.

I prefer bare land and let's go for the biggest and best, highest and best use.

So um to address just a little bit to address the um tying up land.

I think um I wasn't here during that point in time, but I think the city has adopted a bunch of different policies where now is we'll enter into a development agreement.

We don't transfer the land until they're permit ready.

We give them a pretty aggressive schedule to get permit ready, and um from that point, you felt a little bit of that, Sam, as we've pushed with the west side development.

Um, that it's if you can't perform within that period of time, it's time to move on to the next person.

Yeah, through the chair, as it should be.

I mean, it was it was the right, you know, you gotta keep the pressure on.

And um, and you're right, it was before your time we started.

We saw agreements that would just sit out there for a long time, and it's where are we going with this?

So and that what Tracy just described is exactly what we did with the West Side and all the the kind of hurdles that we had in there before the land even came our way.

So that way we keep things moving, and if we don't like how it's progressing, we can pull the plug and go another direction instead of get a second opinion.

Yeah, I'm just kidding.

We I have been doing research into the history of Symphony Park for uh for a whole nother purpose and stuff, and kind of come up with failed plan after failed plan after failed plan and how long they stood in place.

And so um I I like the you know, since I've only lived it, but I really like the approach of not transferring until we till we're permit ready and we know they've got financing and everything's ready to roll, and we know it's going to be come to fruition.

So thank you guys.

That's been that was really helpful, and um, this is what I'd like us to do more of is more brainstorming and opinions and things.

So this was fun.

Okay.

Every time I see a fire truck, I'll think of you.

Every time send them Trinity's way.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay, that will take us to item number eight discussion regarding topics for future agenda items.

Comments made during this portion of the agenda by individual members shall refer solely to proposals for future agenda items, and any discussion shall be limited to whether or not such proposed items are within the purview of the committee and or whether such proposed items shall be placed on a future agenda.

No discussion regarding the substance of any such proposed topic shall occur, and no action shall be taken.

Okay.

Citizens' participation, public comment during the portion of the agenda must be limited to matters within the jurisdiction of the committee.

No subject may be acted upon by the committee unless this that subject is on the agenda and the schedule for action.

If you wish to be heard, come forward and give your name for the record.

The amount of discussion of any single subject as well as the amount of time any speaker is allowed, may be limited.

Do we have any public comment?

No.

Would you like to comment on fire trucks?

All righty, seeing that we have no citizen participation.

Um, do I call call for a motion to adjourn or do I just say adjourn?

I just adjourn with the power.

Okay.

This meeting has been adjourned.

Oh, beautiful.

Thank you, Tracy.

Good work all.