Okay.

Okay.

The redevelopment agency meeting of May 20th, 2026 is called to order.

This meeting has been properly noticed and posted in compliance with the open meeting law.

These proceedings are being video recorded and can be viewed live on City of Las Vegas TV on Cox Cable Channel 2.

You could also watch the meeting live online and access other city content by visiting Las Vegas, Nevada.gov slash connect.

The proceedings will be rebroadcast on City of Las Vegas TV, the Wednesday of the meeting at 8 p.m., also on Friday at 4 a.m., Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at 7 a.m.

and the following Monday at 5 p.m.

This building is protected by a state-of-the-art fire detection and suppression sprinkler system.

If alarms should activate during today's meeting, please evacuate using the exits at the back of the chambers out to the mezzanine, proceed out the double doors to the terrace and down the back staircase.

For anyone that has difficulty with stairs, please check with a marshal or fire official for assistance.

Once outside, assemble on the northeast corner across the street from City Hall at Lewis and First.

Employees wearing safety vests or our city marshals will inform you when it is safe to re-enter the building.

For public comment related to the items on the agenda, citizen participation and public hearing items, we have available a speaker card which you can complete and submit to the city clerk.

Cards are available in the clerk's office or at the rear of the chambers.

If anyone submitted a speaker card or who wishes to speak under this portion of the agenda, please come to the podium and state your name for the record.

This is your opportunity to address the agency members, but members are not able to respond or engage in dialogue.

You may also address the agency members at the end of the meeting during citizen participation regarding matters within the jurisdiction of the redevelopment agency.

Although you are not prohibited from speaking during both public comment periods, we kindly ask that your comment not comments not be repetitive.

We will set the time at two minutes as anyone wish to come forward.

Seeing no one, we will move to item number four.

Agenda item four for possible action to approve the final minutes by reference of the regular redevelopment agency meeting of April 15th.

Mayor Pro Tem, is there a motion to approve the minutes?

Move to approve the minutes.

Please vote.

Post.

The gentleman of kind of summary squad.

Oh, are you here to speak with us?

Yes, I am.

Oh, I am so sorry.

I did not see you.

Uh would you come down?

I'm just up here to talk about the uh tunnel to towers.

Okay.

Um, we're gonna let you talk, but it's uh at this particular time.

Your comments are supposed to um uh be about the agenda items that are gonna be on.

So go ahead and you have two minutes to speak, but would you mind stating your name?

I just like to say that uh state your name, please.

This is very important.

Would you state your would you state your name, please?

Oh, Mark Curley, C-U-R-L-A-Y.

Thank you so much.

And I I just like to say that the veterans are very important to me.

You know, we started back in the Civil War with veterans all the way up to the Vietnam War, which was one of the worst ones we had.

We lost close to 58,000 men and women.

And we went over as being proud and being honored to go over there.

And we came back being criminals, which was a shame.

We couldn't wear our uniforms, we couldn't be outside without people kicking us and spitting on us.

And now today, in our alleys and in our walkways, we have the same thing with veterans out there that are still getting shot, spit on, and we need to start taking care of our veterans here, which we've done a great job, but we need to do a little bit more because none of us would be here today if it wasn't for the veterans that we had out there.

That's why we have a great America and a great city council here.

All of you people have done a great job.

And I know your hands are tied as far as money goes, but we have to figure out something.

But I appreciate the job that you've all done.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Is there anybody else that wishes to speak under the under this part of the agenda?

Seeing no one, we will uh go to agenda item number uh we've no agenda item number five.

RA-16-2026.

Discussion for possible action regarding a resolution finding the project proposed by the tenant owner participation agreement between the City of Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency and JSG OZBLLC and Charleston OZBLC, located at 1551 South Commerce Street, to be in compliance with and in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the redevelopment plan and authorizing the execution of the TOPA by the RDA not to exceed 74,500.

Uh RDA special revenue fund, redevelopment area number one, ward three, Ms.

Diaz.

Please note this item is related to council item 30, R-34-2026.

Ms.

Babski.

Uh good morning, Mayor.

Good morning, City Council members.

Dina Babski, Director of Economic and Urban Development.

And with me here today is the applicant, Mistress of Agmer Dorosian.

Welcome.

Good morning.

So for your consideration consideration today is a tenant improvement grant.

Uh it's the first one within our newly established program for tenant improvements.

The project site is at 1551 South Commerce Street, just a couple of blocks south of the new new residential by Cedar Street, the Miles.

And the neighborhood, as we all know, a lot of food and beverage places, new residential coming uh coming on, and then also our Arts District Garage is just about to be done later this summer.

The project is really to help the applicant to bring the building up to code.

There's a need for a new backflow prevention device, which essentially will prevent uh the backflow going into the fire suppression system.

Um the currently it's inadequate and needs some uh upgrades.

Meraki Greek grill is the uh tenant that's going to be uh in this particular facility, and we all probably have eaten at Meraki Greek grills across the city.

Uh and Mr.

Martarosian just informed me that there's going to be more locations outside of Nevada.

There's going to be more in Utah and uh Phoenix.

So we are really excited to welcome uh Meraki uh grill into the arts district.

The total project cost for this uh site is over $600,000, and just the infrastructure itself is over 200, which makes the applicant eligible for $74,500 for the tenant improvements.

Expected completion is later this year, and with that I'd like to pass the mic over to uh Sivag to tell us more about the project.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Uh yes, we uh I purchased this property in 2022 uh as an investment into the arts district, which I've been doing for over 10 years, and it's just one of my uh um it's become one of my passion projects.

Uh there's art galleries on the second floor.

I wanted to put some um fine di not fine dining, but better good different type of dining on the first floor.

And luckily uh the owners of Meraki were friends of mine.

We actually also own Gorilla Pizza together, and uh we partnered and we're bringing Meraki Greek Grill into the arts district.

Um we had some um complications with the water due to our location um between Utah and Wyoming being a little bit of a difficult area.

Luckily, Trinity Schloppman from Trinity Haven is our contractor, and he had some ideas on how to share an RPDA from our neighboring property.

He's been working on it for a while, so he was able to uh put in his um his his experience and get us to share the RPDA with our neighbors to the north.

And um we put the project together and it it happened.

It was I was told I might not be able to get sprinklers in this building, which means I wouldn't be able to do this type of uh tenant, which it worked out.

So everyone in the city, Anthony, everybody's been helpful, everyone worked together with with Trinity, and we we got it done.

So we're hopefully open and within within the month.

The construction is complete, the water sewer system of the sprinkler water suppression is complete.

We're just waiting on some inspections, and we should be open.

I think our the goal is to open by June 22nd.

We'll have a grand opening.

Thank you very much.

Are there any questions or comments from agency members?

Seeing none, um may I have a motion, Councilwoman Diaz.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

But before I make a motion, I would want to bring up uh my planning commissioner, Mr.

Schlottman.

Just to give the um board some perspective on what this RPDA backflow really means.

Um I I think a lot of us hear about RPDA and and can't connect to what it means for me.

It means a clearer sidewalk with less boxes, so people don't have to trip over them in our right-of-way.

But he's been pursuing this for 10 years, and I think that it was important for us to be educated as a board about how monumental of a moment this is for us to finally even have the blessing to move forward in this direction.

So go ahead, Mr.

Schlottman.

Thank you, uh, councilwoman and and um and your honor uh for giving me this opportunity.

Uh this is as the councilwoman has said, has been 10-year project.

Uh we ran into this issue because about 15 years ago, there's a state law passed stating that water facilities can no longer be in alleys.

They could remain in an alley, but if you want to improve it, put a new water meter, a backflow device, or any of these things, they can't be improved in the alley.

So they have to go on to uh uh your private property facing uh uh either one of the streets.

And so uh and the arts district is hard because you have zero lot lines, everything's built out to the street, um, and corner buildings are built out to two streets.

So about 10 years ago, I met with uh Mike Jansen, and I I was growing really frustrated because I didn't want to put these big devices, and if we can go to the overhead, um, we'll show you one of these.

Um but this is one of the devices.

It's a four foot by four foot by four foot tall device, and you could imagine every one of uh the buildings downtown that requires the fire sprinkler system requires this box.

The best place to put it would be behind the building where it's out of mind out of sight and not in a pedestrian pathway, but we can't do that because of state law.

So we got Mike Jansen and Tom Burkhart and Fred Solis and uh a few other people when we went down to the water district, met with DOA, and what we started off with was a pilot project, and this one right here is where the F 45 Nightmare Toys Nightmare Cafe uh building was and uh coming out at that meeting with Mike Jansen and Doa was hey, how about we put them in the alley, but we'll just put them right on the edge of the alley.

And I looked at Mike and I said, Hey, this isn't gonna work because we have traffic going down the alley.

The city will never allow that, and he said, you know, we only have one-way traffic, we can make this work.

So that started this whole process about seven, eight years ago, which got it off of our our our sidewalks.

Then after we got this pilot project finished, then we brought uh DOA and about five people from the water district and about 15, 20 people from the city of Las Vegas up to the sixth floor.

We had this big meeting, we had Chief Nolan and other people there, and I said this is great, but how are we gonna fit 15 of these in the alley right on the side?

We're gonna choke it down.

And everybody said, Well, let's share the the backflow device instead of one per each building.

Let's have one and have three people work off of it.

And then I said, Okay, that's great until we get to four.

What do we do then?

So basically, what the solution is is you put one at one end of the alley, one at the opposite end of the alley, and you connect it with a private line, then anybody that comes in just ties straight into their building.

And so uh we get rid of all of these devices on our street, and pretty much what we're left with is just a a few of these small backflow devices for the domestic water system.

Those are a lot more manageable.

You can still see the storefront.

If I put that one of these big devices right here over in front of that storefront, it would be horrible.

You'd you would you would uh block all their signage and their beautiful storefront.

So this is the shared uh RPDA that we're uh uh for 1551 and uh Meraki and Mr.

Steve Savog here that the Gary's put in right next to the I want a coffee, and so they were able to negotiate out a deal to tie into this, and the water district and Mike and Rosa uh said, Okay, well, if you can get Abel Baker, and I'm about to stop, you can get Abel Baker in uh on board.

We'll let you tie in the whole I want a coffee building, and there's about 10 businesses in there, the his two-story building and the Abel Baker building, which was great because it proved that we can actually make it to three three different buildings versus just two.

And so, anyways, we're about to repeat this again, and I've been meeting with a lot of other developers trying to help them out and trying to uh pave the way for them.

And so I think this is a great thing, great thing for our city, and it's it's even funny.

I just wanted to point this one out on our one East Charleston where craft creamery was in other cities.

We're able to have these underground.

Tom Perigo and Jorge, we spent time in Manhattan, Philadelphia, uh Minnesota, different cities looking at how they put in their utilities.

And um, most of them have them underground.

State law here, you can't have them underground.

We have less rain, we have less things that could contaminate it.

So we just have a lot more challenges in other cities.

This one was underground, and when I went to make my improvements, we had to bring it above ground, which you know just kind of frustrating a little bit.

But I think we're on the right path, and hopefully we keep making progress forward.

And uh, Mike, we have another one coming up, and we might need your assistance on that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your indulgence, Mayor.

But I thought it was important for this educational opportunity because it has been very annoying for me seeing all of these eyesores pop up on our sidewalks as buildings get lifted to our current codes and brought out of the 50s and 60s when they were built.

But putting more boxes in a right-of-way is not the solution, and so I just thought it would be important for all of us to kind of know about it.

So, with that, I resoundingly move to approve agenda item five after 10 years of effort from Mr.

Schlottman.

Can we have a resounding vote?

Please post motion carries.

Congratulations.

We look forward to the grand opening.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

Thank you.

We're now moving on to agenda item number six, RA-17-2026.

Discussion for possible action regarding a resolution authorizing the purchase from Cox Communications by the City of Las Vegas redevelopment agency of real property located at the northeast corner of Rancho Drive and West Bonanza and 709-811 Dyke Lane for the sum of 3,490,540.

RDA special revenue fund.

Redevelopment Area 1, this is in board 5, Ms.

Summers Armstrong.

This item is related to Council Item 31, R-35-2026.

Ms.

Babski.

Thank you, Mayor.

City Council members Dina Babski, Director of EUD.

For your consideration today is the acquisition of uh vacant land from Cox Communication.

It is located on the northeast corner of Rancho and Bonanza, and you may uh be familiar with it.

Uh Cox used to be actually a tenant in that white building, and that large parcel south of it was their parking lot where they did some training uh for their employees.

So uh we're looking to acquire uh the parking lot uh as well as the eight parcels that are going north on dyke, those are the vacant former residential parcels.

Um the total acreage that we're trying that we're asking to uh purchase is 5.4 acres, but what I'd like to note is the corner, the uh northeast corner on Bonanza and Dyke that you see there between the two uh pink parcels, the city actually owns that land.

That's where the Indian Center currently is.

So overall, if we get the approval today, our fullest sandwich on that corner is going to be over seven acres.

Uh as I mentioned, it's 5.4 acres.

The purchase price is 3,490,540 dollars.

With that, um happy to answer any questions and uh respectfully ask for your approval.

Are there any questions or comments from agency members?

Seeing none, is there a motion?

Councilwoman Summers Armstrong.

Can we use resounding on this one as well?

I move to approve in due time, in due time.

Please vote.

Post motion carries.

Thank you.

We'll now move on to agenda item number seven.

Report by Dina Babski, Director of Economic and Urban Development regarding the redevelopment agency's employee plan activities and background.

This affects all wards.

Ms.

Babski.

Thank you, Mayor City Council members Dina Babski, director of EUD.

Um, I wanted to present on this particular item because every two weeks you all uh vote on our grants to different businesses on projects, and I don't know that um every single time that this particular thing is something that we're all considering.

This is the impact that the redevelopment agency has on the community overall when it comes to job creation and helping our small and disadvantaged businesses.

So in today's report, I'm going to uh cover the review and background of the employment plan as required by NRS 279.

Um, also outline how the redevelopment agency implements this policy and then share some outcomes.

So just like the whole redevelopment agency, we are governed by uh Nevada revised statute 279, redevelopment of communities, and this particular requirement for employment plan comes from that from that statute.

The public investment requires um access to jobs for residents as well as equitable um employment throughout the redevelopment areas.

Key elements of our internal uh RDA employment plan that is based on the Nevada revised statute is that 15 percent of workforce from a redevelopment area must uh on a project when we provide incentives must be from uh the redevelopment area as well as um uh extensive tracks that are eligible for CDBG funding or the Southern Nevada Enterprise community.

Another element is 15 percent, which this one is an aspirational goal uh for the projects to hire minority women and disabled um veteran disabled businesses, and I guess it's uh on the next slide I'll show exactly how it works in practice, but just to be clear that 15% of workforce is required by NRS, and 15% of uh disadvantaged or small businesses is an aspirational goal that is part of our policy.

So, in practice, projects uh under 100,000 uh with uh incentives which you see quite often in front of you between our VIPs and OPAs.

So those projects are required to use their best effort to comply with this policy.

Um, projects over 100,000 in incentives.

Uh, I'll give you a good example.

Uh, share a downtown historic west side that was a large investment.

Those types of projects are required to fully comply with the um with the Nevada revise statute requirement for 15% of workforce from the RDA, and they still have to shoot for the aspirational goal of 15% of small businesses.

Um, important to know that uh, you know, in the past we haven't had a lot of large projects, but in the last few months, you all have approved uh significant investments when it comes to civic plaza tenant improvements, uh things in the RS district that are over 100,000.

So you will start seeing these employment numbers climb up as we move forward to larger projects.

We have a great partner with whom we have worked for five years now, the MYS firm led by our uh wonderful Maesha Boyce.

He's she's in the audience today.

I appreciate her support.

So Maesha's firm provides us assistance in maintaining a list of local small diverse suppliers.

Uh her firm works directly with our larger projects when the employment requirements become more complex and just provide customer support when it comes to outreach and finding those small businesses that are so important uh to our community.

So these are some of the highlights.

Uh, I just asked this the team to pull the last uh seven 17, almost 18 months now, since January of last year.

We have 32 diverse contractors and suppliers uh that participated on the RDA incentives projects, which makes up 24%.

Again, to remind you, the 15% is the goal.

So our our uh applicants and folks who are using the RDA incentives are going above and beyond.

And 43% of incentive recipients reported having a divorce contract supplier, again, uh a lot better than the numbers that are just required by the policy.

Similarly, in the last 17 months, 25% of the reported workforce were from the areas within the RDA, CDBG, or SNEC.

Um, 68% of them were part of a racial minority group, and 20% of the reported workforce were women.

How do we collect the data and what do we do with this?

Uh so we are required by the NRS to send the reporting twice a year to the commissioner on minority affairs.

Um, our um projects uh or developers, they report their data to us uh either quarterly depending on the size of the project, or if it's a smaller project just at the end of the completion.

Uh you know, there's different ways how they validate the residency requirements, but um all I wanted to highlight is a self-reported, we submit it to the uh to the state, and then essentially bring you the good results.

Um, some of the key takeaways I wanted to highlight again is the fact that uh when you all approve these grants, please keep in mind that you're not only approving bringing small businesses into downtown or the redevelopment agency, but also essentially uh providing a larger economic impact to our workforce.

Um, and RS does allow us to uh balance the compliance versus the actual um reality of implementation because as you can imagine, tracking this data could be very difficult.

There's concerns about personally identifiable information and things of that nature, so we are able to work with that.

And uh again, just to uh mention that since in the last five years, bringing Maesha's team on on um on board as well as our internal compliance team have really been working on improving our processes to make this more uh effective and more accurate so that we can continue to uh have a greater impact on the redevelopment agency areas.

And I would like to invite Maesha just to come up for a few seconds to uh maybe give a little bit on how her firm works with us.

Myesha voice for the record, MYS firm uh president managing member.

Thank you so much for uh the for the opportunity to present today.

It has been a distinct honor to work with Dina and her team at the RDA to help with the compliance of something that is really really important uh to this city and to the economic benefit of all that live and work here.

Uh, we know that our small businesses, our diverse businesses are the backbone of economy, and this is really seeing that in action and seeing the commitment by the city to make sure that we are doing well.

Uh, we have been able to work closely with RDA to improve the tools for tracking for reporting and making sure that we are reducing the burden by contractors to do this work, and I think we're seeing really good results from that.

Um, we're seeing increases in in workforce participation and being able to also educate on the importance of that subcontracting that's occurring.

And so uh really excited to see the results today after um five years of work to really see that moving and hope that you all are equally uh happy with the results.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Does that conclude your this concludes my presentation?

Happy to answer any questions, and I thank you for your time.

Does any uh there are any questions or comments from agency members?

Ms.

Summers Armstrong.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you so much, Ms.

Bathsky and Ms.

Boyce, uh, for your hard work.

I'm excited because this reinforces my excitement about what is happening in Ward 5 and specifically in historic West Las Vegas to know that you all are working diligently with the developers and with subcontractors to help us make sure that the people in the community are actually employed when these things are happening and when uh we have a chance that our small businesses from the community that nearby community are contacted and given an opportunity to participate is really really important.

So I I thank you.

I think this is wonderful and I appreciate the report.

Thank you so much.

Uh this was a report only, so no action is required.

Thank you so much.

We'll now move on to agenda item number eight.

Citizens participation.

Public comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters within the jurisdiction of the redevelopment agency.

No subject may be acted upon by the redevelopment agency unless that subject is on the agenda and is scheduled for action.

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

The amount of discussion on any single subject will be limited to two minutes.

Is there anyone wishing to speak under this portion of the agenda?

Seeing no one, uh this development agency meeting is adjourned.

We will start our city council meeting in two minutes.