First medical business opens in Las Vegas Medical District

By Jackie Valley

Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Up until now, efforts to create the Las Vegas Medical District have been limited to sidewalk expansions and beautification efforts near existing buildings on Shadow Lane.

That changed on Tuesday morning, with the opening of a Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging center, the first brick-and-mortar addition to the 214-acre core of the medical district, which city leaders envision as a health care hub.

“This is really the next story of Las Vegas,” said David Steinberg, managing partner of Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging. “We became a famous city based on our hospitality industry, but I think the reinvention of Las Vegas is not going to be the next hotel; it’s going to be the medical arts.”

Local dignitaries, including Rep. Dina Titus, Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian and Mayor Carolyn Goodman, attended the 12,000-square-foot center’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. Located at 800 Shadow Lane, it’s the seventh Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging center in the Las Vegas Valley.

Tarkanian said she expects the diagnostic center to spur other development within the medical district, including a sit-down restaurant, which she said will open at the corner of Charleston Boulevard and Rancho Drive.

“This is a very, very exciting time,” she said. “We’ve worked hard to get a collaborative effort.”

The medical district, established in 2002 by the city of Las Vegas, includes 214 acres around University Medical Center and Valley Hospital and another 460 acres in a study area near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Symphony Park. The expanded boundary would envelop the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, located less than two miles northeast of the original acreage.

City officials expect UNLV’s medical school, which aims to begin teaching students in fall 2017, to be a key component.

The master plan for the medical district likely will be released in September, Las Vegas City Manager Betsy Fretwell said. The city also is considering adding the medical district to a redevelopment area, which would allow businesses to take advantage of financial incentives.