Maybe this time Neonopolis owner Rohit Joshi has a hit on his hands. Neonopolis, long maligned because of the numerous businesses there that have started then folded, saw its newest tenant, the International Eatery, packed Thursday afternoon. Outlets for Italian, Asian and Mexican cuisine served lines of people who filled tables in space that was formerly occupied by Luna Rossa Italian restaurant.
Planning for the next Life Is Beautiful festival began almost as soon as the two-day festival ended in October. But one of the most visible and unexpectedly controversial parts of the festival — its street art program — really got rolling this week.
After a University of Iowa class used the city as a laboratory last year, a couple of Ivy Leaguers follow their lead. They visited town last week, meeting with people from small and large businesses, UNLV, government, neighborhood associations, law enforcement and, well, me.
A downtown arena is a can’t-miss business opportunity. At least that’s what a consultant concludes about a city proposal to partially fund and own an arena in Symphony Park. The $400 million arena could generate about $21 million in profit annually, according to the internal report obtained by VEGAS INC.
Scott Cohen just received a shipment of 22,000 pounds of wood. Now the real work begins on Life Cube, Cohen’s vision-turned-reality to build a 24-by-24-foot cube, and dozens more 8-by-8-foot cubes, fill them with the wishes of thousands of people, then burn them in a downtown parking lot.
Las Vegas Arts Commission members are considering moving one of two massive metallic paintbrushes situated downtown to create a more visible gateway to area’s Arts District.
The one company downtown that seems to get work environment right is also the only Nevada company to make Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 best companies to work for.
Protesters today delivered more than 100 letters to the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas, urging Nevada’s congressional delegation to fight the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade agreement. Angie Morelli, leader of the group, said the TPP, as it is more commonly known, would virtually provide the legal means for agricultural businesses to ignore any attempt at GMO labeling.
Suicide has become a topic of quiet discussion in downtown Las Vegas after a 24-year-old Downtown Project employee died after a fall from his apartment building last week. Investigators are treating it as a suicide.
It won’t be easy to find a downtown business operator who favors an 11th-hour arena proposal in large part because of a tax the city wants to levy on downtown businesses to help pay for it.
Downtown’s urban-centered festival, Life Is Beautiful, has named the man largely responsible for the purchase of Tony Hsieh’s llama-shaped land acquisitions downtown as its chief executive officer.
Garth Brooks also has some friends in high places, it appears. Several people reported seeing Brooks last week walking around downtown with Zappos CEO and Downtown Project partner Tony Hsieh.
Joe Schoenmann doesn’t just cover downtown, he lives and works there. Schoenmann is Greenspun Media Group’s embedded downtown journalist, working from an office in the Emergency Arts complex.
