Brief: LVCVA approves agreement with consortium

Board members voted Tuesday to approve a contract with a consortium of customers that wants to pay $50 million in prepaid rent to help build a two-story exhibit hall south of Desert Inn Road.

Members of the consortium are the producers of the Winter Consumer Electronics Show, the Men's Apparel Guild in California, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association Super Show and two trade-show production companies, Reed Exposition Service and Miller-Freeman.

A section of meeting rooms connecting the expansion with the existing center over Desert Inn Road would create a tunnel roughly the length of a football field. The exhibit hall would have two levels of floor space of about 500,000 square feet each.

It's the first time the LVCVA is considering building a two-story exhibit hall. The Sands Expo Center has trade show floors on two levels.

The $50 million the board approved accepting from the consortium represents about 60 percent of the total cost of the project. LVCVA President Manny Cortez said the remaining $30 million to $35 million would be borrowed and the agency has the bonding capacity to handle the financing. Cortez said he hopes ground will be broken in March or April, with completion planned in spring 2000.

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