Tuesday, July 18, 2000 | 10:59 a.m.
Even before the first construction vehicles started pushing dirt around a fenced lot at Fourth Street and Lewis Avenue today, the site was given a name befitting not just its location but its promise.
Developers and city officials broke ground Monday for City Centre Place, the first new "speculative" office tower to be built downtown in some 25 years.
"This is the beginning of the renaissance, this is the beginning of the dream," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said during a ceremony to celebrate the start of a public-private partnership between the city and the Pauls Corp.
Immediately to his west, five hulking cranes towered above the site of what will be the Regional Justice Center and hauled steel upward for a county jail expansion project under way.
"This location is perhaps the best in the city," said Paul Powers, president of the Aurora, Colo.-based development company. "We are right in the middle of the changing landscape."
To the east, the impressive Lloyd George Federal Courthouse opened its doors for its first day of business Monday after three years of construction, quieting skeptics by rising from the site of failed redevelopment projects.
Officials believe City Centre Place will have the same effect at the once-plagued Fourth and Lewis lot.
"It's times like this that make the bad times good," City Councilman Gary Reese said during Monday's ceremony.
The planned $57 million Sun Plaza, a hulking office tower proposed on the site by American Nevada Corp. and Nevada State Bank, fell through when developers asked the city for additional financial assistance.
The city of Las Vegas had already spent $6.4 million acquiring the site and another $700,000 clearing it for construction when Sun Plaza developers asked for additional help in March 1999.
The city was left with a strategically located lot, but nothing to put on it. So the private sector City Centre Development Corp. began entertaining offers from prospective developers.
The board didn't have to look much further than U.S. 95 and Lake Mead Boulevard, where the Pauls Corp. already had constructed and leased two successful office towers.
"We are committed to build something here that you'll be proud of, not just today but for a long time," said Bill Pauls, chairman of the Pauls Corp.
Under its agreement with the city, Pauls purchased the land for $1.1 million. The city will build and retain ownership of a 575-space parking garage, estimated to cost about $7.5 million. Pauls will lease 440 spaces from the city at market rate.
Pauls will spend about $18 million to construct a 6-story tower with 103,951 square feet of rentable space. Construction is expected to take 12 months.
Lisa Gonzales, who is director of leasing in Las Vegas for Pauls, thanked brokers for attending Monday's ceremony and handed out a prospectus detailing available floor plans.
As a speculative office tower, City Centre Place will be built without having tenants pre-lease space.
It's a gamble Goodman thinks will pay off, in part because the building is financed by General Electric Investments.
"This is the most exciting day of my administration," Goodman said. "This is the right company to make a project like this work."
Monday's celebration comes on the heels of the city's agreement to swap land in its northwest technology park and cash for a crucial 61-acre parcel downtown. That deal, expected to be approved in September between the city and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., would give the city a huge parcel of assembled land to help entice developers of a sports arena, stadium or performing arts center.
That deal, coupled with the courthouse, Regional Justice Center, City Centre Place, planned expansion of City Hall, two planned residential/retail projects and a proposed e-commerce campus downtown, has helped pick up redevelopment momentum in recent weeks.
The vacant block-long site proposed for the Neonopolis entertainment center is downtown's most visible beleaguered project. City officials remain hopeful that construction on the $99 million center will begin this summer.
The city has already spent $32 million building an underground parking garage on the site and is waiting for Neonopolis owners Prudential to lease an anchor tenant and begin construction on its share of the project.
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