Hold on tight to your dream, Henderson

By Mike Trask

Friday, April 4, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Henderson city leaders’ dreams of revitalizing downtown will remain just that for a while longer, with the slumping housing and retail markets pushing back two major projects.

The two mixed-use, high-rise projects, intended to serve as a gateway to downtown, will be delayed at least a year after the city extended the development agreements for City Tower and Water Street Commons.

The extension will postpone the projects’ construction to 2009 and their projected openings to at least 2010.

City Tower, a $90 million project at the southeast corner of Lake Mead Parkway and Water Street, will include 128 condominium units and office space. The $165 million Water Street Commons, with retail and nearly 500 condos, will be built at Victory Road and Water Street, two blocks from Lake Mead Parkway.

For now, however, the sites are vacant, with signs announcing the projects are on the way.

Both developers — Arik Raiter on City Tower and Cherry Development on Water Street Commons — blame the sagging housing market for the delays, saying it has made it tougher to find tenants.

Henderson officials, who have been touting big plans for Water Street’s redevelopment over the past several years, insist the projects’ delays will not seriously disrupt their overall plans for the area.

“It really isn’t going to have that large of an impact because we have other big projects,” said Michelle Romero, city redevelopment manager. As an example, she noted construction is under way on the Target-anchored Lake Mead Crossing at the northwest corner of Water Street and Lake Mead Parkway.

The city’s plans include more than $300 million in development, some of which has been completed in Henderson’s oldest section.

In addition to granting the one-year delays, the city agreed to lower the interest rate, from 7.5 percent to about 4 percent, on the $779,000 loan it gave Raiter to buy the land where City Tower will be built.

The city also agreed to delay until next year the $4.75 million sale of four acres that are to become the site of Water Street Commons.

The delays are the latest snags in Henderson’s ambitious plans for the 1,400-acre redevelopment district.

In December the city discovered that its aging power grid could not provide power to the 15-story City Tower project. Romero said the one-year delay will give the city and Nevada Power Co. time to solve the problem, which underlines the difficulties in changing a 50-year-old former industrial neighborhood into an urban hub.

The city has taken several steps toward making the Water Street area a destination for locals by adding an amphitheater outside City Hall that hosts a popular weekly farmers market and a series of free concerts.

It also has attempted to showcase the area’s shops and art galleries with its Third Thursday events.

However, one of those galleries — Old Town Gallery — recently closed despite the city’s offer to pay half of downtown galleries’ rent for the next 18 months. Three other galleries in the area have joined the city assistance program.

“When the housing market went down, it sent unemployment rising,” Romero said. “It impacts art. People can’t afford to buy art or it’s not a priority.”

Some big projects along Water Street have been finished, including the Pinnacle at Water Street and Atlantic Avenue, and the Meridian at the same intersection. The two three-story complexes include office, retail and residential space.

A few new restaurants have opened on Water Street, and the city is moving forward with renovations to the Convention Center and the Justice Center, both downtown.

And as they look to the future and some of their bigger plans, city officials are like just about everyone else in the region — hoping the market rebounds.