Hot air forces tenants out at Neonopolis

Tempers are heating up over an air conditioning outage at a troubled downtown mall.

Neonopolis, the mostly vacant mall at Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street, is without air conditioning in much of the property.

The situation already drove Galaxy Theaters out of Neonopolis and now artists are fleeing from a second-story studio facility that was meant to help revive the mall.

"It is a sinking ship," said H. Stephen Jackson, an architect and artist who is among the Neonopolis tenants.

Jackson said the building was too warm during the winter months and in recent weeks as the weather warmed up it became unbearable.

The situation is undermining his efforts to showcase his art for clients.

"As a businessperson it is embarrassing to invite people to a party when it is a sweat-fest," Jackson said.

He sympathizes with the landlords, who are in an apparent dispute with the building's air conditioning provider, but will be forced to move if the problem isn't fixed.

"I've invested time and money, and now I don't see networking opportunities," Jackson said. "I don't see how I can function here."

Neonopolis developer Rohit Joshi, who has had repeated scrapes with Las Vegas city officials over his management of the property, has brought in portable air conditioners but the devices don't work as well as central air.

"It is totally unbearable," said one tenant who didn't want to be identified for fear of angering Neonopolis management. "You can't even conduct business in there."

Other tenants said they would obviously prefer to have the air conditioning system working, but that they still like the building and plan to stick around.

"I'm going to believe (Joshi) is going to do something," said Joe Palermo, executive director of the Southern Nevada Museum of Fine Art. "We just have to believe that."

Palermo says his museum has signed up 210 members, well beyond expectations, since moving into Neonopolis several months ago.

But he is sweating over two upcoming events this weekend.

On Friday he's hosting a juried art exhibition and on Saturday he's opening an Asian art exhibit.

For now, Palermo has six portable units in place he can use to get through the events.

"It is going to be warm, but we are still going to do the show," he said.

The Telemundo television station that recently moved into the top floor of the property installed its own air conditioning, and President and General Manager Celia Chavez says she's satisfied with the mall.

"My personal experience has been a positive one," Chavez said.

Joshi blamed the problem on air conditioning provider Ameresco. He is refusing to pay what he characterizes as "capacity charges," and believes he should only pay for consumption.

Calls to the Ameresco office in Las Vegas went unanswered.

But taking Joshi's word about anything at Neonopolis has been problematic in the past.

The developer has failed to meet deadlines and has not delivered new tenants as promised on more than one occasion.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has yelled at Joshi during council meetings when the discussion turned to parking at the city-owned garage underneath Neonopolis.

The city in the past has provided Joshi parking at discount rates, which can be passed along to tenants and used to subsidize customer parking.

But tenants have complained repeatedly that the parking agreement has been inconsistent.

Galaxy Theaters President Rafe Cohen mentioned the parking situation earlier this week while discussing moving out of Neonopolis.

"That was always a challenge," he said.

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.