Marriott International gets OK to become landlord

Marriott International received the approval needed to become a landlord this week.

The Clark County Planning Commission approved a holdover use permit for staging temporary outdoor commercial events on Marriott’s 1.4-acre property at the southwest corner of Paradise Road and Convention Center Drive late Tuesday.

Simply put, that means the empty parking lot there now, once improved, can be used for overflow convention parking, taxi or limo staging, or as outdoor exhibitor space.

Marriott would lease space to conventioneers for up to six shows per year, said Attorney Tabitha Fiddyment, who represented Marriott at the proceeding on behalf of the firm Kaempfer Crowell Renshaw Gronauer & Fiorentino.

According to the terms set forth by the planning commission, Marriott is required to file a special event request before any use.

The hotel chain is being supported in this new venture by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which creates business leads for Marriott in the form of its trade show producers.

what’s old is new again

The parking lot was once the site of The Beach nightclub.

During the club’s heyday, exhibitors often parked huge tents or buses on the on-site parking lot during large trade shows. During the MAGIC convention, for instance, it was common to see hip-hop men’s wear brands such as FUBU and Ecko Un­limited in front of The Beach.

When the club closed in late 2006 and Marriott purchased the parcel for $24.75 million in December of that year, the hotel brand had other plans for the site.

Marriott demolished the nightclub building, leaving behind the parking lot and an L-shaped patch of dirt. The company planned to build a 3,500-room hotel, but nothing ever happened. Then in 2011, Marriott’s plans for the hotel resurfaced, albeit without a timeline. Since then, it seems, those plans have again been shelved.

“With the economy tanking, those plans have been waylaid. In the meantime, they’ve been working with the convention center to come up with an interim use of this vacant piece of property,” Fiddyment explained at the meeting.

This interim use could be a decent revenue generator for Marriott. The Las Vegas Convention Center charges convention producers 29 cents per net square foot per show day for its space. Using that figure, Marriott could stand to make roughly $17,685 per day during a convention if every square foot of available space was leased.

NEED FOR MORE EXHIBITOR SPACE

Contrary to what was said in the planning meeting, the convention authority will not lease the property from Marriott.

“We have never leased directly and we have no intention of leasing directly,” said Terry Jicinsky, senior vice president of operations for the authority.

However, Jicinsky did say there is a need for more exhibitor space and outdoor uses in the Las Vegas convention industry.

“I think it will help. I think anything that provides incremental opportunities for our trade show producers makes Las Vegas more desirable,” Jicinsky said.

The planning commission approval comes just after the travel authority’s board of directors approved a $2.5 billion, 10-year plan to re-create the area around and including the Las Vegas Convention Center. Part of that grand plan is to work with private industry to “clean up” Convention Center Drive and make the area more appealing to conventioneers.

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Follow @lscvegas on Twitter.