Redevelopment project launched in North Las Vegas
North Las Vegas officials kicked off a project to remake a pocket of the city, in a plan that involves tearing down the old City Hall campus and selling the land for almost nothing to a developer.
After City Council members smashed sledgehammers into the side of a shuttered city building Wednesday, Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown climbed into the cab of a Hitachi ZX380 excavator. With her hands on the controls and wearing a hard hat — and as a demolition contractor stood nearby — she started tearing the building down.
The unconventional media event marked the start of a redevelopment that city officials hope will bring more activity and commerce to North Las Vegas’ downtown area, which has long lacked a distinct, walkable feel that downtowns typically have.
“Our goal is to bring life into our downtown core,” Goynes-Brown told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Low-priced real estate
The North Las Vegas City Council gave the green light in October to sell a roughly 19-acre portion of city-owned property to California developer Agora Realty & Management for just $1,938.80.
The site, on Civic Center Drive just north of Lake Mead Boulevard, was appraised last year at about $6.8 million and a second time at around $13.5 million, according to staff reports.
Plans call for Agora to build a civic building, a commercial building, and a mixed-use complex that includes at least 100 residential units.
According to city documents, development of the site would generate around $112.2 million in economic output, and long-term operations would create annual economic output of about $20.5 million.
All told, the project will take several years, with demolition and construction both slated to occur in phases, said Aaron Lefton, president of acquisitions and leasing at Agora.
North Las Vegas’ neighboring courthouse and jail — just north of the project site — will remain standing, said city spokeswoman Liz Abebefe.
‘Bucket part’
Baldwin Demolition co-owner Devin Baldwin, whose firm was contracted to tear down the old City Hall campus, told the Review-Journal that the mayor went through a roughly 15-minute tutorial on operating the excavator.
Normally, crew members can get training with an excavator in trade school or on the job, and no license is needed to operate it, Baldwin explained.
As he described it, he told the mayor that as long as she hit the building with the “bucket part,” the machine itself wouldn’t get damaged.
Agora, meanwhile, is no stranger to North Las Vegas.
It plans to build a satellite campus for Nevada State University along the north side of Lake Mead just west of Las Vegas Boulevard, as part of a broader development with retail and office space.
Agora is also developing Hylo Park, a sprawling project on the former Texas Station and Fiesta Rancho sites along Rancho Drive at Lake Mead.
The firm has been building its first phase — a roughly 90,000-square-foot retail plaza — on a portion of Texas Station’s former footprint.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
