Downtown Las Vegas may have own ‘bridges to nowhere’

Ed Butler noticed the pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks about two months ago while walking along Bonneville Street toward downtown. A solitary walker who doesn‘t own a car or a bicycle, Butler likes to go from his job at University Medical Center to the downtown casinos once every other week.

"That‘d be nice to have more of these, I would definitely use them," he said. "I hardly ever see anybody use them."

The pedestrian bridge, which cost $4.5 million to build and connects a city-owned parking garage at Main Street and Clark Avenue to The Smith Center for the Performing Arts parking lot, is rarely used. The Review-Journal spent three hours on the bridge July 6 -- an hour each in the morning, at noon and in the evening. Sixteen people were seen and talked to.

Despite the meager traffic, plans are afoot to build two more pedestrian bridges linking the downtown area with city-owned Symphony Park, 61 largely vacant acres earmarked for private development. In January, the Las Vegas City Council approved an interlocal agreement to draw blueprints for a second pedestrian bridge spanning the railroad just south of the Plaza hotel-casino.

Designs would cost $900,000 for the bridge, which would run parallel to the Ogden Avenue underpass and link a parking lot at the corner of Main Street and Ogden Avenue on one side, and the north end of the city‘s vacant lot. Like the current bridge, the proposed bridge would include stairs, elevators and reportedly a concrete deck and a moving walkway. City spokesman Jace Radke said in January that engineering costs are usually 10 percent of a proposed project, which could put the cost of the bridge at $9 million.

MORE BRIDGES PLANNED

City officials, such as Economic and Urban Development Director Bill Arent, acknowledge "there isn‘t a huge current demand, because there isn‘t a lot built out in Symphony Park." However, they plan to go forward with the bridges whether there is existing development on the land or not.

"I think the plan is that we do it to spur development," Arent said. "It‘s kind of the same thing as why put in the sewer and water and conduit for the power and pave the streets before somebody‘s ready to build."

When the interlocal agreement was approved in January, the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada stipulated that the second bridge be completed by 2017 to coincide with the expected completion of a downtown soccer stadium. But the soccer stadium plans fell through. Arent offered no timeline for completion of the pedestrian bridge, other than "five to seven" years.

The city hopes to turn the former rail yard into a thriving mixed-use hub that will continue the progress seen just to the east in the Fremont East District. Developers and city staff have long planned a 1.6 million-square-foot hotel-casino, combined with hundreds of housing units.

In November 2013, the city approved a development agreement with CITRA Real Estate Capital to build a $71 million skilled nursing and living center, assisted living facility and parking garage. The development would be on 3.3 acres near the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.

Construction was expected to start by this past spring, but the city and CITRA have yet to agree on the land sale. Arent said the city expects to close on the purchase by the end of July, and for CITRA to begin construction by October.

ITS FEW USERS APPRECIATIVE

The people who actually used the bridge, on a hot day in July, appreciated its presence.

John Burnett, who works in finance at The Smith Center, said he walks to lunch on the bridge sometimes.

"Just from an employee perspective, there‘s not a lot to eat over here," Burnett said. "At least not yet."

Another beneficiary: sandwich purveyors. Bicycle delivery boys at the Jimmy John‘s sandwich shop in Las Vegas City Hall no longer have to take the longer route on Bonneville to deliver subs to employees at The Smith Center, Discovery Children‘s Museum and World Market Center. Instead they take the three-story elevator from the ground-floor of the Main Street parking garage, bike across the bridge, then take the elevator on the opposite end down to the parking lot.

"All the delivery guys for Jimmy John‘s" use the pedestrian bridge, said one rider, who asked not to be identified. "It makes the deliveries faster, so it‘s pretty cool."

Employees at the MTO Cafe, which is adjacent to the Main Street parking lot and across the street from City Hall, park in The Smith Center parking lot (which is free), and walk over the bridge to work rather than pay to park in the parking garage, General Manager Donna Orr said.

"(The city) should promote (the bridge) more, they really should," Orr said. It gets little foot traffic during the week, she said, although greater traffic on weekends to the museum or when the performing arts center has events.

BRIDGE HAS ITS CRITICS

Visitors and employees at The Smith Center and Discovery Museum have little incentive to use the bridge when there is ample free parking adjacent to the sites.

John Wei, a center employee, was blunt about the use of the bridge. Wei estimated he was one of about 10 at The Smith Center who used the bridge.

"Are you asking if it‘s a huge waste of money?" Wei said. "The answer‘s yes."

Arent said detractors were thinking of the bridges the wrong way. The famed aviator and financier Howard Hughes, he noted, paid for the Summerlin Parkway before anyone lived west of Las Vegas.

"If they were unsuccessful and nothing built out, they would have been out a lot of money.

"If we get another million square feet of office space and retail built, and people leaving their office during the lunch hour to walk, it will be worth it. You have to look at it with a minimum of a 10-year time frame."

Butler, the UMC worker, shares the vision of a vibrant downtown.

"I wish there were more places to eat downtown. I wish there were more variety. I think it would be worth something," he said.

But he wasn‘t sure if it would be worth it if the bridges didn‘t lead anywhere.

"I‘d rather see them invest money back into the city than build something just for looks," he said.

Contact Knowles Adkisson at kadkisson@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5529. Follow @knowlesadkisson on Twitter.