Federal Justice Tower officially welcomed to downtown Las Vegas
The long-awaited Federal Justice Tower had its official debut in downtown Las Vegas on Thursday.
The tower at 501 Las Vegas Blvd. South has been in operation for three months and houses about 300 federal employees from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. attorney’s office, the Federal Protective Service and the Labor Department’s inspector general’s office.
Speakers at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday included Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman; Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev.; Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.; and U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden.
Planning began in late 2009 when former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman was in office. Today, building owner Marc Biagiotti said it’s almost 100 percent occupied with one space left for a retail business.
Titus called the building a great addition to the Las Vegas landscape and its skyline.
“This was once just an eyesore,” Titus said. “It was an empty lot that attracted criminals, garbage and the worst elements that a neighborhood would not want to see next door. Now, we have a state of the art building that houses agencies that will keep constituents safe and secure.”
SDA Inc. broke ground in 2011. The building was intended to be a five-story building for the immigration agency, but more floors were added later to the design to make room for other federal agencies.
Biagiotti, president of SDA, said the project was also set back from its original March 2013 completion date by changes in federal security guidelines. The tower was built to be blast resistant and energy efficient, with a LEED Silver rating, he said.
Biagiotti estimates the building cost about $32 million and generated 450 construction jobs.
“We are out of our … recession, and this is proof of it,” Carolyn Goodman said. “We know that everything is coming back throughout the country, but very particularly here in Las Vegas.”
With multiple federal agencies housed in a single location, Peter Edge, executive associate director for Homeland Security investigations, said he expects their work to be more proactive.
Contact Rocio Hernandez at rhernandez@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5208. Follow @rociohdz19 on Twitter.
