Big changes in store for downtown Arts District

At first glance, the Arts District in downtown Las Vegas might appear to be anything but -- indeed, you might think the only "artists" in the 18-block area are furniture dealers, transmission repairmen, bail bondsmen, thrift store proprietors and smut peddlers.

Not so fast.

There are actual galleries with actual artists tucked in among the more proletarian businesses, as well as some original, offbeat stores (Gambler's Warehouse, The Attic, The Funk House).

The monthly First Friday festival meant to attract people to the district celebrated its fifth anniversary last year.

And even a casual observer will see some big changes start taking shape in 2008.

"Right now, the neighborhood still looks a little seedy," says Jack Solomon, co-founder of the S2Art Group and a member of the Las Vegas Arts Commission. "As this year progresses and shovels go in the ground, everything will change fairly rapidly."

Officially, the Arts District is bounded by Hoover Avenue on the north, Colorado Avenue on the south, Las Vegas Boulevard on the east and Commerce Street on the west.

But the district's denizens are willing to color outside the lines a little. The flashy Newport Lofts high-rise, for example, sits just outside the northern border, but the Arts District unofficially claims it -- after all, those fancy lofts are going to need suitably hip art, you know.

The district is smack in the middle of a corridor that boosters envision as the next hot spot for development.

It's positioned between the north end of the Strip and the rapidly advancing development at Union Park and the World Market Center, and there are plans -- at least as of this writing -- for a professional sports arena on the district's borders.

Other plans are already in motion, such as $1.5 million in street improvements to Hoover Avenue and Casino Center Boulevard, including wider sidewalks and better lighting.

Bus-only lanes are expected to be added to Third Street and Casino Center Boulevard, part of an upgraded public transportation system that will move people from the Arts District to Fremont Street and on to the Las Vegas Premium Outlets.

Most significant, though, are the private projects that are starting to get off the ground.

The largest is a project of Live/Work Las Vegas partners Barnet Liberman and David Mitchell, who plan to build 1,000 apartments in the vicinity of Hoover and Third Street. Construction should start this year, Liberman says.

Plans still are being drawn up, but he says the apartments will be aimed at people making between $60,000 and $200,000 a year who want to "trade their lawn for a life."

To have that urban life, a city needs two things -- rental units and public transportation, he says. Las Vegas has been a little short of both, but the next couple of years should see that change, at least around downtown.

What's more, the apartments won't sit on top of a parking garage like other high-rises downtown -- parking is being built elsewhere.

"We were able to leapfrog Las Vegas into being a city where people actually interact on the street," Liberman says.

Solomon has a project of his own -- Vegas Moderne, a five-story building near Main Street and Charleston Boulevard that will have three floors of apartments for artists who want to live, work and sell their work in the same space. The first two floors will house museums and commercial space.

And that's just the beginning.

Cirque du Soleil wants to relocate corporate offices to the district. There are plans -- for the most part on hold for now -- for more high-rise condo development.

One item that's not on hold are two towering "gateway" sculptures on Charleston, one at Main Street and one at Las Vegas Boulevard.

The arts commission selected New York artist Dennis Oppenheim to create the sculptures.

"There will be two 50-foot paintbrushes," Solomon says, noting that the sculptures will be of "Vegas scale."

"They'll emit light" -- in fact, he said, the light will form an arc over the Arts District.

"The whole downtown is starting to come together in a very exciting way," Solomon says. "Downtown is just blossoming."

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or (702) 229-6435.