Downtown’s numbers add up

Downtown Las Vegas' fortunes continued to improve in 2007, according to new city figures.

The statistics also show improvement in attracting and keeping businesses citywide, as well as progress in two areas that are potential sore spots: income and land use.

The figures are part of an annual report to the Las Vegas City Council by the city's director of business development and demonstrate incremental progress in several areas, but particularly downtown -- good news for those who have been working in the trenches for years.

"We see some progress," said Earl White of the Downtown Business Operators Council. "You're talking about an area that has been neglected for some time.

"That's a hard thing to do, to convince people to come back to an area when they've heard so much negative."

Property tax collections in what's known as the redevelopment area -- basically downtown Las Vegas, along with a few parcels west of Interstate 15 -- have almost doubled in the past two years.

Collections total $10.2 million in the current fiscal year, up from $7.7 million in the previous year and $5.2 million two years ago.

"Those are actual receipts of new taxes," said Scott Adams, the city's director of business development. "That's a direct measure of new construction."

The fact that land values have spiked helped drive interest in projects downtown as the costs of suburban development increased.

"We've received the benefit of that, of developers looking inward," Adams said. "We've really been a doughnut hole for a long time. We've finally started to fill in the doughnut."

High-rise development is a big part of that delicious doughnut filling.

Streamline Towers, a 21-story condo development, has fully taken shape next door to the El Cortez casino.

Other condominium buildings have been completed on the south end of downtown.

Dense urban design is the signature of Union Park on downtown's west side, which is expected to have a 50-story World Jewelry Center, a performing arts center, hotels, residences and a casino.

The Lou Ruvo Brain Institute is already being built on Union Park's 61-acre site.

Juhl, a midrise condo development, is being built downtown across from a $3 million wedding chapel that's under construction. New nightspots have opened on Fremont Street and, in general, downtown is drawing people.

"I'm very excited about what's going on down there," said Mayor Pro Tem Gary Reese, whose Ward 3 includes a lot of the downtown area.

But Reese mentioned the sluggish economy as a potential damper on enthusiasm -- for instance, if planned projects end up not getting financing.

"It's very important to the city of Las Vegas that we don't lose momentum," he said.

Reese also said there was a silver lining in the recent quasi-controversy over a city grant to help the Olympic Garden topless club upgrade its exterior. Some people were angry that a strip club received tax funds, but it also let people know that redevelopment is happening downtown, he said.

"Even the bad publicity we got from that, I think it was positive," Reese said. "They're in business, and we're not picking favorites."

White traces these trends back to an infusion of money from the federal government in 2000 as part of a Department of Justice grant program.

"One of the best things that came out of it was the barriers came down between the community and the police," he said. "If there's a lot of mistrust, it ain't going to work."

Though crime is still a concern, police report declines in street crime, crediting in part new businesses downtown.

In other numbers, per capita income in the city inched up, according to U.S. Census figures, to $26,773 in 2006. That's a bump of less than 1 percent, but that number had been flat in 2004 and 2005.

For one thing, the flat number worried agencies that set the city's bond rating, which affects the city's ability to borrow money, Las Vegas finance director Mark Vincent said.

More business licenses also were issued, with fewer businesses closing, in the current fiscal year.

The city estimates that 8,117 business licenses will be issued this fiscal year, up from 6,700 last year. There were 358 businesses listed as "out of business" in the same year the license was issued, down from 410 last year.

The number of active businesses in Las Vegas totaled 40,500 this year, up from 39,300 last year.

The city could also be showing a better balance between residential and nonresidential construction, such as commercial, office and industrial space.

That's important because "this valley doesn't operate like a normal marketplace when it comes to land," Adams said. The market is driven by auctions of Bureau of Land Management-controlled property, which "causes land to go into the marketplace for predominately residential use" since that's been the most profitable, Adams said.

But it also means property isn't available for "job producing activities," he said.

According to city planners, 20.5 percent of land in Las Vegas was nonresidential, up from about 19 percent in previous years. Residential property held steady at about 33 percent of the total.

"We actually went more nonresidential use, so that's probably a good thing," Adams said. "It's a teeny bit. But you know what? It's an indicator."

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