Henderson terminates agreement for City Tower project

For years, an artist's rendering has heralded the arrival of the City Tower project at the southeast corner of Lake Mead Parkway and Water Street in downtown Henderson.

But the 2.2-acre property has remained vacant.

The Henderson City Council, sitting as the Redevelopment Agency, terminated its agreement with the developer Tuesday. The move signals the demise of the $90 million, mixed-use development once planned for the site, billed as "the gateway to the new downtown."

"It's an eyesore, and it's become a nuisance," City Manager Jacob Snow said last week.

Henderson dentist Barry Lasko couldn't agree more.

Lasko has worked out of an office at 51 E. Lake Mead Parkway since 1990. He has grown so frustrated with the nearby mess and the city's failure to correct the problem that he recently took matters into his own hands.

He estimates he has spent 40 hours and $2,000 cleaning up the property. On Saturday, he covered the artist's rendering with white paint.

"I'm just trying to make the neighborhood more aesthetic so we can get some business," Lasko said.

He said no one wants to "go past this garbage dump to go get dental surgery."

Lasko said he has found everything from heroin needles to bottles full of urine on the land. A chain-link fence, covered with tattered cloth banners, surrounds the property.

"We've had quite a few homeless people in there that have set up camp," the dentist said.

The last straw for Lasko came about four weeks ago, when a car crashed into the fence, leaving posts and the top rail of the fence protruding dangerously over the sidewalk. When city workers did nothing, he cleaned it up himself.

Lasko has even gone so far as to hire day laborers to help him.

The dentist addressed the City Council on Tuesday, providing members with photos he has taken of debris and graffiti at the site.

"I'm here and I'm loyal, but I can't operate with the blight there," Lasko said.

Mayor Andy Hafen told him, "We agree. We share your frustration."

Lasko remembers being excited about plans for the property - back in 2007 - when a former Texaco station, supper club and motorcycle shop were demolished to make way for City Tower.

The project, developed by brothers Arik and Ilan Raiter , was to include 12- and 15-story towers with 40,000 square feet of retail space, 168,000 square feet of office space, 137 condominiums and nine penthouse units. A 10,000-square-foot restaurant was to be on the office building's top floor.

The first-phase construction of the retail space and six-story parking garage with 782 spaces was scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2008.

In 2007, Arik Raiter described City Tower's location as ideal.

"As one of the only authentic downtown main streets in Southern Nevada, the Water Street District is special," he said. "While many urban centers try to imitate it, the Water Street District is the only location where you'll feel a true sense of community."

Recent attempts to reach Arik Raiter for comment about City Tower were unsuccessful.

"We would like to work with him to come up with some type of working relationship to clean those properties up," said Michelle Romero, Henderson's redevelopment manager.

Until Saturday, a sign in front of the property directed passers-by to www.thecitytower.com, but the web address leads to nothing. Lasko painted over that sign, too.

He said the blight at the site began to occur around 2009. He said he has lost business since then, and that decline can't be blamed solely on the bad economy. Other dentists in aesthetically pleasing areas of town have plenty of patients, he said.

Romero said the City Tower project "became financially unfeasible" with the economic downturn.

She said both the developer and the city decided to terminate their disposition and development agreement.

With the termination, the Redevelopment Agency will take back three parcels, which amount to less than half an acre, it sold to City Tower LLC. The city will keep the $100,000 deposit, and the developer will retain the other 10 parcels it owns at the site.

"The project's not going forward right now," Romero said.

Snow acknowledged that the neglected land has become a public safety issue.

"We are in the process of developing a new plan," he said.

He wouldn't elaborate.

Lasko said he would like to see the city build a park there, but he described that wish as "a fantasy." At a minimum, he said, the city should surround the land with new cloth.

"This should be the No. 1 priority because this is the No. 1 blight property in the city," Lasko said.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710.