Tourism panel OKs method to pay for 1,200 space garage

Nevada Tourism Commission members on Monday approved the means to pay for the 1,200-space garage on 61 acres of former Union Pacific railroad yard in Symphony Park.

That garage had been meant to support an oft-maligned $200 million, 24,000-seat soccer stadium once destined for the park. City leaders last month shot down a divisive deal to build the soccer venue after weeks of litigation and political hand wringing over $56 million in public subsidies the city had hoped to set aside for the project.

Monday’s vote saw six governor-appointed tourism commissioners OK Las Vegas’ plans to move ahead with the stadium-linked garage anyway, signing off on a controversial tourism improvement district proposal that will see the city pay down $25 million in Sales Tax Anticipation Revenue, or STAR, bonds through sales taxes collected largely from a parking garage-adjacent outlet mall.

The formation of that tourism district has been opposed by two City Council members and all seven Clark County commissioners, who say building the garage — which would be partially funded by the diversion of $1.5 million in county sales tax revenue collected within the city-proposed district — would hurt their ability to fund crucial county services.

The move was also opposed by tourism board member Brian Ayala, who cast a lone dissenting vote against the project.

A city-commissioned tourism improvement district study reviewed by Ayala and fellow board members projects that Symphony Park will see the completion of three casinos, 1,800 residential units and 257,000 square feet of retail space by the start of 2016 — growth projections some City Council members have called “absurd.”

None of Symphony Park’s three major developers is contractually obligated to build in the area by 2016, according to city Economic and Urban Development Director Bill Arent.

Arent has said most of the new revenue cited in the study is expected to come out of a near-finished 150,000-square-foot expansion at the Las Vegas Premium Outlets North.

He couldn’t say when Symphony Park might realize the rest of its projected development potential.

Ayala expressed discomfort with some of those unknowns, along with a few of the city-commissioned growth projections.

He was joined by tourism board Vice Chairman Ryan Sheltra, who pointed out that Las Vegas had long since agreed to offer 1,200 parking spaces to The Smith Center for the Performing Arts — one of only two developments to touch down in Symphony Park since it was opened up for development in 2005.

Sheltra didn’t see why The Smith Center parking deal ought to be subsidized by other municipalities’ sales tax dollars, but said his hands were tied by a poorly written state law that asks tourism commissioners to consider only the narrow question of whether tourists are expected to shell out the majority of new sales taxes collected in a proposed tourism district.

“We are approving a STAR bond project to help the city of Las Vegas build a parking garage for The Smith Center,” Sheltra said. “I would not sleep tonight if I didn’t call that out.

“We’re hurting schools and other essential services so we can build a parking garage. … I implore the Legislature to take a look at this law.”

County leaders have called into question the newly approved tourism district’s borders, calling them “gerrymandered” — drawn up by connecting parcels that aren’t contiguous, using a road’s right of way to connect to an outlet mall expansion already in the works.

County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak has even suggested the outlet mall’s inclusion in the district amounts to nothing less than a “disingenuous application of the law,” a point reiterated by Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani on Monday.

Deputy Attorney General Sarah Bradley looked to shoot down that interpretation, noting there was nothing in the relevant statute which prevented Las Vegas using diverting the mall’s future sales tax dollars toward a parking garage nor barring the city from tying that mall into the sales tax district via a right of way.

City leaders, for their part, defended the proposal as a means to preserve development momentum in Symphony Park despite the loss of a soccer stadium.

“We really have an opportunity to continue the momentum,” Ward 5 Councilman Ricki Barlow said, “but if we don’t have adequate parking, that can stifle development.”

Barlow’s enthusiasm for the garage was shared by representatives with the project’s would-be neighbors at The Smith Center and Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.

The earliest Barlow and his colleagues can vote to finalize the district’s creation is April 1.

Contact James DeHaven at jdehaven@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3839. Follow @JamesDeHaven on Twitter.