ZZZ - GMG - VEGAS INC 2011-2014

VEGAS INC DOWNTOWN DEVELOPER WAS WAITING TO SEE 'SPARK' BEFORE PUSHING AHEAD WITH PROJECTS DOWNTOWN, From page 1 downtown, there's no parking. Places are packed, and they are loud with music." Fouladbakhsh said he also plans to build affordable and luxury housing units. He sees the area as ripe for rentals because of its easy access to several freeways. The area where his land sits also has considerably less congestion than other downtown redevelopment zones. "I have a few big lots, and we are talking to an architect to come up with the package ... of how many one bedroom, two bedrooms we can fight into this property right," he said. ••• Fouladbakhsh's family moved to the United States from Iran in the early 1970s. He chose a career as a developer and worked on projects in urban centers of large cities throughout the country. He compares downtown Las Vegas to downtown Los Angeles when its redevelopment began more than a decade ago — with one big difference. In Los Angeles, there were so many homeless people "you couldn't get into a store in the morning because so many would be sleeping in front of it," he said. Fouladbakhsh started buying property in downtown Las Vegas in 2000 but spent 10 years in Los Angeles before moving back here two years ago. "It's an unbelievable change," he said. "Las Vegas did better than LA in cleaning up the streets. ... I've been investing in STEVE MARCUS ON THE HORIZON: Developer Kamran Fouladbakhsh at one of his downtown properties, a former motel being converted into apartments. Fouladbakhsh plans to build affordable and luxury housing throughout downtown. downtowns since the early 1980s, and I can say now this is the most prime real estate outside of Los Angeles." Fouladbakhsh, however, still wanted to see a "spark" downtown before moving ahead full throttle. That's about the time Hsieh announced plans to move Zappos' headquarters from Henderson into old City Hall. A few months later, he and investors created the $350 million Downtown Project, a private redevelopment company. "Nobody, and I mean nobody, expected that big of a spark," Fouladbakhsh said. The Downtown Project's emphasis on events and festivals, such as October's two-day Life is Beautiful festival, has created even more interest in downtown, helping people see the area as more habitable than they had in the past. "Bringing events is the only way downtown can survive and prosper right now," he said. "It brings new people, young people to this area. Life is Beautiful was the best example of what the future will bring. Ninety percent of those here will be young people who will then generate revenue for bars and restaurants." At 813 E. Ogden Ave., Fouladbakhsh recently finished renovating an old motel into an office suite now occupied by Order With Me, a software company that moved to downtown Las Vegas from China and whose investors include the VegasTechFund, an investment arm of the Downtown Project. Fouladbakhsh also owns 50 rental units he refurbished near Charleston Boulevard and Casino Center Drive — rents are $500 to $700 a month, and he says they are never empty — as well as a nearby building that soon will house a speakeasy. The Hawthorne recently received city approval for construction. Further east on Fremont Street, he owns several old motels that he is renovating into rentals. Fouladbakhsh has a mind for creating affordable units. It makes sense, he says, because the majority of people moving downtown are young. "Talk to any young person between 20 and 35," he said. "If they could afford to live in a luxury building and were given a few locations, from Summerlin to downtown to Henderson, where would they live? They'd live downtown because this is where there are, and will be, restaurants and bars and clubs." While Fouladbakhsh credits the Downtown Project with "bringing the spark that created the flame" downtown, he also plans to play a role in the area's development. "The Downtown Project isn't the only one fueling downtown's growth," he said. "They made a huge difference. But I'm not here because of them. I've been here. And I knew sooner or later, they would come." Big residential project pitched for Arts District area By Joe Schoenmann staff writer The biggest multi-unit, residential project to arise since Tony Hsieh arrived downtown — and one that has none of Hsieh's fingerprints on it — is planned by two developers who believe the Arts District and surrounding area is going to be another boom area downtown. With the help of commercial real estate broker Glenda Shaw, Karl Bonar and Mike Levin of Lucky Dirt LLC have put together 1.72 acres of land on Las Vegas Boulevard, south of Charleston Boulevard. The land assemblage is rare downtown these days, in part because Hsieh and | 23 DECEMBER 2013 20131223_VI01_F.indd 17 | his $350 million Downtown Project have driven up land prices by buying some 100 parcels over the last two years. Relatively high sales prices have led landowners to hold onto their properties, expecting a windfall when they sell. Bonar and Levin spent eight months working on purchasing the nine properties, which are in escrow. Bonar hopes within six months to have architectural renderings of what could be a mixed-use, 10-story complex with offices and retail space on the first floor, parking three floors above that and six more floors of residential apartments. The plan would create 350 to 450 apartments, including affordable 400- to 650-square-foot spaces that would rent for about $1.50 a square foot in one tower and "affordable modern" apartments from 700 to 1,500 square feet in the other. All be rental units, unlike the high-rises built during the boom, which mostly were condos targeting tourists or people from out of state seeking second homes. That makes sense on several levels, Bonar said. For one, many downtown workers, including Zappos employees, aren't highly paid. And while they might like to live downtown, they may not be able to afford what has become a high-rent area. Secondly, financing for condominiums is extremely hard to get; apartment financing is easier, Bonar said. The parcels assembled by Bonar and Levin stretch one block west from Las Vegas Boulevard to Fourth Street, beginning about 1,000 feet south of Charleston Boulevard near Park Paseo Road, then zigzaging south and west. To those who believe the East Fremont Street area is the mecca of downtown redevelopment, Lucky Dirt's project more than a mile to the southwest might seem a little off base. But Levin sees the area as ripe for redevelopment. "We we want to create our own identity," he said. "What's happening is terrific. We're just heading in a different direction." 17 12/19/13 3:53:02 PM

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