ZZZ - GMG - VEGAS INC 2011-2014

J A N U A R Y 6 , 2 0 1 4 / Y O U R b u s i n e s s - t o - b u s i n e s s w e e k ly SPECIAL FOCUS DOWNTOWN LAS VEGAS This month, VEGAS INC looks at downtown's history, development and future For Refugee, Doughnuts are AMERICAN DREAM By Eli Segall staff writer CORLENE BYRD SHOWING OFF: Zarkana acrobats perform during the Life Is Beautiful festival. The October event was one of downtown's biggest successes of the past year. what's next for the city's urban core A look at what's expected downtown this year By Joe Schoenmann staff writer B y the end of 2014, parts of downtown Las Vegas will look much different than they do now. ¶ Old motels and hotels surrounded by Keep-Out fencing will be refurbished and transformed for new uses. Ground is expected to be broken on much needed mid- and high-rise residential projects. Developers, triggered by Zappos' move into old City Hall and the Downtown Project's recent property grab, will likely move into parts of the neighborhood that barely got a look before. ¶ On the flip side, while redevelopment will continue, it might not come as quickly as some might expect. ¶ Dan Palmeri, an office specialist with the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield Commerce, fields calls from businesses that want to move downtown to get away from the blandness of the suburbs. But their office space needs are larger than anything available in the area. ¶ Large contiguous tracts of land around East Fremont Street have been purchased by the Downtown Project, but the developers don't appear to be interested in raising office buildings. see DOWNTOWN, page 13 Sothy Seang drives to the Donut Hut in east Las Vegas almost every night around 7. He unlocks the door, turns on the lights, starts the fryer and makes hundreds of doughnuts. He doesn't leave until after 11 a.m. the next day. Seang has been doing this work almost daily for the past two decades. It's a job few people would want – selling apple fritters, glazed old-fashioneds and maple bars in a low-end strip mall in the middle of the night in a bad part of town. But to Seang, life in Las Vegas is paradise on Earth. Before coming to America, the Cambodian native survived the horrors of Pol Pot, the communist dictator who killed at least 2 million people. Seang was sent to a slave labor camp and worked 16 hours a day, barefoot, in a rice paddy for more than three years. He slept on the ground and ate frogs, crabs and tiny portions of rationed rice. Executions were common, and bodies were thrown into open pits. Seang isn't looking for pity, though. He's a tough combat veteran who joined the Cambodian Army as a teenager in see DOUGHNUTS,page 16 INSIDE TODAY ALL INCLUSIVE | P. 6 Opening conventions to the public could be a boon for Las Vegas UNEQUAL TAXATION | P. 7 Nevada shoppers subsidize consumers in higher-tax states DATA AND RECORDS | P. 20 Bankruptcies, bid opportunities, brokered transactions and permits THE LIST | P. 21 2013's largest conventions, by attendees 20140106_VI01_F.indd 1 1/2/14 1:22:09 PM

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