Downtown Vegas gets a makeover

The president of Barrick Gaming Corp. has ambitious plans to revive the fortunes of downtown Las Vegas, a gritty area that has long foundered in the shadow of the more prosperous Strip.

While powerful gambling companies shun investing in downtown --- once written off as dead --- Barrick is investing heavily.

The company has staked its fortune there, snapping up large swaths of land valued at more than $200 million.

Six casinos So far, Barrick has bought six casinos and several smaller properties on about 30 acres.

The assets give Barrick a 40 percent stake in the downtown gambling market and about a third of the area's property, company officials said.

Barrick executives are clear about their company's strategy: They're making a real estate play, not one solely based on topsy-turvy gambling revenues that are primarily generated by tourists.

The acquisitions have made Barrick one of the largest landholders in downtown Las Vegas along with Boyd Gaming, whose hotel-casinos include the California, Main Street Station and Fremont.
An acre of real estate along the Strip, one of the most famous boulevards in the world, has been estimated by gambling analysts to cost from $15 million to $25 million.

For a young company, buying downtown at a fraction of that cost seemed like a prudent alternative.

"For a pittance for what this would cost on the Strip, you can be a market leader," said Crystal, 39, a lawyer, Dartmouth College graduate and former New Hampshire legislator.

Much of the company's success depends on Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, the city's biggest cheerleader and a pivotal player in the area's revitalization efforts.

Las Vegas officials have hired renowned architect Frank Gehry to design a medical research facility on the parcel, and the mayor thinks the vacant property would be a suitable site for a major league baseball stadium or basketball arena.

The center is being built in seven phases and eventually will have 7.5 million square feet of space for furniture companies to display their wares to retailers.

The 2.5 million-square-foot first phase opens in July.
He wants to turn the rundown Western hotel-casino into a Latino-themed property to cater to the city's growing Hispanic population.

"I think the overall escalation of the land values in Las Vegas gives great hope for a major turnaround in downtown Las Vegas," Zarnett said.

Frank Streshley, a research analyst with the state Gaming Control Board, said in the first six months of 2004, downtown gambling revenue was down 1.