University of Nevada Las Vegas, Nevada · University of Nevada Las Vegas, Nevada Strategies for...

University of NevadaLas Vegas, NevadaStrategies for Creating a University District in Clark County, Nevada

April 29–May 4, 2007An Advisory Services Panel Report

ULI–the Urban Land Institute1025 Thomas Jefferson Street, N.W.Suite 500 WestWashington, D.C. 20007-5201

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An Advisory Services Panel Report2

The mission of the Urban Land Institute is toprovide leadership in the responsible use ofland and in creating and sustaining thrivingcommunities worldwide. ULI is committed to

• Bringing together leaders from across the fieldsof real estate and land use policy to exchangebest practices and serve community needs;

• Fostering collaboration within and beyondULI’s membership through mentoring, dia-logue, and problem solving;

• Exploring issues of urbanization, conservation,regeneration, land use, capital formation, andsustainable development;

• Advancing land use policies and design prac-tices that respect the uniqueness of both builtand natural environments;

• Sharing knowledge through education, appliedresearch, publishing, and electronic media; and

• Sustaining a diverse global network of localpractice and advisory efforts that address cur-rent and future challenges.

Established in 1936, the Institute today has morethan 35,000 members from 90 countries, represent-ing the entire spectrum of the land use and develop-ment disciplines. Professionals represented includedevelopers, builders, property owners, investors,architects, public officials, planners, real estatebrokers, appraisers, attorneys, engineers, financiers,academics, students, and librarians. ULI reliesheavily on the experience of its members. It isthrough member involvement and informationresources that ULI has been able to set standardsof excellence in development practice. The Insti-tute has long been recognized as one of the world’smost respected and widely quoted sources of ob-jective information on urban planning, growth,and development.

About ULI–the Urban Land Institute

©2007 by ULI–the Urban Land Institute1025 Thomas Jefferson Street, N.W. Suite 500 WestWashington, D.C. 20007-5201

All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of the whole or anypart of the contents without written permission of the copy-right holder is prohibited.

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University of Las Vegas, Nevada, April 29–May 4, 2007 3

The goal of ULI’s Advisory Services Programis to bring the finest expertise in the realestate field to bear on complex land use plan-ning and development projects, programs,

and policies. Since 1947, this program has assem-bled well over 400 ULI-member teams to helpsponsors find creative, practical solutions forissues such as downtown redevelopment, landmanagement strategies, evaluation of develop-ment potential, growth management, communityrevitalization, brownfields redevelopment, mili-tary base reuse, provision of low-cost and afford-able housing, and asset management strategies,among other matters. A wide variety of public,private, and nonprofit organizations have con-tracted for ULI’s Advisory Services.

Each panel team is composed of highly qualifiedprofessionals who volunteer their time to ULI.They are chosen for their knowledge of the paneltopic and screened to ensure their objectivity.ULI’s interdisciplinary panel teams provide aholistic look at development problems. A re-spected ULI member who has previous panelexperience chairs each panel.

The agenda for a five-day panel assignment is in-tensive. It includes an in-depth briefing day com-posed of a tour of the site and meetings with spon-sor representatives; a day of hour-long interviewsof typically 50 to 75 key community representa-tives; and two days of formulating recommenda-tions. Many long nights of discussion precede thepanel’s conclusions. On the final day on site, thepanel makes an oral presentation of its findingsand conclusions to the sponsor. A written report isprepared and published.

Because the sponsoring entities are responsiblefor significant preparation before the panel’s visit,including sending extensive briefing materials toeach member and arranging for the panel to meetwith key local community members and stake-holders in the project under consideration, partici-

pants in ULI’s five-day panel assignments areable to make accurate assessments of a sponsor’sissues and to provide recommendations in a com-pressed amount of time.

A major strength of the program is ULI’s uniqueability to draw on the knowledge and expertise ofits members, including land developers and own-ers, public officials, academicians, representativesof financial institutions, and others. In fulfillmentof the mission of the Urban Land Institute, thisAdvisory Services panel report is intended toprovide objective advice that will promote the re-sponsible use of land to enhance the environment.

ULI Program Staff

Marta GoldsmithSenior Vice President, Community

Thomas W. EitlerDirector, Advisory Services

Cary SheihSenior Associate, Advisory Services

Matthew RaderSenior Associate, Advisory Services

Carmen McCormickPanel Coordinator, Advisory Services

Romana KernsAdministrative Assistant, Advisory Services

Nancy H. StewartDirector, Book Program

Lise Lingo, Publications Professionals LLCManuscript Editor

Betsy VanBuskirkArt Director

Martha LoomisDesktop Publishing Specialist/Graphics

Kim RuschGraphics

Craig ChapmanDirector, Publishing Operations

About ULI Advisory Services

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On behalf of the Urban Land Institute, thepanel would like to thank the sponsors:UNLV President David Ashley and UNLVstaff members Gerry Bomotti, Ron Smith,

Juanita Fain, Rebecca Mills, and David Frommer,as well as Michael Saltman of the Vista Group.Without their support and assistance, the panelwould not have been possible.

Special thanks go to Rod Allison, Don Burnette,Walter Cairns, Lesa Coder, Chris Giunchigliani,Elizabeth Macias Quillin, Phil Rosenquist, andVirginia Valentine of Clark County and to TinaQuigley, Jacob Snow, and Bruce Turner of the Re-gional Transportation Commission of SouthernNevada (RTC). Thanks also go to Bruce Deifik,Brian Greenspun, Phil Ralston, and Richard Ser-fas of the American Nevada Company; MichaelMixer and Alexander Rodrigo of Colliers Interna-

tional Las Vegas; Debra March of The Lied Insti-tute for Real Estate Studies; Dave Fackler ofNielsen-Fackler Planning & Development, Inc.;Frank Back of the ULI Las Vegas District Coun-cil; and Jeff Panchavinin, the UNLV student bodypresident. The panel also expresses thanks to thefollowing organizations for their participation:JMA Architects, McCarran International Airport,and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

Interviews conducted with numerous stakehold-ers, including residents, business owners, andpublic officials, provided valuable information anddiverse perspectives, aiding the panel in its analy-sis. The panel thanks all those who consented tobe interviewed.

Acknowledgments

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ULI Panel and Project Staff 6

Foreword: The Panel’s Assignment and Summary of Recommendations 7

Market Potential 12

Development Strategies 20

Planning and Design Strategies 28

Implementation 32

Conclusion 38

About the Panel 39

Contents

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Panel Chair

John M. Walsh IIIPresidentTIG Real Estate Services, Inc.Carrollton, Texas

Panel Members

Michael D. BeyardSenior Resident Fellow, ULI/Martin Bucksbaum Chair for Retail and Entertainment

ULI–the Urban Land InstituteWashington, D.C.

Marta BorsanyiPrincipalThe Concord GroupNewport Beach, California

Bern EwertPresident Ewert and CompanyCharlottesville, Virginia

Tom FlynnDirector of Economic DevelopmentCity of Charlotte Economic DevelopmentCharlotte, North Carolina

John OrfieldBOKA Powell, LLCDallas, Texas

Zane SegalProject DirectorZane Segal Projects, Inc.Houston, Texas

Ross TilghmanDirectorTilghman GroupSeattle, Washington

Warren WhitlockDirector, Construction CoordinationColumbia UniversityNew York, New York

ULI Project Staff

Thomas W. EitlerDirector, Advisory Services

Cary SheihSenior Associate, Advisory Services

Matthew RaderSenior Associate, Advisory Services

ULI On-Site Coordinator

Carmen McCormickPanel Coordinator

ULI Panel and Project Staff

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The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)is located in Clark County, Nevada, approxi-mately four miles southeast of the city ofLas Vegas. It is the premier metropolitan

research university in Nevada, with more than28,000 undergraduate and professional studentsand 3,000 faculty and staff members. The maincampus consists of 337 acres.

The Midtown UNLV revitalization project, a public/private partnership, is located on the east and westsides of Maryland Parkway at UNLV. It is an at-tempt to create a university district in ClarkCounty. The Midtown UNLV project is the brain-child of Michael Saltman of the Vista Group andboth former UNLV President Dr. Carol C. Harterand current UNLV President David B. Ashley.The partnership was initiated by the Vista Groupand UNLV, with the intent to expand it to a vari-ety of public and private entities, including ClarkCounty, the Regional Transportation Commissionof Southern Nevada (RTC), area residents, busi-nesses, landowners, and other parties.

The Assignment

The Advisory Services panel was challenged tocreate a strategy to revitalize Midtown UNLV asa more urban place, while creating better physicallinks with and remaining compatible with neigh-boring districts. More specifically, the sponsors(as well as key community members involved inthe development of goals and objectives) askedthe panel to consider the following qualities andaspects in recommending strategies for implemen-tation of the revitalized Midtown UNLV:

• Creating a collaborative partnership betweenUNLV, Clark County, private developers andlandowners, area tenants, and the community.

• Increasing public safety in terms of neighbor-hood and personal safety and pedestrian safety(both walking along and crossing streets). The

Foreword: The Panel’s Assignment and Summary of Recommendations

Location map.

Regional map.

15

ARIZONACALIFORNIA

CLARK

LINCOLN

NYE

Las Vegas

HendersonParadise

Sunrise Manor

15

80

ARIZONA

N E V A D A

UTAH

CALIFORNIA

OREGON IDAHO

Carson City

Las Vegas

Reno

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scope of the area to improve includes the Mary-land Parkway corridor as a primary arterialroadway, as well as surrounding collectorroadways.

• Integrating and aligning the vision of MidtownUNLV with the needs, concerns, and desires ofinterested stakeholders, including propertyowners and residents.

• Strategically planning development so that in-cremental improvements can be accomplishedeffectively with momentum, reflecting increasedneighborhood quality in a clear manner that willgenerate increased interest and engagementwith Midtown UNLV over time.

• Engaging in neighborhood revitalization initia-tives with key participants including UNLV, thecounty, private developers, and the surroundingneighborhoods, to implement a successful proj-ect that can be a model for future revitalizationand redevelopment in Clark County.

• Creating effective public/private partnershipsfor neighborhood revitalization by using inno-vative private and public capital and develop-ment models that have proven successful inother revitalization efforts within or outsideof Clark County.

• Creating added value in the county throughneighborhood revitalization and throughincreased academic, research, cultural, andeconomic activity for UNLV, the county, thestate, private developers, and the surroundingcommunity.

• Expanding the economic impact from UNLVand its research, educational, and related activi-

ties and reinforcing and strengthening its roleas a driver for a more diverse economic basefor Clark County and southern Nevada.

• Revitalizing the area and community in andaround UNLV to develop a university districtthat includes the following key elements:

• Supports the needs of UNLV, its neighbors,and the surrounding community, includingresidents, business owners, and business op-erators, through an effort that reverses thedeterioration in the area.

• Increases the quality of the pedestrian expe-rience through safety measures and throughthe elements that compose the pedestrian ex-perience, such as sidewalks and hardscape,landscape, public amenities, public and civicspace, architecture and materials, street ac-tivity and engagement, signage and wayfind-ing, and other relevant infrastructure, as amodel for future efforts on the MarylandParkway corridor.

• Encourages and promotes the use of publicmass transit, with complementary parkingstrategies, to reduce the reliance on privatemotor vehicles in the area and the MarylandParkway corridor, to support the pedestrianexperience and safety, and to increase envi-ronmental quality and sustainability.

• Better integrating mass transit strategies intothe Midtown UNLV area, with potential provi-sions for transit hubs, park-and-ride facilities,and other mass transit enhancements to Mary-land Parkway and surrounding corridors.

• Creating a destination with a vibrant atmos-phere that supports and increases communityengagement with and access to higher educa-tion, research, arts and culture, commerce andretail, and professional activity and provides avariety of housing options for UNLV students,staff members, and faculty, as well as the com-munity at large.

• Expanding the prominence, stature, and role ofUNLV by engaging the southern Nevada com-munity at Midtown UNLV, with increased visi-bility, accessibility, and outreach of UNLV

UNLV is the premier met-ropolitan research univer-sity in Nevada. One of themain entrances to thecampus is at East Tropi-cana Avenue and Swen-son Street.

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education, research, student life, athletic, andother initiatives.

• Creating a planning environment and processamong public and private entities that results inclearly defined guidelines and parameters re-garding architecture, development, infrastruc-ture, or any physical element or manifestationto be incorporated by any private or publicparty or developer involved.

• Promoting the availability of a comprehensiveset of experiences and services that create awell-defined, full-service neighborhood for allconsumer needs and interests (that is, retail,service, and cultural services such as grocers,dry cleaners, video rental, restaurants of variedtypes and costs, nightclubs, art galleries, muse-ums, banks, florists, clothing stores, art supplystores, houses of worship, civic and public space,and the like).

• Making available a broad cross-section of hous-ing opportunities at Midtown UNLV for a widerange of economic and social groups in a varietyof urban models, settings, and styles, therebyfostering diversity through attainable work-force housing, as well as traditional, marriedstudent, and international student housing; fac-ulty housing; and general market housing.

• Significantly enhancing the overall appeal of theneighborhood to attract the highest-quality stu-dents, faculty, and staff members, thereby sup-porting and enhancing recruitment and reten-tion efforts.

• Integrating planning and development by theuniversity and private occupants along Mary-land Parkway to ensure a cohesive and inte-grated university district.

• Serving as a community model of sustainablerevitalization by implementing transit-orienteddevelopment, constructing LEED–certifiedfacilities, reducing carbon impacts, and usingother sustainable measures.

The panel sponsor asked eight specific questions:

1. What kind of partnerships and funding mecha-nisms are important to create or develop for

both the development and the operation of Mid-town UNLV? Additional detail: What are the key financial is-sues, partnerships, mechanisms, tax structuresand systems needed for development (one-timecapital expenditures) and support (operationalexpenses) of ongoing services such as parkingand transit management and streetscape main-tenance? What roles should be played by publicdevelopers and entities, private developers, andpublic infrastructure and regulatory entities?What is required in partnerships (participants,types, components, terms, and so on) with the

The panel gathers infor-mation from the sponsorthrough presentationsand tours.

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ods and strategies in the Maryland Parkwaycorridor and the surrounding streets for promot-ing a highway, pedestrian, and mass transit–oriented environment (that is, moving pedestri-ans across and up and down the street; provid-ing a street environment that promotes activityand engagement; and so on) that addresses is-sues of public safety, quality and effectivenessof infrastructure (power, water, sewer, roads,storm sewer, and the like), and primacy of pub-lic mass transit and still supports secondaryprivate vehicle use and parking?

6. In changing the paradigm of the neighborhoodand working to increase UNLV’s communityrole, prominence, and stature, what shifts incommunity thinking and policy needs to occurto support the Midtown UNLV model? Additional detail: What assumptions and cur-rent conditions about UNLV and the surround-ing neighborhood need to be challenged to pro-vide an integrated district for living, playing,working and learning—encompassing both sidesof Maryland Parkway? (Areas to be challengedmay include geography, transit, street planningand engagement, housing policy and availability,community engagement, regulatory involvementand policy, and other issues.) What types of usesare critical to implementing the Midtown UNLVvision, and which uses are most important in ini-tiating the project?

7. How can Midtown UNLV be implemented sothat it can serve as a model for revitalizationefforts in other Clark County areas in the fu-ture, with a particular focus on extending therevitalization effort along the Maryland Park-way corridor? Additional detail: How might the MidtownUNLV project assist valleywide revitalizationand redevelopment efforts by providing aprominent and successful example of planningand implementation strategies for other suchprojects in Clark County?

8. What are the key elements of public and regula-tory policy to be addressed for the success ofMidtown UNLV, referencing other successfuluniversity district revitalizations? Additional detail: What are the key elements of public and regulatory policy that need to be

key public and private entities involved to makeMidtown UNLV successful as a project?

2. How can Midtown UNLV be developed to cre-ate an active, authentic, and welcoming urbandistrict in Clark County, connecting communityand higher education? Additional detail: What are the most effectivemechanisms for promoting a high-quality andcoherent university district that effectively gen-erates an urban vitality with a degree of spon-taneity not found in a homogeneous place, with-out resulting in a contrived environment that isexclusive in its appeal and accessibility?

3. What should be the goals and benchmarks forMidtown UNLV for the economic and social ef-fects on UNLV and Clark County, and how canthese effects be maximized? Additional detail: What kind of residual eco-nomic impacts on the university, the privatesector, Clark County, and the surroundingneighborhood should result from MidtownUNLV, in both type and magnitude? How canthe project structure be designed, using empiri-cal benchmarking, to maximize the financial ben-efits for the region and for stakeholders byyielding economic benefits that increase quality,services, and the breadth of socioeconomicparticipation within Midtown UNLV?

4. How might security, crime, and pedestrian safetybe addressed in the Midtown UNLV area andMaryland Parkway corridor, and what policy,resource, and timing strategies should beimplemented? Additional detail: What measures and mecha-nisms should be used to address issues of publicsafety, including crime and pedestrian safety?How should these issues be integrated into theMidtown UNLV project in terms of timing,policy, appropriation and implementation ofresources, and public communication andoutreach?

5. How can transportation-oriented developmentwith a mass transit and pedestrian focus be bestdeveloped at Midtown UNLV and extend intothe Maryland Parkway corridor in the future,while accommodating private vehicles? Additional detail: What will be the best meth-

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addressed to promote the success of MidtownUNLV? Can specific public policy recommen-dations be provided that have yielded success in similar revitalization projects in other uni-versity districts?

Summary of Recommendations

After reviewing the information provided by thesponsor; participating in the on-site reception,briefings, and tours; and—especially—conductingthe interviews with major stakeholders, the panelis convinced that the best strategic advice for theMidtown UNLV project, UNLV, Clark County,and the private development community involvedin Midtown UNLV is to expand the panel recom-mendations to address three elements:

• A series of organizational and communication issues,

• A group of transportation and infrastructureconcerns, and

• A strategy to revitalize the Maryland Parkway.

The following are the panel’s key recommendations:

• Institute coordinated planning on a range ofthree geographic scales, by a variety of con-stituent stakeholders, timed over a period ex-tending from one year to the long term.

• Create a mixed-use urban development at theHarmon Gateway planning area that is com-posed of university housing, retail, offices, hotel,cultural spaces, civic uses, and open space.

• Create a public/private partnership to attracthigh-quality development, including transporta-tion and neighborhood revitalization programs.

• Create a more inviting pedestrian environmentthat would encourage people to walk along theparkway and to cross it.

• Create a more urban street, one that clearly dis-tinguishes this area as a special district to beenjoyed and respected.

• Make the parkway more compatible with cam-pus and urban development while maintainingits capacity.

• Quickly implement a sound communicationsstrategy that involves every significant stake-holder who will be affected by these changesand recommendations.

• Create a redevelopment corporation to providea long-term public/private champion for theseprojects and to institutionalize the relationshipsbetween the organizations that are needed tocarry out this redevelopment.

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Over the past several decades, Las Vegashas rightfully earned the moniker of the“Fastest-Growing Big City in the UnitedStates.” In the 2000 census, it was ranked

the 29th largest city in the country; recent esti-mates suggest that the city’s population has sincesurpassed those of Atlanta, Nashville, and Louis-ville to place it 22nd. With an annual growth rateof 3.4 percent projected for the next five years,Las Vegas is likely to surpass Milwaukee and pos-sibly a few other cities to break into the top 20 bythe 2010 census. The Census Bureau’s official esti-mate for 2006 reported a population of 591,000 inthe city and more than 1.7 million in the metro-politan area.

Economy and Its Drivers

The primary drivers of the Las Vegas economyhave been the entertainment (tourism and gam-ing) and convention sectors, which feed the retailand dining industries. Since 1948, the leisure andhospitality industry—the traditional backbone ofthe Las Vegas economy—has supported approxi-mately 30 percent of the city’s workforce popula-tion. This figure is projected to remain at this levelfor the next five years and the foreseeable future.

The city is constantly reinventing itself by lookingto the future, to remain ahead of its competitors.In 1989 the first mega-resort, The Mirage, openedto huge fanfare, and the trend of development awayfrom downtown and toward the Las Vegas Striphas continued unabated. In recent years, new con-dominium and hotel high-rise projects have dra-matically changed the entire skyline. Also notableare the high-end boutiques, trendy and fine diningestablishments, and top-notch shows that havechanged the entertainment scene. Recreationalamenities abound, and visitors and residents alikecan find opportunities for water sports, hiking,mountain biking, and golf. The city has startedconstruction of a new international terminal at

McCarran International Airport to improve itsaccessibility and increase its appeal in worldwidemarkets, especially in Asia.

Emerging Trends

Two non-gaming–related trends have also emergedin the past few decades. The first is that the cityhas become a strong market for redevelopment anddensification. The mountains that surround the val-ley limit geographic expansion. Therefore, re-newal comes from reuse of existing assets and suchareas then typically have higher densities. Overthe past 15 years, Las Vegas has been the fastest-densifying metropolitan area in the United States.The second trend offers a significant opportunityfor Las Vegas’ growing population. With a three-level state system of higher education that includescommunity colleges, a new state college system,and the University of Nevada campuses, an in-creasing percentage of the growing population canpartake in the benefits of higher education.

The estimated annual economic impact of UNLVon the Clark County economy was calculated atnearly $550 million by the UNLV Economic Re-search Center, on the basis of 2004 data. When thelong-run estimated spin-off impact of UNLV isadded to this calculation, the estimated total eco-nomic impact is nearly $6 billion, affecting nearly18,000 jobs. The growth of UNLV and the part-nership of state resources and private, externalresources will continue to increase this economicimpact. These projections are based on the expe-riences of other, similar institutions. The panelbelieves that the economic and social impact ofUNLV will continue to grow for the foreseeablefuture.

Historically, the Maryland Parkway corridor wasthe cultural center of the Las Vegas Valley. Thetree-canopied corridor was once the valley’smajor location for retail services, health services,

Market Potential

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affordable housing, cultural venues, and educa-tional activities. It was a beautifully landscapedand vibrant area, a healthy corridor that extendedall the way from the downtown bus terminal tothe airport. That position of preeminence andhealth changed as the valley grew, competing lo-cations emerged, and the downtown declined.Today, the parkway has declined in some areasand strengthened in others. A drive down theparkway highlights the inconsistent quality of de-velopment and maintenance. Unfortunately, manyportions of the corridor are in a state of declineand require focused, energetic attention.

However, the corridor’s location near Las VegasBoulevard, also known as “the Strip,” and toMcCarran International Airport and downtownLas Vegas, as well as its excellent access fromFlamingo Road and Tropicana Avenue, offer un-paralleled opportunities. Maryland Parkway is thesite of Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, thefirst major hospital in the valley. Founded in 1958,Sunrise is the largest comprehensive acute-caremedical complex in Nevada and one of the largestproprietary hospitals in the country. Directly adja-cent to this institution is the valley’s first regionalshopping center, the Boulevard Mall. The Mall, theoldest one in Las Vegas, was built in the 1970s.Recently remodeled, it is still one of the most pop-ular malls in the valley for shoppers seeking mod-erately priced merchandise. It draws its healthycustomer base from the southeastern valley, aswell as visitors to the Strip who do not want topay the high-end prices found at the hotel and re-sort malls.

These major institutions will allow the parkway toregain its position of prominence for local citizensand as a place for valley residents to enjoy a multi-tude of activities. However, re-establishing thatposition requires adopting new organizing princi-ples and implementing bold strategies.

UNLV’s Strengths

UNLV’s location adjacent to the airport and alongMaryland Parkway makes the campus an excel-lent gateway and anchoring institution for thesoutheast valley. The community representationin the panel interviews from the above-mentioned

institutions, from private enterprises, and fromUNLV testifies to the commitment among arealeaders to bettering the environment along thiscorridor. These institutions, along with UNLV’sprogram in the arts, have the opportunity to cre-ate a bridge between “town” and “gown.”

Planning is already underway for the bettermentof the campus, both academically and aestheti-cally. Extensive efforts have been undertaken toprepare for the future, including site planning, ar-chitectural design, and landscaping studies bycompanies from the “Who’s Who” in the plan-ning professions. The school’s $500 million capitalcampaign is on track to achieve its goal in theplanned time frame and to provide the funds to ef-fect change for the betterment of the campus. Sig-nificant opportunities for private/public partner-ships exist. Furthermore, the university districtdoes not stop at the physical boundaries of UNLV;Maryland Parkway, the focus of this study, is sim-ply UNLV’s window out to the community.

Potential Demand

From the market review, the panelists believethat the following opportunities exist for poten-tial demand.

On- and off-campus student housing. One of the sig-nificant missed opportunities is student housingat UNLV. The fact that a majority of the studentpopulation commutes and that the limited dormi-tory stock sits with approximately 80 percentoccupancy is witness to a misaligned product–market relationship. The mature housing stocksurrounding the campus needs improvement orreplacement. In 2006, the average resale in thevicinity was priced at $165,000 while resale pricesin the valley averaged nearly $300,000 and newhome prices averaged well above that. The rentalstock in the campus vicinity also needs improve-ment—rents average less than $0.95 per squarefoot while occupancies are above 98 percent.These figures indicate serious opportunities forrehabilitation or replacement of the current hous-ing stock.

Corporate offices. The Flamingo Road corridor isthe location of the valley’s premier office centers,while along Maryland Parkway, north of the

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campus, medical offices abound. However, officeconcentrations that are typical around univer-sity campuses are not found near UNLV. Indeed,the campus itself needs to expand its space: by2015, some 366,000 square feet of new office spacewill be needed. Significant additional space forclassrooms, research labs, and other uses arealso needed to meet a projected total demand in2015 of approximately 3.4 million additionalsquare feet, including 366,000 square feet of officespace.

Unique Characteristics

During the first 20 years of the 20th century, manycities developed dramatic parkway plans. Theseorganizing plans connected parks, universities,hospitals, neighborhoods, cultural districts, andbusiness locations. Unifying design standardswere used. Guidelines were created along the en-tire route, although they might differ in variousportions. The cities that implemented parkwayplans remain proud of their decisions.

Clearly, UNLV has a significant need for spaceto support the growth and excellence of its pro-grams. Locating some campus office spaces acrossMaryland Parkway will tie the two sides of theroad together, expanding opportunities for relateduses such as restaurants and retail facilities. Thepanel believes that this location of complementaryfunctions on either side of Maryland Parkway willunify the area into a more comprehensive and co-ordinated district—one in which Maryland Park-way does not serve as so much of a divider.

Concentrated streetfront retailing. Students, fac-ulty, and staff members represent a significantsource of demand for goods that well-planned re-tail facilities could satisfy. Yet opportunities arecurrently limited. Valleywide, there is 60 millionsquare feet of retail facilities (excluding retail inhotels)—a stock that has been growing by 5 per-cent, or 3 million square feet, a year. Introducing100,000 square feet of new retail facilities aroundthe campus would represent a mere 3 percent ofone year’s growth in the Valley.

Hotel to serve the university. The nation’s premierprogram of higher education in hospitality arts,the program at UNLV, does not have its own

hotel. A hotel facility could obtain its guests fromthose conducting business with the university,families of students visiting, and the generalmarket audience. A 200-room property repre-sents only 0.1 percent of the hotel room stock inthe Las Vegas Valley. The panel learned of plansto provide a hotel associated with the HarrahHotel College at the northwest portion of campus,to be called INNovation Village, and endorsessuch a plan.

Cultural links between the university and commu-nity. The university community, and to a lesser ex-tent the neighboring communities, is not the onlymarket for the cultural products and services of-fered by students and faculty (films, theatrical andmusical performances, etc.). A significant opportu-nity exists to capture the population of the entireLas Vegas Valley in this cultural market.

Community services. The need for additional spaceand ways to respond to it are well exhibited bythe neighborhood United Methodist Church. Witha growing population, the demand for social ser-vices will increase as well.

Green, open space to anchor new retail. The cam-pus is a true desert oasis—an arboretum and acommunity resource. How many residents of thevalley or people driving on Maryland Parkwayknow about this green community resource? Thelandscaping already here and the landscaping onplans that cross the parkway will create a rich en-vironment for new retail facilities, restaurants,and bars, as well as some locally owned “mom andpop” shops, mixed with chain stores.

Parking. Some critics believe that parking is thetail that wags the dog. UNLV has a tremendousparking asset, but in its current format has manyopportunities to consolidate its parking that needfurther exploration and refinement in order tomaximize shared uses for university and non-university needs. Supporting all these uses is amix of structured and on-street parking. The mixof uses allows parking to be shared, because dif-ferent uses have peak needs at different times ofthe day and on different days of the week.

The university has significant opportunities andresources. The descriptions here assume that theuniversity will grow in esteem and educational ex-

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cellence to match the expanding attraction of itsphysical form. When such significant opportuni-ties abound, it is important to focus on activitiesand projects that maximize returns—be they edu-cational, cultural, social, or financial.

Opportunities at Midtown UNLV

Development opportunities need to build on neigh-borhood strengths. The university is the greatestof these strengths, and any development at Mid-town UNLV must be carefully linked to the uni-versity in physical, functional, and design terms.In a physical sense, both sides of Maryland Park-way need to change from suburban to urban scale,height, and design. This will be part of the com-petitive advantage of the development, becausethere are few places in the Las Vegas area withthe type of traditional urban town center that thepanel envisions for Midtown UNLV and the partof Maryland Parkway in the university district. Inaddition, the unique and entertaining mix of usesthat the panel is recommending will create a strongand exciting synergy among cultural, educational,and retail activities that is also rare in Las Vegas.It will be a powerful draw, not only for the univer-sity community and surrounding neighborhoodbut also for customers from throughout the metro-politan area.

To take advantage of identified opportunities, at-tract desired uses, and create a mixed-use urbandevelopment at Midtown UNLV, the neighborhoodenvironment must be stabilized and improved. Re-tailers especially will not locate in an area if theysee negative trends, lack of community supportand pride, and an unhealthy social environment.Shoppers will go elsewhere, as will potential homebuyers and renters. Few neighborhoods are per-fect, but Midtown UNLV has more than its shareof problems, and they need to be attacked moreaggressively. As a precondition for success, nega-tive influences in the university district mustbe eliminated.

Social ProblemsHomelessness is a sizable and growing problem inthe district, in part because of the lack of a clearstrategy to overcome it. Clark County must pur-sue a more aggressive strategy, in partnership

with religious and other service providers who areassisting the homeless. They must provide ade-quate shelters and employment, perhaps througha business improvement organization. Pushing thehomeless out will simply pass the problem alongto other neighborhoods without solving it. Bettermanagement of the homeless problem is essentialfor successful neighborhood revitalization.

The neighborhood’s deteriorated housing mustalso be redeveloped in line with the revitalizationof Maryland Parkway. The parkway cannot be aglittering facade with declining neighborhoods onits borders. That would simply not be sustainable.Troublesome residential properties should be re-

The panel considers park-ing at UNLV to be anasset with opportunitiesfor consolidation.

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developed as mixed-income housing. If ownersare uncooperative in maintaining properties andcontrolling social problems—especially crime—arising from their properties, then techniquessuch as aggressive code enforcement or deedrestriction enforcement should be pursued.

Pockets of street crime exist throughout theMaryland Parkway corridor. The locations arewell known to the public and the metropolitanpolice. Various neighborhoods are degrading be-cause of blight and the fear generated by crime.In patrol area N2—one square mile just north ofthe university, bordered by Desert Inn, Flamingo,and Paradise roads and Maryland Parkway, di-rectly across from the Boulevard Mall—crime isvery serious. For example, in 2004 the area had15 murders, 35 reported rapes, 460 auto thefts,and 843 assaults. The perception of crime is a real-ity if it keeps people from visiting, buying homes,or shopping in the area. Other illegal activitiessuch as drug dealing and prostitution are also ofgrowing concern and cannot coexist with the typesof development being proposed on MarylandParkway. The image of UNLV and its surroundingneighborhood environment is harmed by this off-

campus crime. Workforce and market rate housingvalues are also harmed by it.

Pedestrian IssuesBeyond social problems, the university districtdoes not have but must create a memorable street-front pedestrian environment. This is essential ifretail mixed-use development is to succeed. Theuniversity has a beautiful, walkable core centeredon its pedestrian malls, but few people outside theuniversity know about it because it is hidden fromMaryland Parkway. The panel believes that thisenvironment needs to extend not only to the edgesof the campus but also across the parkway.

Complicating the creation of a memorable publicrealm is the undisciplined traffic along the park-way. In short, the panel believes that MarylandParkway must be redesigned to better accommo-date pedestrians, link the university with the com-munity, and tame the traffic without reducing thevehicular throughput that is essential for regionaltraffic flow and retail success.

Image IssuesIn the panel’s experience, achieving the vision forMidtown UNLV and the redevelopment of theuniversity district will require public/private part-nerships. Neither the university, nor private in-vestors, nor Clark County acting alone canachieve the type of mixed-use urban environmentthat is needed to turn the district around and initi-ate the first of the many phases of its transforma-tion into the acknowledged cultural center of themetropolitan area. The district is already the cul-tural center but few recognize it, so part of thechallenge is to create a strong brand image for theuniversity district so that home buyers, renters,university students, faculty and staff members,shoppers, and “culture vultures” will come to thearea and stay to enjoy its delights.

The Development Program

The panel has outlined the development programfor Midtown UNLV on the basis of the needs ofthe university, the community, and the landown-ers in the district. Panel members examined thesupply and demand situation in the Las Vegasarea and in the trade area surrounding the uni-versity district. They also relied on projections of

The UNLV campus is a true desert oasis—an arboretum and acommunity resource.

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future needs and put together a mix of uses thatwill create a synergy that will draw neighborhoodresidents, the university community, and peoplethroughout the Las Vegas area. The panel be-lieves that these recommendations will produce anexciting new environment along the parkway andincrease the desire of people to live, work, andshop there.

The first component is housing for the university,designed for students, faculty, and staff members.There is a market for student housing if it is lo-cated and configured in a way that will appeal totoday’s students and if it is mixed in an excitingurban environment with the retail, dining, enter-tainment, and cultural uses that students want.There also is a demand from faculty and staffmembers who want to live within convenientwalking distance of the university in a similar ex-citing environment. If the area develops as antici-pated, there will be demand for apartments andcondominiums from service workers at the Stripas well as from others who want to live in a conve-nient, central location and take advantage of itsurban amenities.

The panel believes that 10 percent to 15 percentof the housing units should be workforce or afford-able housing, because of the decreasing afford-ability of the Las Vegas area. This is a commonstandard in cities around the country, but thispercentage could be negotiated with the public/private partnership. These units should includea mix of sizes, from one-bedroom units to three-bedroom units that can accommodate studentswho choose to live together, and a range of rentaland for-sale units for the general market. A de-tailed market study will be needed to define thenumber and character of the residential units.

The second land use component that is support-able at this site is 100,000 square feet of neighbor-hood, community, and town center retail, arrangedin an outdoor configuration around an energizedpublic realm. The mix of tenants should includeboth existing local tenants and national chainsthat will anchor the center and draw additionalcustomers. Recommended tenants, based on apreliminary review, include specialty food stores,restaurants, cafes, clubs, pubs, convenience retail,a drugstore, and stores for music, specialty house-

wares and furniture, and specialty clothing includ-ing athletic wear and shoes. A detailed marketstudy should be undertaken to test and refine thismix, to provide a critical mass of urban retail thatwould make a compelling destination.

The third recommended land use component is amix of professional, neighborhood-serving, anduniversity offices. Class A corporate office tenantsare unlikely to be interested in this location, atleast in the first phase, but could be drawn in inlater phases as the district establishes itself as adesirable urban destination. Preliminary analysisindicates that 75,000 to 100,000 square feet of of-fice space per year could be built and occupied inMidtown UNLV if the university chooses to locatesome of it along the eastern side of MarylandParkway. Shifting some of the university offices tothat area would help link the eastern side of theparkway to the community and make MarylandParkway the university’s grand main street.Again, a detailed market study needs to be doneto confirm and refine this estimate.

A fourth potential tenant is a small boutique hotelof perhaps 200 rooms to use as a teaching hotelconnected to the hospitality program at UNLV.Through interviews with university officials, thepanel learned that plans are underway to providea hotel associated with the Harrah Hotel Collegeat the northwest portion of campus, called INN-ovation Village. The panel members endorse such

Figure 1Illustrative Development Program

Category Preliminary Estimate

Housing: For Sale 250–300 units per year

Housing: Rental 25–50 units per year

Retail: Phase I 100,000 square feet

Retail: Phase II 100,000 square feet

University Office 365,000 square feet

Boutique Hotel 200 rooms

Artplex Cinema 6–8 screens

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Suggested concept rec-ommendations.

Cottage Grove Avenue

East Rochelle Avenue

University Road

East Harmon Avenue

Del Mar Street

University Road

Sout

h M

aryl

and

Park

way

Existing University Buildings

New University Buildings

Proposed Mixed Uses

Proposed Shared Parking

Key:

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a plan. However, they strongly believes that locat-ing it within the Harmon Gateway planning area’sproposed mixed-use urban area offers advantagesto both the hotel and the university and createssynergies that are not available at its currentlyproposed stand-alone location on Flamingo Road.

In the panel’s experience, hotels that are inte-grated with retail, dining, and entertainment aremore successful over the long term than stand-alone ones. These types of hotels add considerablyto the energy of a neighborhood—especially afterdark—and provide a source of demand for theneighborhood’s services. If the hotel is equippedwith enhanced meeting spaces and lecture halls,the synergy with the university will grow evenmore. If INNovation Village’s proposed location atSwenson Street and Flamingo Road includes amix of uses similar to the panel’s proposal for Mid-town UNLV, the panel would endorse such a plan.The market for a second such hotel in the immedi-ate study area must be explored further.

Cultural, civic, and religious uses are key parts oftoday’s mixed-use retail environments all over thecountry. These types of uses help create a strongsense of community, build loyalty among cus-tomers and residents, and lend authenticity andconnectedness to a new development—somethingthat is rare in the Las Vegas market and would bea competitive advantage. For example, theMethodist church on Maryland Parkway providesreligious as well as social services to the neighbor-hood and the university that would be difficult toreplace. Its steeple and sanctuary also provide aniconic presence in the community and should beretained. The rest of its site, however, could be re-developed to provide additional space for churchfunctions, as well as other uses, and to integratethe church better with the ongoing redevelopmentof the parkway.

Opportunities also exist to link the cultural activi-ties on campus to the surrounding neighborhoodin various ways. For example, the panel believes

that the university should explore the possibilityof developing a small artplex (cinema complex)along Maryland Parkway, in partnership with pri-vate interests, that could be used as lecture hallsduring the day and show independent and interna-tional films in the late afternoon, evening, and onweekends—as is done at the University of Califor-nia at Irvine and other universities. The rapidlygrowing UNLV film school could be colocatedwith the cinema complex to create a fantastic andunique amenity for students and for film loversthroughout the Las Vegas area.

A second opportunity that should be explored isthe possibility of constructing a medium-sized per-forming arts theatre (700–900 seats). This facilitycould also be used for other cultural events thatwould draw audiences too small to fill the existinglarge concert hall. The facility could be rented foroutside events and meetings to help defray costsand add more cultural energy to the universitydistrict.

An often overlooked but critically important partof today’s mixed-use developments is openspace—the public realm. Unlike parks, which areusually passive, lack programming and separatefrom the surrounding neighborhood, open space inmixed-use developments is heavily programmedwith activities, including ongoing and seasonalevents. Most important, they provide gatheringplaces for the community to sit in outdoor cafesand to stroll past shop windows. Private securityand the presence of people coming and going willhelp keep the open space safe at all hours. But inthe panel’s experience, private policing must bepartnered with enhanced public policing to ensurepublic safety and keep the area free of the socialproblems that plague other parts of the district.

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Starting with a development strategy thatcan be put into motion today, one of thepanel’s primary recommendations is thatcoordinated planning be instituted on a

range of three geographic scales, by a variety ofconstituent stakeholders, and timed over a periodextending from one year to the long term.

The panel was briefed on various plans, such asthe UNLV Comprehensive Campus Master Planby SmithGroup JJR and others, and the Mary-land Parkway Precinct Plan by Robert A.M. SternArchitects and SWA Architects. The panel hasidentified three areas in need of additional, well-coordinated, and well-funded planning. These arethe Harmon Gateway, the university district, andthe UNLV campus.

Harmon Gateway Planning Area

The Harmon Gateway planning area encompassesa four-square-block node centered on the intersec-tion of Harmon Avenue and Maryland Parkway.The Stern Precinct Plan identifies this node asthe ceremonial pedestrian entrance to the UNLVcampus, as well as a commercial corner with po-tential intensive, mixed-use development. Thepanel endorses these uses for this central cornerof the university district.

Frazier Hall, currently the western terminus ofHarmon Avenue, is slated for partial demolitionwithin a one-year time frame; thus the require-ment for planning for its replacement and thesurrounding area is immediate. It has been indi-cated that the Alumni Association has beencharged with overseeing fundraising for por-tions of the landscape gateway proposed by theStern Precinct Plan. The panel supports this ef-fort, but for the ceremonial gateway to gain trac-tion, several other components must be put intoaction simultaneously.

First, the cooperation between the universitycommunity and the affected business and residen-tial communities must be well established; thismust be effected through collaborative venturessuch as visioning charrettes. This cooperationshould be enriched by a significant outreach pro-gram to all stakeholders, building on the campusand community outreach efforts already begun for this purpose.

The Harmon Gateway is conceived as not only thefront door and ceremonial entrance for the campusbut also a laboratory and demonstration of collab-oration between the university and private inter-ests, of design principles and guidelines, and ofcommercial success. The planning process for theprivate sector projects and the university’s effortsshould begin simultaneously, so that constructioncan begin immediately upon the partial demolitionof Frazier Hall and the follow-up demolition ofGrant Hall. The replacement of this second out-dated structure in the Harmon Gateway node,contemplated by the Stern Precinct Plan, shouldbe moved forward to complete the university’sside of the node.

Among other functions, this catalytic corner willbe a site for testing the concepts for improvingpedestrian connectivity across Maryland Park-way (outlined later) without adversely affectingvehicular throughput on this vital corridor. In ad-dition, the Stern Precinct Plan’s landscaping andopen-space plans, a plan for streetscaping andamenities (benches, streetlighting, trash contain-ers, bike racks, widened sidewalks, banners, andpublic art), and wayfinding and signage plans can all be tested here on a small scale, for futureapplication throughout the campus, the univer-sity district, and the Maryland Parkway corridor,as appropriate.

The planning process must begin with stakeholdervisioning on a broader scale than has already hap-pened. The constituent campus groups include

Development Strategies

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Context diagram.

N

City

CountySahara Avenue

15

Hospital District

Retail District

Proposed Harmon Gateway Planning Area

UNLV Campus

McCarran International Airport

New International Terminal

Key:

Desert Inn Road

Flamingo Road

Harmon Avenue

Tropicana Avenue

Sout

h M

aryl

and

Park

way

Karen AvenuePa

radi

se R

oad

Sout

h Ea

ster

n Av

enue

Swen

son

Stre

et

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students, faculty, staff, families of students, alumni,potential donors, affected land owners and nearbyresidents, commercial tenants, and potential de-velopers. The panel neither endorses nor rejectsthe Stern Precinct Plan and the existing landscapeplan but suggests that further visioning with pro-fessional guidance will clarify the goals, priorities,and expectations of these various groups. This pro-cess, in turn, will lead to a more specific, achiev-able, and successful project.

As an important backdrop to the strategy for theHarmon Gateway node, as well as those to follow,UNLV and the private development communitymust continue the process of site acquisition andblocking up sites into developable parcels. Theuniversity has been approved to request Board ofRegents approval to acquire commercial proper-ties surrounding various parts of the campus, aswell as across the main avenues and parkways,but it should focus its primary attention and fundsat this time on this demonstration gateway node,including sites east of Maryland Parkway as ap-propriate and necessary.

As a last resort, the use of condemnation by UNLVis also available as a potential negotiating tool.Another potential approach, to be discussed inthe implementation section, is the creation of apublic/private property acquisition and develop-ment entity—although the site acquisition activi-ties should not be geared to the formation of thisvehicle but should continue in the near term. Thisentity would allow property owners to contributetheir land to the development entity at less-than-market prices in return for an equity participationin the ownership and profit potential of the proj-ect. This entity could be used on a much largergeographic scale than just the Harmon Gateway,

but, again, that signature node must be its firstpriority.

It is presumed that the uses in Frazier Hall will bemoved to another building on campus and that thereplacement building for Grant Hall will upgradethe arts facilities being displaced by its demolition.The unattractive, low-density uses on the easternside of Maryland Parkway should be prepared fordemolition by allocating replacement sites and fa-cilities where possible. This might not be commer-cially viable for all the displaced businesses, but astrategy to lessen resistance to the changes con-templated is to slate existing retail tenants, wheredesirable, into the denser, more modern replace-ment projects—perhaps with reduced rent forsome period, to compensate for early lease termi-nation and business disruption.

The panel recommends that a detailed marketstudy be produced by the public/private devel-opment entity to indicate what types and combi-nation of retail, office, housing, hospitality, andcampus uses to propose for the demonstrationbuildings on the northeast and southeast cornersof Maryland Parkway and Harmon Avenue. Themarket study will lead to a land use plan withspecificity and financial clout.

In addition to the connectivity, landscaping, open-space, wayfinding, and amenities plans alluded toabove, it is critical that the planning process bequickly followed by ever-more detailed buildingsite plans, architecture studies, and feasibilityanalyses. Since this project is meant to be a cata-lyst as well as a demonstration of various designelements, it is both a stand-alone effort and anintegral part of the larger-scale planning dis-cussed below.

An architectural theme should become a focus of the visioning process. The panel finds that thecampus, at this point, has no overarching designtheme and has a disparity in architectural qualityfrom building to building. This is not to suggestthat the panel is pushing “starchitecture,” whichcould be defined as letting famous architects dowhatever they want; rather, the panel recom-mends that a design theme be developed for thissignature node that creates a harmonious andinviting urban fabric.

One of many examples ofpublic art throughout theUNLV campus.

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It is primarily financing that separates projectsthat are good ideas from projects that are builtand operated successfully. It is reasonable to ex-pect that good planning and design on a small,achievable scale should enhance the university’sability to shoulder its share of the financial re-sponsibility for getting such a major project in-augurated. Many of the other development andimplementation strategies proposed by the panelwill be put to the test in this first phase of theproject.

University District Planning Area

This area is defined as the land on either side ofMaryland Parkway running from Tropicana Ave-nue on the south to Flamingo Road on the north, a distance of approximately one mile. The panelhas identified two additional nodes in this portionof the parkway that deserve special treatment.Both already have significant improvements onthe university side, but additional planning isneeded for landscaping and open space, siteamenities, connectivity, wayfinding, and commer-cial development, based on the lessons learnedat the Harmon Gateway, as well as the placementof new university structures and parking. Theimplementation may take longer than for the Har-mon Gateway, which should take timing and finan-cial precedence.

The two nodes, which will remain vehicularentrances to the campus as well as pedestrianaccess points, are the University Cultural Cen-ter, south of Cottage Grove Road, and Green-spun Hall, north of University Road. These twonodes are already well provided with universityfacilities, but their mirror images across theparkway are spotty in quality and not particu-larly attractive.

The arts campus and theater district, which thepanel is calling the University Cultural Center,serves not only the cultural needs of UNLV butalso is the de facto performance center of ClarkCounty. Although a new performing arts center isproposed for near downtown Las Vegas, the cam-pus venues currently housing the region’s profes-sional symphony, ballet, and theatrical companies

are likely to maintain their value to the greatercommunity once these entities move to newerfacilities, if they do. The University Cultural Cen-ter could be significantly strengthened by theemergence of complementary facilities, such ascafes, galleries, shops, and artsy residentialspaces, on both sides of the parkway. The apart-ment complex to the north of Cottage Grove Roadis ripe to tie into this node, with housing above re-tail and even a mid-size performance venue serv-ing as the northern terminus of the north-southlandscape mall running through campus.

The southern node is already the scene of exten-sive university investment, but the private prop-erties immediately to the south and east are notcomplementary; in fact, they detract from thevalue of the investment being made. Private andpublic investments in this area will validate theuniversity’s commitment here.

The same methodologies of collaborative vision-ing, planning, site acquisition, tenant relocation,market studies, financing, and development as onthe Harmon node need to be put to work here.

Northern node at the Leeand Thomas Beam MusicCenter (left); southernnode at the location of thenew Greenspun Hall(below).

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Campus Master Plan

The panel believes that the level of detail in theStern Precinct Plan needs to be designed for theentire UNLV campus. An open-space and land-scaping plan, central to the plan, is missing for therest of the campus. Architectural themes and de-sign standards are also missing.

The collaborative process instigated during theplanning of the three nodes of the university dis-trict can be followed to better plot the future ofthe entire campus, from Tropicana to Flamingoroads and from Maryland Parkway on the east to Swenson Road on the west. Doing so may alsomotivate the university to begin to clean up itsborders by acquiring more land—which the panelrecommends, both to be ready for future expan-sion and to protect the enormous investmentsbeing made.

A well-defined and progressive campus masterplan will help those charged with fundraising andworking with state funding allocations to maketheir cases as to why funds are needed for landacquisitions as well as new and improved campusfacilities. Without such an updated plan, the abil-ity of the university to expand and further its mis-sion will be vastly eroded.

Development Strategies

Maryland Parkway has significant potential tobecome a primary location for valley residents toenjoy a diverse and dynamic corridor that en-hances their daily lives. However, serious studymust be given to new development and revital-ization efforts. The crime levels in some areasare dramatic and disturbing. A thorough studyis needed to identify components that can bringabout revitalization and to determine which in-vestment strategies can generate a reasonablereturn.

TransportationTransportation facilities, especially transit, can beone way of assisting the revitalization of a largecorridor. But the objective is to revitalize the en-tire corridor. Studies need to be undertaken to de-termine which particular transit forms will assistin this effort. A market analysis and comparative

studies with other communities would be helpful.Careful analysis of successful strategies in othercommunities and what might work along the park-way need to be undertaken immediately. Street-cars and bus rapid transit (BRT) can serve an or-ganizing and revitalizing function. However, forboth the financial investment must be large enoughto ensure that a critical mass is created as a foun-dation for success. This commitment can help en-sure that citizens and private investors have confi-dence about the future of the entire corridor. Sucha plan must be consistent with the long-range ob-jectives of the RTC, Clark County, area residents,businesses, landowners, and other parties.

New transit and revitalization strategies are work-ing in other communities. Those strategies war-rant careful attention and involvement from busi-ness, university, and civic leaders. These leadersshould begin visiting communities that have im-plemented these creative strategies. The commu-nity must remember the desired outcome is to re-vitalize the parkway corridor.

Neighborhood PolicingThe panel recommends that four to five neighbor-hood sector and action plans be undertaken. Theseplans are key to the revitalization of the corridor’sneighborhoods.

Neighborhood policing is a well-known techniquefor implementing such action plans. The strategyused in Peoria, Illinois, in 2004 was to create smalldistricts with one officer in each of eight districts,with each district covering 16 square blocks. Offi-cers are required to stay in their districts, andshift commanders are not allowed to divert themfrom the districts. Officers have flexible hours andthe authority to change their shift hours to re-spond to high-crime periods of the day. Some com-munities use incentives to increase policing bysupplying free housing or subsidized apartmentsfor officers in their community policing districts.

The panel recommends the establishment of eightto ten pilot neighborhood policing locations withinthe parkway corridor. A budget will need to becreated to implement the plan within the next fis-cal year. This new plan would be a positive andbold initiative toward improving perceptions ofthe area.

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Overcrowding, crime, health violations, and hous-ing decay are occurring within the MarylandParkway corridor. This decline has a negative ef-fect on the neighborhoods and causes uncertaintyand fear for residents and investors. New andcomprehensive programs to overcome these chal-lenges are needed, and effective techniques areavailable from other cities and counties.

A comprehensive community policing program re-quires a coordinated approach that includes thefollowing elements:

• Comprehensive code enforcement;

• Neighborhood policing, dealing with drugs andstreet crime;

• Neighborhood revitalization plans;

• Citizen involvement and business leadershipsteering committee;

• County and city support;

• Involvement of senior business leaders;

• A high level of leadership, involvement, andmoney; and

• A finance plan.

This program will add incremental costs to theMetropolitan Police Department budget; however,the overall benefits to the community’s quality oflife, increased investment, and building values willbe dramatic. Such programs operate in manycities and counties. Many “best practice” modelsexist throughout the United States. The panelrecommends that this program be implementedimmediately.

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The overarching design goal is to create amore up-to-date urban character for thestudy area by mixing uses and improvingthe transportation network.

Regional Setting

The UNLV campus and its surrounding neighbor-hood are situated in the center of the Las Vegasmetropolitan region between important valleycrossroads. In this central area, Tropicana Ave-nue, Flamingo Road, and Sahara Avenue are theonly roads that connect the east and west sides of the valley and have interchanges with I-15.North-south movement is provided regionallyby I-15, Paradise Road, and Eastern Avenue, andlocally by Maryland Parkway. Large land reser-vations for the airport, casinos on the Strip, theUNLV campus, and other uses interrupt the con-tinuity of arterials and intermediate streets.Remaining arterials therefore function as valleyhighways. This is borne out by their high volumes(up to 60,000 vehicles daily on Tropicana Ave-nue, for example), and higher posted speed limits(45 miles per hour).

Maryland Parkway was traditionally the heart ofthe valley, providing retail and medical servicesto surrounding residential neighborhoods. Ex-tending what would be 12th Street from down-town, the street was once lined with trees thatformed a canopy over much of the street. Wherethe street extended south of Sahara Avenue, itpreviously had a landscaped median. This medianwas removed when the street was last rebuilt, inthe early 1990s, owing to its condition and to busi-ness requests for more left-turn opportunitiesfrom the parkway.

Currently, Maryland Parkway is a five-mile arter-ial street linking the downtown to the airportarea. It tends to be used as a connector betweenmajor east-west streets rather than as a through

corridor, and it continues to provide access to shop-ping, the hospital, the university, and nearby resi-dences. Its six lanes carry from 30,000 to 40,000vehicles per day, with a posted speed limit of 30miles per hour in most sections. The parkway isalso a productive transit street, with one of thearea’s highest numbers of riders per hour. Ridersare served by RTC’s route 109, which operatesevery 12 to 15 minutes throughout most of the day.

Parkway capacity is at a premium because of twomajor factors: long signal cycles at intersectingarterials (typically operating on three-minute cy-cles that are timed to favor the higher-volumeeast-west streets) and numerous driveways thatcreate many turns on and off of the street, reduc-ing the parkway’s capacity and slowing transit.While existing traffic counts are well within thecapacity of a six-lane street, the long red-signalphases for north-south traffic limit throughputand cause lengthy queues. This is a consequence of the one-mile spacing and limited intermediatestreet continuity.

No obvious alternative routes exist to offset thesecapacity limits on the parkway. A recently planneddemonstration of reducing lanes on the parkwaybetween Tropicana Avenue and Flamingo Roadwas abandoned for lack of political support. Sup-port was lacking because there are no acceptablealternative routes and because of the concern tomaintain capacity in this area.

University District Transportation Needs

A major objective for redevelopment at the Har-mon Gateway is to create a more inviting pedes-trian environment that encourages people to walkalong the parkway and to cross it. This entails cre-ating a more urban street, one that clearly distin-guishes this area as a special district to be enjoyedand respected. Both functional and aesthetic im-provements must occur to achieve that aim.

Planning and Design

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The panel recommends several strategies to sup-port the redevelopment objectives within the one-mile section between Tropicana Avenue andFlamingo Road.

A Real ParkwayThe first strategy is to make the parkway morecompatible with campus and urban developmentwhile maintaining capacity. In short, make theparkway live up to its name. Steps to do this in-clude the following:

• Narrowing traffic lanes by one to two feet each.Current curb lanes can be reduced from 14 feetto 12 feet wide, and travel lanes can be reducedfrom 11 to ten feet wide. This modest narrowingwill further support the speed limit (30 milesper hour) because most drivers will tend to feelless comfortable driving faster in narrowerlanes. Narrowing also reduces the crossing dis-tance for pedestrians.

• Adding a landscaped median with left-turn pock-ets at key intersections. A median provides asignificant refuge for pedestrians crossing the

street. It also reduces traffic conflicts by limit-ing mid-block left turns. It also offers an impor-tant means of enhancing the street’s appearanceand creating a new identity for the area.

• Prominently mark crosswalks. Build on therecent “Danish crossings” experience with avariety of techniques to increase the visibilityof crosswalks for drivers. Additional techniquesthat can be considered include ladder-stylestriping, in-ground lights (essentially flush-mounted runway lights) activated by a pushbutton, and a change of paving material—forfunctional and aesthetic benefit.

• Eliminate curb cuts on the parkway adjacent tothe campus, on both the east and west sides ofthe street. This improves pedestrian safety onsidewalks along the street and maintains streetcapacity.

Redirected Campus TrafficAnother strategy is to redirect vehicular entriesto the UNLV campus in order to reduce campustraffic on this section of the parkway. Recent

Maryland Parkway linksdowntown Las Vegas tothe airport area (top), asit passes through the eastside of UNLV; intersectionof Harmon Avenue andMaryland Parkway. Usingtraffic calming techniquesand narrowing trafficlanes (above) will create asafer environment forpedestrians while main-taining capacity.

11' 12' 12'10' 11'10' 10' 10'14'Median/Turning

Lane

100' Right-of-Way

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creo


traffic counts show that UNLV currently con-tributes 25 percent to 30 percent of traffic on theparkway along the east side of campus. Much ofthis traffic could be redirected to improved entrieson Flamingo Road, Tropicana Avenue, and Swen-son Road to reach parking areas. This would re-duce volume on the parkway and reduce conflictsbetween campus vehicles and pedestrians.

Curbside TransitAnother strategy is to maintain curbside transitaccess and consider additional services:

• The panel recognizes RTC’s dilemma in continu-ing to provide reliable schedules on the park-way in the face of increasing signal delays andconflicts with driveway traffic. However, recentsuggestions to consider dedicated lanes for aBRT operation appear to face the same problemthat the suggested lane-reduction demonstra-tion project raised: eliminating general trafficlanes. Furthermore, center-running BRT lanesraise tricky operational questions about manag-ing left turns across bus lanes. Center lanesplace passenger platforms in the middle of thestreet and force all riders to cross some portionof the street to get on or off the bus. In short,from the passengers’ perspective, curbside ser-vice would be far more comfortable and conve-nient. Current and anticipated frequencies ofservice (every 10 minutes) can be accommo-dated with curbside operations, although suchoperations increase the need to manage accessbetter along the parkway.

• Consider initiating additional services in thecorridor such as a limited-stop express serviceto supplement the existing bus route. For ex-ample, an express service would stop only onceper mile (rather than three to four times permile), providing faster travel. Los Angeles hasboosted ridership by operating a similar servicewith its Metro Rapid buses on a mile-spaced ar-terial network. Such service improvements canbe implemented at a modest cost, comparedwith that of constructing dedicated lanes.

• Improved shelters and waiting areas should beprovided at bus stops for greater passengercomfort and stronger transit identity. However,more sophisticated facilities increase mainte-

nance needs, so a firm commitment must bemade at the outset to budget for and carry outthis maintenance.

• Consider installation of prepay fare machinesfor the parkway corridor, especially at major re-tail, employment, and activity centers.

Bicycle RoutesAnother strategy is to develop bicycle routes onappropriate streets and routes to increase acces-sibility to the campus and surrounding neighbor-hoods. Routes on Harmon Avenue and otherstreets between the mile-spaced arterials shouldbe considered. Traffic on major arterials such asFlamingo Road, Tropicana Avenue, and the park-way is simply too heavy to be compatible with abicycle route. Although bicycle trips may be asmall part of travel demand, they make importantcontributions to personal health, energy and pollu-tion reduction, and quality of life.

The following urban planning principles for theHarmon Gateway district should also be included:

• Set buildings at the street’s edge.

• Stack building functions vertically, with retail atthe base and office, hotel, and residential usesabove.

• Create vistas that terminate with interestingbuildings.

• Develop intimate streets to serve commercialand residential functions.

• Accommodate parking for employees and over-night guests in parking structures, but providemore convenient short-term parking for shop-pers and visitors on the street.

Campus Development

Given its planned enrollment growth, its setting ina fast-growing metropolitan area, and the increas-ing traffic loads on adjacent streets, UNLV shouldexpand its Master Plan to address a number of de-sign issues and to initiate a comprehensive trans-portation development plan and demand manage-ment strategy. Several design issues should beaddressed in ongoing master planning:

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• Establishing architectural character standardsto create a character for UNLV buildings;

• Developing landscape standards to guide newcampus development;

• Setting graphic and wayfinding standards toserve students, staff, and faculty, as well as visi-tors who are less familiar with campus locationsand building names;

• Defining the campus perimeter and its charac-ter to provide a readily recognizable campusfrom all sides; and

• Identifying campus portals to provide symbolicand functional entries to the university (Har-mon Gateway, Thomas and Mack entrance, andthe vehicular entries from Tropicana Avenueand Flamingo Road).

Universities have become leaders and innovatorsin managing their transportation demands to min-imize the high costs of building and operatingparking garages; to provide their students, staff,and faculty with more transportation choices; andto reduce their traffic impact on adjacent neigh-borhoods while increasing campus development.

The transportation portion of the campus MasterPlan should reflect and support the university’sacademic mission, physical organization, and fiscalobjectives. Opportunities that may merit investi-gation include the following:

• Increasing access to the west side of campusfrom Swenson Road and Harmon Avenue.

• Creating an internal ring road to link key areasof campus. Partially in place now, an enhancedroute could aid loop shuttles moving people be-tween perimeter parking and campus buildings.

• Evaluating appropriate walking distances be-tween parking and destinations. A strongercampus atmosphere could be created if fewerlots were located adjacent to buildings.

• Creating a transit center on the campus. Thisdepends on many factors, including the fre-quency of service, the number of routes serving

the campus, and the number of routes originat-ing and terminating at the campus. Although acombined transit center and garage locatedsoutheast of the Thomas and Mack Center isone possibility, additional central locationsshould be considered that could benefit moreareas of campus.

The university should consider a variety of de-mand management strategies:

• Discounted transit passes that make transit usecost less than parking (a monthly transit passcurrently costs $40, while monthly parking costs$18 for staff and faculty and $9 for students);

• Incentives for ridesharing and assistance informing carpools and vanpools;

• Guaranteed rides home in case of emergency;

• Parking rates that can be used to reduce park-ing demand and to pay for new facilities; and

• Parking management actions to accommodatespecial events at the Thomas and Mack Centeralong with daily campus needs.

Examples of symbolicentrances to UNLV: atThomas and Mack Center(left); and at FlamingoRoad and Swenson Street(bottom left).

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Flamingo Road

Xanthippe Lane

Cottage Grove

Avenue

UNLV Campus

Vehicular Gateway

Continuous Flow, Grade-Separated Intersections

Key:

Para

dise

Roa

d

Swenson Street

Sout

h M

aryl

and

Park

way

Tropicana Avenue

Potential transportationdemand managementstrategies.

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Long-Range Capacity Problems

Redevelopment in the parkway corridor and ex-pansion at UNLV will face serious challenges iftraffic congestion continues to grow. The con-straints are rigid: major streets already occupyall available rights-of-way; acquiring rights-of-way to widen or extend streets is prohibitivelyexpensive because of the development market inLas Vegas; and operational techniques such asmultiple turn lanes have reached a practical limit.UNLV could take a leading role in sponsoring re-search to identify methods to accommodate futuretravel demand on a limited street network. A vari-ety of actions could be available to the region, in-cluding supporting more employee commutingoptions and implementing high-capacity transitservice to the airport. However, it is clear thattraffic must keep moving for Las Vegas to thrive.Bold ideas and actions will be required to makesignificant improvements.

One such idea, and it is intended only to illustratethe boldness required, is to create dramaticallydifferent intersections on the parkway where itcrosses major arterials. The idea would be toroute east-west through traffic through an under-pass, keeping that traffic out of the intersection,while providing a continuous flow intersection atthe surface for north-south traffic and all turns byusing a multilane modern roundabout. This ap-proach acknowledges that the big east-weststreets are really highways and should be treatedas such. But the parkway provides lower speeds

and more local access, so its traffic should be sepa-rated where possible from conflicts with highwaytraffic. Continuous flow, grade-separated intersec-tions would increase intersection capacity. This inturn would reduce delay and increase capacity onthe parkway and on the east-west arterials. In-creases in capacity of 20 percent to 30 percentmay be possible for both east-west highway trafficand north-south traffic. The higher range of capac-ity may be sufficient to require only two lanes ineach direction on the parkway. If so, space wouldautomatically be created to support dedicatedtransit.

Although construction of such projects would dis-rupt traffic for many months, it would be helpfulto judge their costs against the cost to acquire ad-ditional rights-of-way, in order to determine whichactions provide the most new capacity for themoney. It is also worth comparing the cost of bold,new ideas with the cost of not acting to addresstraffic congestion.

An example of continuousflow, grade-separatedintersections.

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Boys and Girls Clubs of Las Vegas, the UNLVCatholic Newman Center, and the Latter DaySaints Institute. The varied nature of these com-munities demands that the development and phas-ing of the initiative be communicated in ways thatare clear, transparent, and easily accessible.

The Maryland Parkway Redevelopment Planseems to have been developed with an inconsis-tent communication plan. The university’s initia-tive, announced by former UNLV president CarolHarter in 2004, has progressed into a rollout pro-cess that seems to have had limited broadcast suc-cess. Website rollout, official university announce-ments, community meetings, and collaborationswith public/private entities are still works inprogress. Internal communications among univer-sity leaders and the organization of a senior plan-ning team involving administrative and academicdepartments and planning, design, communica-tions, public affairs, finance, marketing, studentlife departments, and others have not yet con-cretized to a point where there appears to besignificant internal buy-in to the initiative.

As a first step to beginning a stronger communi-cations process, the panel recommends that asenior project planning team be created and au-thorized to drive the initiative on behalf of theuniversity. This planning team, under the auspicesof the Office of the President, should include rep-resentatives from all pertinent administrativeand academic departments. Examples include theoffices of the university president, the executivevice president, the provost, and the vice presi-dents for administration, planning, advancement,finance and business, and student life; as well asthe offices of facilities and planning, public safety,community relations, and marketing.

This planning team, formerly referred to as theOverview Committee, should be convened to dis-cuss high-level issues attendant on the develop-ment of the plan. Each department should coordi-

The panel believes that the Midtown UNLVleadership should be active and visible,using its influence to persuade both theprivate and public sectors to cooperate in

creating and implementing a common plan ofdevelopment.

Communications

In order for the parkway redevelopment initiativeto proceed successfully, a sound communicationsstrategy must be adopted quickly. It must involveevery significant stakeholder who will be affectedby changes and recommendations put forth. Thisstrategy must be one that consistently speaks tothe mission of the initiative with clarity, consis-tency, and substance.

The redevelopment plan, as envisioned, affectsseveral disparate stakeholders. They essentiallyfall in two distinct groups; an internal communitycomprising faculty, administrators, and students,and an external community comprising adjacentneighbors, business owners, and others whosedaily routines are fairly closely intertwined withthe fabric of UNLV, the public sector, the univer-sity’s Community Advisory Committee, and theprivate sector.

The Community Advisory Committee consists ofrepresentatives from a large number of entities:UNLV Planning and Construction, the ParadiseTown Board, UNLV Community Relations andMarketing, the Nevada State Assembly, ClarkCounty Comprehensive Planning, the Departmentof Aviation, the School District Department ofPlanning and Engineering, the ComprehensivePlan Steering Committee, Las Vegas Planningand Development, UNLV Development, the Cityof Henderson Community Development, the RTC,the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, the NevadaChamber of Commerce, the Nevada DevelopmentAuthority, the UNLV Alumni Association, the

Implementation

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nate its responsibilities relevant to the project ini-tiative and should be led by a newly created vicepresident specifically tasked and authorized tomove the initiative forward on behalf of the officeof the president.

Project communications should re-engage allmembers of the university community. Residentsshould be made aware of the developments of theinitiative through blast e-mails and other broad-cast announcements to drive stakeholders to theproject website. In order to provide a clear andsubstantive view of project status, the projectwebsite should be recast as the primary projectcommunications tool, updated, and maintained.Combining the website with blast e-mails andtext messages and physical notifications, UNLVshould strive to keep its neighbors informed aboutthe latest project developments.

Community open houses, featuring representa-tives of the senior planning team, should be orga-nized from time to time with students and othermembers of the community to provide a thoroughunderstanding of all elements of the project. Theseopen houses should be structured with component“kiosks” that highlight different aspects of theproject. Each station should be staffed by appro-priate members of the project team. For exam-ple, a model of the project could be staffed by theuniversity architect, who could explain the envi-sioned plan from a very high level. Transportationkiosks could be staffed by university planners, andthe government process kiosk by representativesfrom the government relations office. These openhouses should be held in areas of campus that areused frequently by a large segment of the studentpopulation, such as the Student Union.

In addition to these internal open houses, UNLVshould consider hosting occasional open housesfor areawide stakeholders—residents, commu-nity and civic organizations, construction unions,elected officials, the business community, andother key parties. These open houses could havethe same structure as the internal ones; how-ever, the real issue at these is to communicate themain thrust of the project effectively to a broadrange of stakeholders in ways that are clear andtransparent.

The panel further recommends that UNLV un-dertake a campuswide student survey to betterunderstand the views, desires, and needs of thestudent population. The vision of transformingthe UNLV campus from a commuter environmentto one of 18-hour-a-day vibrancy is a proper andfitting one. Having a current sense of the stu-dents’ perspectives would aid the developmentof that high-level vision by more accurately fittingit to current trends affecting both full- and part-time students.

The panel also believes that the following recom-mendations should be explored:

• Reconvening the Community Advisory Com-mittee and including local area residents;

• Involving alumni (as for any big university un-dertaking, this is vital to gaining developmentsupport); and

• Enhancing the curriculum:

• UNLV enjoys a reputation as one of the topuniversities in the Southwest. With its focuson engineering, architecture, hotel adminis-tration, and business programs and its loca-tion near the Las Vegas Strip, UNLV pro-vides students with access to employmentand training opportunities in some of themost robust areas of business.

• UNLV’s construction management curricu-lum should be enhanced to provide a focuson the research aspects of the field in a waythat could better leverage the university’sproximity to some of the most complex andforward-thinking construction techniques inthe industry.

Leadership

UNLV is blessed to have leadership that is dedi-cated to excellence and the progress of higher ed-ucation. Its large, intelligent, and diverse studentbody reflects not only the best and brightest ofyoung people in the United States, but the bestand the brightest from around the globe. To in-crease its competitive edge, the university mustembark on a project that will help position it phys-ically as more attractive for faculty, students, and

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the local community. It is incumbent on the uni-versity to see itself as a physical anchor betweenits internal community and the community that ithas been part of for more than half a century.

The panel recommends creating a vice presiden-tial position for a professional seasoned in real es-tate development, to be responsible for managingthe overall development of the initiative. This per-son would report to the office of the president andbe authorized to manage the overall developmentof the project. He or she would convene and chairthe oversight committee, manage the university’srelationship with governmental and private sectorentities, and oversee the physical development ofthe university’s efforts on the Harmon Gateway,the university district, the Campus Plan, and theMaryland Parkway corridor. He or she would bethe university’s go-to person for all these projectsand would represent the university with all exter-nal partners.

The panel thinks that it is important to act imme-diately and not wait for the transition to be com-plete. Although UNLV currently enjoys the lead-ership of a new administration, it is important notto lose traction in the efforts already put forth onthis project. Recommendations have already beengiven regarding re-engaging the website andrestarting a robust public process. It is also impor-tant to use one of the strongest assets the institu-tion possesses, its human capital. While the insti-tution transitions to a new administrative andacademic structure, it should use those membersof its team who possess the expertise, history, andknowledge to move the process forward. Althoughit may makes sense from an internal viewpoint tostop, think, and restart this project when all ele-ments are in place, the lull while all this happenscould be viewed skeptically by external partiesnot familiar with the workings of the university.

Organization of Public/Private

Redevelopment Efforts

Implementing the recommendations of this studywill require public/private partnerships, which isthe norm for this type of redevelopment effort.The leadership shown thus far by the private andpublic sector must continue. The revitalization

project recommended by the panel will requirethe involvement and commitment of a number ofother public and nonprofit agencies, organizations,and business interests, as well as community andneighborhood interests and institutions, such asClark County, the RTC, Maryland Parkway busi-ness owners, and area residents.

The new UNLV vice president will need to buildrelationships with many outside organizations,including Clark County (elected and appointedofficials), the RTC, the Las Vegas Chamber ofCommerce, area churches, and neighborhood or-ganizations and business owners along MarylandParkway. The first step in this process should bethe creation of a task force composed of represen-tatives of these entities. It is very important thatthe county commissioner from this district and thecounty manager be represented. This task forceshould be kept small, no more than ten or 12 peo-ple, but representative. The university shouldprovide organizational support for it. The job ofthis task force will include several tasks:

• Being champions of the Harmon Gateway, uni-versity district, and Maryland Parkway plans;

• Providing a forum for all stakeholders to be “atthe table” and have input into the plan and mar-ket study for the Harmon Gateway;

• Providing input and direction to the develop-ment of these plans;

• Developing into the Maryland Parkway Rede-velopment Corporation within 24 months;

• Organizing a Maryland Parkway business own-ers association as a subsidiary of the MarylandParkway Redevelopment Corporation; and

• Developing a plan and support for a businessimprovement district (BID) and a special as-sessment district (discussed below).

The Redevelopment Corporation is needed to pro-vide a long-term public/private champion and sup-port for the project and to institutionalize the re-lationships between the organizations that arenecessary to carry out this initiative. At this pointit is not clear whether this corporation would be-come an active nonprofit real estate developer

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along the parkway. However, its board shouldhave oversight of and review all developmentplans along the parkway. This will help assureClark County staff and elected officials that theproject has been vetted by the stakeholders andcomplies with the redevelopment vision. This cor-poration can also help market and attract new de-velopers and investment to the Maryland Park-way corridor, particularly housing investment.

Since the board must be kept small, the Redevel-opment Corporation should have a subsidiarybusiness owners association to engage and involvethe business owners along Maryland Parkway.This association would help in creating the brand,joint marketing of the parkway corridor, and rais-ing issues to improve the business climate alongthe corridor. It would also provide a voice for busi-nesses along the parkway that is separate fromneighborhood concerns.

As success and redevelopment extends north alongMaryland Parkway, representatives of the city ofLas Vegas should be incorporated into these orga-nizational structures.

Financing for Public/Private

Partnerships

This section addresses only three parts of the pro-posed plan: the Harmon Gateway, the universitydistrict, and Maryland Parkway. Although somerecommendations may apply to the campus plan,the panel believes that most of that plan can andshould be financed through traditional universityfunding sources such as the UNLV Foundationand the state government.

The current Midtown UNLV plan included verylimited information on how it would be funded.From the interviews, the panel members under-stand that most of the private redevelopmentwould have been funded through private debt andcapital that may be supported by the universitycommitting to long-term leases of space. Althoughthis is an appropriate funding arrangement, it doesnot address the broader plan raised here. Thatplan requires funding several additional elements:

• Streetscape improvements in the universitydistrict;

• Streetscape improvements to Maryland Parkway;

• Improvements to the neighborhoods aroundMaryland Parkway;

• Service improvements needed to improve andmaintain the university district and MarylandParkway;

• Assistance to existing businesses along Mary-land Parkway to make improvements to theirproperties; and

• Affordable workforce housing.

A BID is a very basic first step in funding rede-velopment of the university district and MarylandParkway. The panel suggests that the first phaseof this district include the parkway from Boule-vard Mall to Tropicana Avenue. As the redevelop-ment moves along the parkway and success isshown, this district can be expanded as needed.This BID would be funded by an increase in theproperty tax rates (property tax millage rates) oncommercial property; in addition, UNLV shouldmake a significant contribution.

In studying the feasibility and implementing thisBID, it will be important for the task force toclearly define quantifiable goals and uses forthese funds in order to gain the support of prop-erty owners for the extra assessment. Althoughthis effort should be driven by input from prop-erty owners, the panel suggests the following toppriorities for these funds:

• Improving public safety along the corridor;

• Improving cleanliness along the corridor; and

• Funding administrative support for the Rede-velopment Corporation.

The significant capital improvements to the uni-versity district and Maryland Parkway will re-quire a mixture of public and private sector funds.As noted above, the university can play a majorrole in this redevelopment by entering into long-term leases with the private sector developer foroffice, theater, or residential space that would bedeveloped as part of the plan for the HarmonGateway and the university district. This wouldprovide the developer with a creditworthy lease

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that it can use to secure private debt and equityfinancing for the project.

The public infrastructure improvements to Mary-land Parkway will require additional public funds.Some portion of these funds can be provided by aspecial assessment district, as is typically donethroughout Clark County. Again, it is very impor-tant that UNLV contribute a proportional shareto the special assessment district to provide theinfrastructure improvements related to the uni-versity district.

Tax increment financing based on private invest-ment in the university district is another compo-nent of the financing for the public infrastructure.It involves establishing a geographic district inwhich the new property taxes generated by thenew private investment are used to support thedebt-service payments on bonds that fund thepublic infrastructure improvements. It is beyondthe scope of this study to estimate the amount offunds that could be raised by tax increment fi-nancing, but they should be estimated by the task

Figure 2UNLV Schedule of Action Steps

Phase I Action Completion Date

Hire senior executive vice president for capital project development Immediate (next 6 months)

Share results of Advisory Panel study with key stakeholders

Develop marketing and communication process

Earmark funds for property acquisition

Phase II Action Completion Date

Establish task force Short-term (6 to 24 months)

Conduct market study for Harmon Gateway planning area

Develop plan for Harmon Gateway planning area

Create position of university architect

Adopt new master plan for main UNLV campus in light of Advisory Services panel recommendations

Enter into agreements with private developer

Implement neighborhood policing in adjacent neighborhoods

Clarke County implements neighborhood revitalization program in adjacent neighborhoods

Task force establishes marketing and communication plan

Develop transportation management plan with RTC for UNLV and Maryland Parkway

Phase III Action Completion Date

Implement Harmon Gateway redevelopment Mid-term (2 to 5 years)

Develop university district planning area

Morph task force into a development corporation

Establish BID, special assessment district, and merchant association

Phase IV Action Completion Date

Complete implementation of university district planning area Long-term (5 to 10 years)

Extend streetscape improvements north on Maryland Parkway

Extend BID, special assessment district north on Mayland Parkway to Sahara Avenue

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force after more detailed work on planned privateinvestment and the schedule for that investmentis done.

This redevelopment will be an incremental pro-cess that will take many years. During that timeexisting businesses will need assistance to im-prove their facilities in order to make the corridormore attractive for shoppers, pedestrians, andresidents. Currently, Clark County provides pub-lic assistance only for such improvements in areasthat qualify as “redevelopment districts” underNevada law. The county must find the resourcesto provide similar assistance to businesses outsideredevelopment districts—to support redevelop-ment efforts similar to those planned for the uni-versity district and Maryland Parkway. This isone reason that Clark County must be engaged inthis process and represented on the task force andRedevelopment Corporation.

This revitalization process must also address theadjacent neighborhoods, to make them vital andsustainable. Doing so will require investment inrenovating existing housing, building new afford-able and workforce housing, providing public in-frastructure, and providing public services fromClark County. This points again to the importanceof early and high-level involvement of ClarkCounty officials in the process.

An example of how a corridor redevelopment proj-ect of this magnitude can work over a 15-year pe-riod is Wilkerson Boulevard in Charlotte, NorthCarolina. Beginning in 1990, the city began invest-ing in infrastructure improvements on a three-mile stretch of a six-lane U.S. highway in Charlotte.

In the late 1990s, the city also began housing andinfrastructure improvements in adjacent neigh-borhoods. By 2006, the city had invested $30 mil-lion in the corridor and adjacent neighborhoods on the following projects:

• Corridor infrastructure improvements (side-walks, pedestrian lighting, and planted medians);

• Development of a 40-acre business park;

• Curb, gutter, sidewalk, and stormwater im-provements in the neighborhood;

• A 150-officer police district station; and

• A 400-unit mixed-income housing community.

This project has resulted in private sector invest-ment of $100 million, including a retail center an-chored by a 200,000-square-foot Super Wal-Martwith a Magic Johnson–branded Starbucks. An ad-ditional $50 million of private investment is nowplanned for the corridor. In addition, the adjacentneighborhoods have gone from “threatened” to“stable” in the city’s Neighborhood Quality of LifeIndex. Other models of similar types of redevelop-ment processes in university districts can be seenat the University of Colorado and the Universityof California at Merced.

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comprehensive redevelopment plan. If left to mul-tiple well-intentioned, but fragmented efforts, it islikely that any new development will take on thesame fragmented character. The panel believesthat a development entity such as that describedin this report can avoid that fate and build a trulydynamic urban community. The panel witnessed aremarkable “can do” spirit among the many lead-ers of the community with whom they met. Withthat attitude, plus a generous amount of trust andcooperation, the future of Midtown UNLV isbright.

The Midtown UNLV project will be challeng-ing and rewarding, and the panel hopes thatthis report will provide input into the mak-ing of a vibrant and thriving mixed-use de-

velopment for the university and surroundingcommunities. The panel believes that UNLV andthe Vista Group have an incredible opportunity—one that similar institutions would envy. As a liv-ing laboratory situated in the middle of one of themost dynamic places on earth, Midtown UNLVcan provide a model for new development region-wide and set a new standard for development.

Vital to success will be the ability of the universityand the business and civic organizations commit-ted to building a better environment at MarylandParkway to collectively develop and implement a

Conclusion

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Michael D. Beyard

Washington, D.C.

Beyard is an urban planner and economist withmore than 20 years of experience in real estatedevelopment, land use planning, and economicdevelopment. His experience in both the UnitedStates and Europe is focused on commercialand retail development, shopping centers, e-commerce, location-based entertainment, anddowntown revitalization.

At the Urban Land Institute, Beyard is seniorresident fellow for retail and entertainment de-velopment. He is the author and project directorof numerous books, including Developing Urban

Entertainment Centers, Shopping Center Devel-

opment Handbook, the Dollars & Cents of Shop-

ping Centers series, Value by Design, Developing

Power Centers, Downtown Development Hand-

book, The Retailing Revolution, Ten Principles

for Reinventing Suburban Strips, and the Busi-

ness and Industrial Park Development Hand-

book. He created and directs ULI’s InternationalConference on Urban Entertainment Develop-ment and its technology and retail real estateforum. He also created ULI on the Future, ULI’sannual publication devoted to emerging land useand development trends and issues, and theEntertainment Zone.

In his role as senior resident fellow, Beyard isalso a featured speaker in the United States, Eu-rope, and South America on retail, entertainment,and downtown development issues. He is widelyquoted in national and international media includ-ing The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal,CNN, CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, theWashington Post, and the Chicago Tribune, aswell as American and European planning and realestate journals.

John M. Walsh III

Panel Chair

Carrollton, Texas

Walsh is the president and founder of TIG RealEstate Services. TIG has developed more thantwo million square feet on behalf of its institu-tional clients. Before starting TIG, Walsh spent17 years with Trammell Crow Company in variousleasing, development, and senior managementroles. During his tenure as development partnerfor the northwest Dallas market, he developed al-most five million square feet and leased more thaneight million square feet of office, industrial, andservice center space. A Dallas native, Walsh hasserved as chairman, director, or trustee of variousbusiness and charitable organizations includingthe Valwood Improvement Authority and theCarrollton Zoning Ordinance Board. He has alsoserved on working committees and boards for thecities of Carrollton, University Park, and FramersBranch and for the Highland Park IndependentSchool District.

Walsh is a leader and active participant in theUrban Land Institute. He has served on numer-ous ULI Advisory Services panels including thosein Hengelo, The Netherlands; St. Joseph, Mis-souri; Richmond, Virginia; and Portsmouth, Vir-ginia. He has participated as a speaker for ULI atboth the national and local levels. Walsh has actedas a Product Council chair at ULI and currentlypresides as chair of the North Texas DistrictCouncil of ULI.

Walsh is a member of the Texas State Bar, with alaw degree from Texas Tech University School ofLaw. He served for ten years as an adjunct profes-sor of business law at Dallas Community Collegeand the University of Texas at Arlington. Heearned his undergraduate degree from the Uni-versity of Texas, Arlington.

About the Panel

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Before his current position, Beyard was vice pres-ident of strategic development for ULI and re-sponsible for the Institute’s research, data collec-tion, books, and conferences in the commercialdevelopment field as well as its new strategic ini-tiatives. He created ULI’s program in the retailentertainment field including international confer-ences, books, Urban Land magazine supplements,and strategic partnerships with other organiza-tions. In addition, he is the past director of ULI’sadvisory work in Central Europe under the aus-pices of the U.S. Agency for International Devel-opment, and the coordinator of program activitiesfor ULI–Europe.

Before coming to ULI, Beyard was a senior con-sultant in urban planning and real estate develop-ment. He spent ten years at Booz Allen Hamilton,Planning Research Corporation, and GladstoneAssociates, advising both public and private cli-ents on market analysis, feasibility, and develop-ment planning. Beyard has been honored withmembership in Lambda Alpha, the InternationalLand Economics Honorary Society, and was anappointed member of the Mayor’s InteractiveDowntown Task Force in Washington, D.C.

Beyard holds a bachelor’s degree in internationaleconomics with honors from Rutgers College anda master’s degree in urban planning and develop-ment from Cornell University, where he waselected to Phi Kappa Phi.

Marta Borsanyi

Newport Beach, California

Borsanyi is a founder of The Concord Group, basedin Newport Beach, California, a real estate advi-sory firm that provides vital strategic advice forland use issues and development. She has exper-tise in market, economic, and financial analyses as-sociated with existing properties as well as devel-opmental opportunities. Borsanyi has extensive

experience in the evaluation of both residentialand nonresidential properties. She has partici-pated in numerous projects where the objectivehas been to identify the highest and best mix ofuses for very large properties. Such an approachto value maximization has had broad appeal to thepublic entities interested in identifying specificdevelopment scenarios, as well as to her devel-oper clients.

Focusing on redevelopment of urban cores andfirst-generation suburbs, Borsanyi has been ac-tively involved with a variety of assignments, in-cluding some associated with gaming venues. Suchwork has taken her across the country from Rich-mond, Virginia, to Saint Louis, Missouri, to SantaAna, California.

Previously, Borsanyi was head of marketing ser-vices at the Mission Viejo Company. Her responsi-bilities included strategic planning, feasibility andacquisition studies, economic and financial analy-ses, consumer and advertising research, new prod-uct development, and merchandising of ongoing aswell as new program offerings.

Borsanyi has also held positions on the faculty ofthe Graduate School of Management at the Uni-versity of California, Irvine, specializing in com-puterized modeling and scenario analysis. Whileteaching consultative processes, administrativeproblem solving, and decision making, she wasinvolved with the management of consulting en-gagements for a broad range of clients, includ-ing corporations, public agencies, and nonprofitorganizations.

Borsanyi is part of the leadership group at theUrban Land Institute and a charter member ofthe Advisory Board to the Center for EconomicResearch and Quarterly Economic Forecasts atChapman University. She is also a member of theCalifornia Building Industry Foundation, an en-tity that provides scholarship awards to college

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students in degree programs related to land useand real estate.

Borsanyi holds an undergraduate degree in eco-nomics from the University of Budapest and amaster’s degree in business administration fromthe University of California, Irvine.

Bern Ewert

Charlottesville, Virginia

Ewert is president of Ewert & Company, a devel-opment consulting firm. He has been a county ex-ecutive, an interim city manager in Texas and Illi-nois, and city manager of Roanoke, Virginia. Hespent more than three years working with theCzech Republic to establish a national system ofeconomic development—the first in the formerEastern bloc.

As county executive in Prince William County,Virginia, he led the effort to introduce sustainabledevelopment and protect half the county fromsprawl development. He also provided leadershipon new approaches in urban planning, waterfrontdevelopment, and community design. As city man-ager for Roanoke, he was responsible for the re-birth of the downtown, with the design and con-struction of the Market Square complex. Asassistant city manager in Charlottesville, he wasresponsible for the development of one of the fewsuccessful open-air downtown malls in the coun-try. Ewert is considered an expert in governmentoperations, municipal finance, and city and countydevelopment policy, as well as the application ofurban design and place making in the public realm.

Ewert received his bachelor’s degree from theUniversity of Kansas, with a double major in his-tory and international relations, and undertookgraduate work at the University of Missouri atKansas City.

Tom Flynn

Charlotte, North Carolina

Flynn is the director of economic development forthe city of Charlotte, North Carolina. He is respon-sible for the city’s efforts in small business devel-opment, business retention and expansion, rede-velopment, and workforce development. He hasbeen responsible for many economic developmentprojects that have pushed Charlotte to the toprung of cities in terms of economic growth, includ-ing the Westin Charlotte, NASCAR Office Tower,and Mid-Town Square Redevelopment. Flynn hasalso been a leader in developing many of Char-lotte’s economic development programs, includingBusiness Retention and Growth, the BusinessCorridor Strategic Plan, the BizHub Center forSmall Business, and the city’s Economic Develop-ment Strategic Framework.

Flynn has worked for the city since 1980 in vari-ous positions, including budget analyst, assistantto the city manager, assistant to the mayor, andeconomic development officer. He is active withthe International Economic Development Counciland teaches its course on land development andredevelopment. He also serves on the board of theNational Civic League and as a juror for the All-America City Award.

John Orfield

Dallas, Texas

A graduate of Columbia University with a masterof science degree in architecture and building de-sign, Orfield is both product and proponent of thecollaborative style that is exemplified at BOKAPowell. Influenced professionally by both his the-atrical mother and his engineering father, he en-joys exploring the kinship between architecture,film, and dance, art forms that he sees as related

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in their portrayal of human experience movingthrough time and space.

Orfield has sought out collaborative environmentsor created them on the spot in design firms anduniversities from New York to Indianapolis toMexico City. He considers every project a part-nership, not only between the architect and theclient, but also with the site itself. He sees thiscontextual approach as one reason why there isno recognizable BOKA Powell style, only spacesthat benefit their surroundings as the result of avery intentional design process.

Zane Segal

Houston, Texas

Segal is a developer, marketing consultant, andreal estate broker with Zane Segal Projects, Inc.Specializing in mixed-use, residential, retail, his-toric, hospitality, urban, and resort properties, hehas 27 years of experience in real estate venturemanagement, development, construction, broker-age, and marketing. His experience covers a rangeof property types, including land, lofts, townhomes,custom homes, low- and mid-rise condominiums,hotels, retail centers, office buildings, subdivi-sions, and sports facilities, as well as mixed-useprojects incorporating several property types.

Segal is vice chair for Advisory Services of theULI Houston District Council, has chaired oneand served on eight other Advisory Services pan-els across the country, and chaired ULI Houston’sfirst two Technical Assistance Program panels. Heis a member of a City of Houston Planning Com-mission committee studying urbanization of thesuburbs, is on an advisory committee overseeing aregional visioning project, and serves on the boardsof the Citizens Environmental Coalition and Blue-print Houston.

Segal’s previous community activities include beingthe first president of the Houston Association forFilm & Television, founding executive director ofthe Museum District Business Alliance, memberof the Regional Planning Committee of the GreaterHouston Partnership, presenter on urban designto Imagine Houston, and president of SparacinoCompany Dancers. He has often spoken, written

for publication, and been quoted by the media con-cerning real estate, development, urban design,and the arts.

Segal received a bachelor of science degree fromthe Massachusetts Institute of Technology and amaster of fine arts degree from the University ofSouthern California. He has studied graduate-level architecture at the University of Houston.

Ross Tilghman

Seattle, Washington

Tilghman heads up the Tilghman Group, a divi-sion of Leora Consulting Group, providing real es-tate planning services. He has 20 years of urbanplanning experience, including serving as execu-tive director of a downtown BID. He providestransportation-related revenue projections, mar-ket studies, and planning and development strate-gies to government, not-for-profit, and privatesector clients facing real estate development chal-lenges. His projects typically involve downtownrevitalization, academic and institutional campusplanning, historic district redevelopment, mixed-use projects, special event access, and parking.

Frequently working with nationally recognizedplanning teams, Tilghman’s recent downtownmaster plans detailed transportation require-ments for Evansville, Indiana; Natchez, Missis-sippi; St. Louis, Missouri; Green Bay, Wisconsin;and Parker, Colorado. He has provided parkingstudies to determine future demand and marketrequirements for Savannah, Georgia; Portland,Oregon; Sioux City, Iowa; and Olympia, Washing-ton. He has conducted transit market studies inDenver and Los Angeles. Tilghman has also spe-cialized in transportation planning for state capitalcampuses, working with Washington, Iowa, andMinnesota on their access and parking programs.In addition, he has completed special event andrecreation area transportation plans for San Diego’sBalboa Park; Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida;the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines; Stones’River National Battlefield in Murfreesboro, Ten-nessee; the Shreveport Riverfront in Louisiana;and Vicksburg, Mississippi’s Downtown andRiverfront.

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For the past five years, Tilghman has been work-ing with the city of Tacoma to address its down-town parking needs and the parking plan for thecity’s new convention center. He provided the rev-enue forecasts used to issue parking revenue debt.

Tilghman also served three years as director of a downtown BID in Illinois. He oversaw mainte-nance, facade improvements, parking, and upper-story redevelopment efforts in concert with MainStreet redevelopment principles. He successfullywrote a $1.9 million grant application to fund astreetscape construction project completed in 2002.

Tilghman frequently participates in national re-source panels assisting communities with devel-opment questions. Recent assignments includeAdvisory Service panels in St. Louis, Los Ange-les, Ft. Lauderdale, and Port St. Lucie, Florida;the Mayor’s Institute on city design teams in St.Louis and Cincinnati; an AIA R/UDAT team inSan Angelo, Texas; and Ohio Design Assistanceteams in three Ohio communities.

Tilghman received an A.B., magna cum laude, inhistory from Washington University, St. Louis,and an M.A. in geography from the Universityof Washington, Seattle.

Warren Whitlock

New York, New York

Whitlock is the director of construction coordina-tion for Columbia University in New York Cityand has 25 years of varied experience in disasterrelief and recovery, construction coordination,strategic planning, real estate development, fi-nance, and government. One of the top economicdevelopment professionals in New York City, he isa senior executive member of Columbia Univer-sity’s Facilities Department as well as a seniorplanning team member of the university’s 18-acreacquisition and expansion initiative into the Man-hattanville section of West Harlem. This 30-yearproject involves, among other things, the con-struction of an expandable bathtub to ensure non-aqueous penetration of the project site to depthsof 180 feet of soil and sand conditions. Whitlock isthe university’s primary liaison for all constructionactivity, which, since 2000, has delivered more

than $1 billion in capital construction projects. Healso oversees Columbia’s initiative for minority,women, and local business enterprise participa-tion, which, through the first quarter of 2005,exceeded 39 percent in its large-scale construc-tion projects.

Before joining Columbia in 2002, Whitlock man-aged New York State’s economic development ef-forts in Harlem as the director of the Harlem Com-munity Development Corporation. In this capacity,he initiated a series of successful commercial andresidential development initiatives that not onlyled to the current successful revitalization ofHarlem but achieved this while preserving thehistoric and cultural authenticity of this muchrevered African-American neighborhood. As thefirst deputy commissioner of the New York CityCommunity Development Agency (currently, theNew York City Department of Youth and Com-munity Development), Whitlock leveraged hisknowledge of city and state government to cre-ate several successful first-time initiatives forthe city using federal Community Service BlockGrants.

Between 1989 and 1992, Whitlock served as a se-nior project manager at the New York City Eco-nomic Development Corporation, where he workedto finance small to medium-size industrial-basedbusinesses throughout New York City. In the fieldof international economic development, Whitlockserved as a consultant to the United Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees in Somalia, East Africa,where he lived and worked for four years.

Whitlock is an adjunct professor of urban plan-ning at Brooklyn College’s Graduate Center forWorker Education and is a trustee and director ofthe Morris Jumel Mansion in Manhattan and theDouble Discovery Center at Columbia University.Whitlock is an executive member of ULI’s NewYork District Council, where he has been a mem-ber since 1997, and he served as a member of theAdvisory Services panel at the University of NewOrleans in 2003.

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