2026-11-04 - Redevelopment Agency

Mhm. >> Mhm. >> The Redevelopment Agency meeting of November 20, uh November 4th, 2026 is called to order. This meeting has been properly noticed and posted in compliance with the open meeting law. We

will move to agenda item three. Agenda item three, public comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters on the agenda for action. The amount of time any single speaker is

allowed may be limited, it will be to 2 minutes. Please say which agenda item you will be speaking about. All comments made will be cross-referenced to those specific items. If anyone submitted a

speaker card or who wishes to speak under this portion of the agenda, please come to the podium and state your name for the record. This is your opportunity to address the um the agency members, but

the members are not able to respond or engage in dialogue. You may also address the agency members at the end of the meeting during citizens participation regarding matters within the jurisdiction of

the Redevelopment Agency. Although you are not prohibited from speaking during both public comment periods, we kindly ask that your comments not be repetitive. We will set the time at 2 minutes. Does

anybody wish to come forward? Here comes somebody. Good morning. Would you um Welcome. Please state your name for the record, and you have 2 minutes to speak. >> Hi. Uh my name is Matthew Morgan. Um

I'm the uh executive artistic director of the Nevada Shakespeare Festival, and I just want to say um as a local artist and director of a local nonprofit theater arts organization, we are very excited

about what Third Street is bringing to their neighborhood uh and the greater community. Your support for what Third Street is creating will have an incredible impact on so many um people in this

community, students, art makers, audiences, and the well-being of the entire Southern Nevada community as a whole. So, we are very grateful for your support in what they are doing. Thank you. >> Thank

you so much. Is there anybody else wishing to speak to members of the Redevelopment Agency? Please come forward. Good morning and state your name for the record. >> Good morning. I'm Richard

Oberacker. I am currently the conductor of the orchestra for Cirque du Soleil by MGM Grand. I'm the composer and author of several musicals around the world, including those that have played on

Broadway. In 20 years, the work that I've created that has gone to London, New York, uh Tokyo, it's been written here in a little apartment in Panorama Towers, and it's been developed with Dazzle Las

Vegas in his efforts first at Vegas Theatre Company, and also at Third Street. A show of mine was one of the first to be read in the Third Street new uh building. And uh I just want to say that for

somebody who works in all of the major entertainment cities around the world. I can tell you that there are producers and writers and creators who are desperate for a place to come where they can hang

out, spend some money, have a great time, and develop new work that will help change how the rest of the world in the entertainment industry thinks about our city as we continue to diversify into

sports, into tech. A place like Third Street could potentially be something along the lines of the Donmar Warehouse in London, the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and the Mark Taper in LA. We have that

opportunity, and I thank you for your support in doing so. >> Thank you so much. Is there anybody else wishing to address the agency members? Welcome. Please state your name for the record, and you

have 2 minutes. >> Good morning. My name is Alexia Chan, and I've been a board member for Vegas Vegas Theater Company for many years. I'm also an architect at LGA Architecture. And outside of that,

I've been a scenic designer working with Vegas Theater Company as well as Rainbow Company for the city of Las Vegas. And I can see that this would be a great opportunity to finally have a professional

theater that can house multiple theater company and has cross-pollination between organization. And from a perspective architect who whose office is in Arts Arts District, it's great to see this

mostly vacant building come to life and activated by many people and become a new destination for downtown. >> Thank you so much. Is there anybody else wishing to come forward? Welcome. Please state

your name for the record, and you have 2 minutes. >> Good morning. My name is Joshua Levitt, l e a v i t t. I'm the founder and CEO of Tech Alley, which is a nonprofit that's become the heart and soul

of the tech and startup community. We're the place where people can share knowledge freely. We're the entry point for people that are interested in entrepreneurism to come, and and those that are new

to Las Vegas to join the scene. Back in January, we formed a partnership with Third Street, and that became our new home. We were at Main and Charleston there for about 4 years and and now we're at

Third Street. I'll tell you that has become really the central point for what is going on where our founders are meeting founders, where investors are finding startups. It's a great partnership. And I

want to say that without it we would you know, we would be struggling. But I'd say this more importantly, I hopefully have a couple more minutes. Is that we're we're at a a moment here in Las Vegas

where the startup ecosystem is getting ready to head downwards or accelerate. And and having a hub in a place downtown where we can bring all those folks together is is ideal. So yes, thank you for

for hearing me out. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Levitt. Welcome. Please state your name for the record. You have 2 minutes. >> Hi, my name is Kurt Walker. I am one of the co-founders of GTM Venture

Forge. We are a venture studio and venture capitalist organization here in Las Vegas. We have been the great beneficiary of working closely with Dazs for many years as they've given a home even in

other parts of the Art District to the startup community with Tech Alley. But also we do hundreds of events a year for founders and funders. I've traveled through 35 different venture ecosystem

markets in the last 4 months. So I can tell you in partnering up with those super connectors, those investors that are investors like we are, how important it is to have a hub like Third Street and

how important it can be not only to the artists and the creatives, but also to the creatives on the technological and innovation side. And so we're super super excited to see Third Street continue to

be that hub and that's the reason why we're here to support it today. I'm on the investment side, so I deal with a lot of the investors that come to town. We've already facilitated founder-funder

gatherings the last couple of months in the partnership with Tech Alley. I brought many VCs from outside of the city to come here. So it's a wonderful place and it's got our full support. Thank you.

>> Thank you so much. Anybody else wishing to come forward? Please state your name for the record and you have 2 minutes. >> Thank you. I'm Pamela Phillips Oland. I'm a songwriter by career. I'm a lot

of songs recorded. I grew up in Las Vegas. My father was a musician on the strip. His name was Max Phillips and I have always believed that Las Vegas is an arts community and an arts city. And it's

become more of sports now and I want to reclaim the arts part of it. I think that what does and Third Street are doing are going to help to as a place to develop artists. People like myself moving

from LA and other cities to Las Vegas. I'd like us to be able to create a culture of the of the music and the arts and musical theater. I also had a very big show that has run and you know, I just I'm

just a person who loves the arts and I want to bring more of that to Las Vegas and I thank you so much for letting me speak. >> Thank you very much and our last speaker, please state your name for the

record. >> Good morning. My name is Taras Krysa. I'm I'm serving as the director of orchestras at UNLV. Also director of Las Vegas Sinfonietta, one of the resident companies at the Third Street. Um My

approach is very simple. I tell my students what they need to hear rather than they want to hear and I'm afraid I'm going to say thing to you what you need to hear. Um I believe Third the city of Las

Vegas has so much entertainment, but we're lacking on the fine arts aspect of the entertainment and I think Third Street is designed to accomplish just that because the ideal situation we have a

balance of entertainment and the fine arts. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Now our very last speaker, please come forward and state your name for the record. You have 2 minutes. >> Good morning. My

name is Robert Rueter. The last name is spelled R U E T E R. I'm former entrepreneur in residence at UNLV's Office of Economic Development and worked out of the Howard Hughes incubator developing

Project X. And Project X was a pilot program that was focused on scalable social impact incubate incubation of nonprofits as well as for-profits in the valley. Now, as that program came to sunset, I

started spending most of my time in DC establishing an international NGO IDI, the Institute for Digital Integrity. When I came back home to Las Vegas, I was so excited to see the progress that DAS had

made because there's a bit of a pipeline issue in Las Vegas in that we've got incredible small theaters that can seat a small number of of attendees. We've got world-class showrooms for a full-scale

production. And yet, in the middle, we are missing that bridge to bring theatrical productions, live entertainment, as well as live events in that mid-size category. And the theaters that are present

at Third Street bridge that gap in a very clean fashion. And much of that pipeline is built under one roof. And so, the community and the support that can come around that has a central hub to

operate, which is key and critical to the success of an innovation ecosystem. Thank you so much for your support. >> We will now move to agenda item number four for possible action to approve the

final minutes by reference of the regular redevelopment agency meeting of October 7th, 2026. Mayor pro tem, is there a motion to approve the minutes? >> Yes, Madam Mayor, move to approve. >> Please

vote. Post. Motion carries. We'll now move to agenda item five, RA-27-2026, discussion for possible action regarding a resolution finding the agency reimbursement agreement between the city of Las

Vegas Redevelopment Agency and the Third Street Inc. concerning certain adaptive reuse improvements in connection with that certain property at 814 South Third Street is in the best interest of the

public and to be in compliance with and in furtherance of the goals and objectives of the city of Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency 4,200,000 RDA Special Revenue Fund Redevelopment Area 1 Ward 3. Miss

Diaz, please note this item is related to Council Item 30 R-71-2026. Miss Babsky. >> Good morning, Mayor, City Council members. Dina Babsky, Director of EUD. Uh and with me here Dave Nistadsweller,

welcome. And wow, how about that? We've never had this many guests at our RDA meetings. So exciting. Uh So it is a very exciting project. Uh the building, I'm sure you all have driven by it and maybe

even caught a movie or two back in the day. It was originally developed back in 2016, so it's almost uh 10 years old now. While the building may not be that old, it definitely has gone through quite a

few operational transitions and has had its issues in terms of keeping that uh keeping that going. And so what uh Third Street proposes uh is to reposition the building to become uh the cultural

educational hub here in downtown. And frankly, this project aligns very well with the strategic plan that was just approved earlier this year, specifically in these categories. Adaptive reuse um of

the existing asset in downtown, as you know, we're all focused on redeveloping uh this area. Obviously, this board oversees all of our actions. Um the arts and cultural hub uh hub component, uh part

of our economic uh development uh priority is specifically to grow arts and culture to support that. So that's definitely in alignment. Economic and community impact, as you will hear in Dave's

presentation, there are a lot of events that are going to be held in this building, which will bring folks downtown who will take uh and uh advantage of our businesses, our restaurants, our breweries,

and other things to do. So, um that will also be incredible for this area. And of course, very important one, uh partnerships and workforce development, again in alignment with the priority of

economic development. Um one of the main requests um of Third Street when we were working on this pri- on this agreement was to uh include partnerships with our higher education institutions to ensure

that we continue working on the workforce development initiatives. Uh the project overall, uh the budget is over $7 million and the maximum contribution from the redevelopment agency towards the

construction of the tenant improvements is not to exceed $4.2 million. Um I want to um highlight the fact that uh none of this money will be available and will be will be contingent on Third Street's

ability to fundraise the rest of the money to pay for the construction. Just like any other RDA project, there will be requirements for prevailing wage, for employment plans. So, all of the standard

things that we have in place normally are in place for this agreement as well. And so, I will finish my presentation here before I give the word over to Mr. Weller. I do want to thank Sandy Turner

with the City Attorney's office, Rich Atkins on our team. They worked really hard to bring this forward. And with that, Tess, please. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dana. Is that my forward button? >> Uh

yeah, I think that >> Madam Mayor and and uh members of the RDA board and council members, thank you for allowing me to present today. Uh and thank you for the time you've taken in the lead-up to this

vote today to make yourselves available to hear about the project. I I will aim to give a pretty high-level view of the project so that you can be refreshed as to what we're building and that anyone

who's watching from home can can also kind of come up to speed with with what we're doing. Before I go forward, I'd love to throw out a a few more thanks to uh Executive Director Seth Floyd, of course

to Director Babsky here and her team at Urban Development and and RDA, particularly Tracy Wright and uh Rich Atkins, and of course uh Sandra Turner in the City Attorney's office who've worked uh

really hard to create what is uh a novel agreement, I think, for this agency in a partnership with a non-profit um that really sort of understands the needs of how we need to grow. Of course, Maggie

Plaster, the director of Parks Rec and Cultural Affairs, and and Jen Cleven and your team, thank you for helping us with this process at Third Street, but also for being available and turning up for

years as we look to solve some of the cultural infrastructure needs in the city of Las Vegas. Um And of course, then my COO and partner in crime, Ginger Lamb Van Buren, thank you for for all the work

that you're doing, and of course our staff at Third Street, and and and our 15-member Board of Directors who have been diligently paying attention and helping us steward this process through

particular mention to our special committee led by Lauren Lauren Rosenblatt. And finally, all the artists and partner organizations and the supporters that are here today, these ideas don't come from

thin air. They're built on the shoulders of the work that has come before for generations. And so, some of the partners that we'll be working with at Third Street you've heard from today and and are

here in the room. But this this is the end this is the next step in a trajectory that really started generations ago as as the Arts District began to to begin its flourishing back in the late '80s

late '80s, early '90s. And so, now move on to what Third Street is. I'll I'll whip through some of these slides. There's a there's a there's a number of them. And I'll try and keep this under 5

minutes. Third Street Arts and Media Incubator exists to champion Vegas-made creativity by providing production and performance spaces, hands-on education, and workforce development, cultural

programming, and a collaborative home where creators can develop, produce, and share original work. We know that Vegas is filled with talent. It is filled with stories. We have a unique perspective on

the world right now in terms of who we are in Vegas culturally and demographically. Um and we're ready to move forward, but without the cultural infrastructure and the spaces needed to scale the

organizations and the people and the stories, then we'll just continue down a path of talent flight. And we know that exists anecdotally. I've seen it firsthand and I'm sure a number of you have.

We've lost important organizations and people to other cities because we have not been able to build a sustainable industry for them uh to scale into. So, Third Street aims to solve a part of that

problem by transforming the existing cinema at 814 South Third Street into a home for theater, education, and film uh with the aim to anchor Las Vegas as a creator of world-class, Vegas-made arts and

entertainment. We're calling it an arts and arts and media incubator. So, what does incubation mean? Incubation basically means support. Uh that it's support for our people, meaning Vegas people, our

stories, and our organizations. I don't sound like I'm from here. I've lived here for for 17 years. I've been a Vegas resident. It's my home. It's where I'm raising my children and where I'll be

scattered on the sand someday, I imagine. >> [laughter] >> Uh and and so it's important to me and to our team that that really we want to leave the place better than we found it. And and I think

there's an opportunity right now to invest in this moment. I don't think an idea like this could have existed 5 years ago. I don't think we were ready and I don't think we were aligned in the ways

that we currently uh through the public private potential that exists within a project like this. But also the need is great. The city is tuning in. We're ready to become a world-class city. And

world-class cities need world-class art. And they need to nurture that art. It doesn't come from nowhere. Phase 1A, which is where the funding that would hopefully be approved today is deployed,

builds out Third Street's revenue-generating and programmatic spaces for the first phase. We'll be creating a 250-300 seat modular theater with all of the back of house support needed, as well as a

lot of the boring stuff and the infrastructure, egress, fire safety to leverage other revenue-generating spaces. There's a jewel box on top of the building, which is a an event space, which really

needs some additional egress added so that we can make it usable and and as Robert said, really leverage the mid-size spaces. We That's the problem we're trying to solve infrastructurally is is the

mid-size. How do we move from the small to the next level? You know, how do we move ideas from our community into Reynolds Hall. And so this becomes a step in terms of how we how we can do that. And

so that's where the funding gets deployed. You'll see in the ARA that's spelled out in more detail. What happens in the building? There'll be year-round arts programming. I'm going to skip through

some of these slides pretty quickly, but it but they'll be on record for you to review later. Year-round arts programming. Nothing in the building happens without an education component attached to

it. It's very important to us that we're not just building a space built for excellence, but it's a space that's built for belonging. And in belonging, we need to be bringing the community with us, be

bringing the next generation of leaders and creators up with us through the building. And so we've worked really hard over the last 12 months to really steward some tangible relationships with our

higher education partners. CSN was first to the table and then UNLV's lifelong learning program. And we have very fruitful conversations underway with other other schools over at the university. And

then finally, film and new media. The the world of creation is changing by the day at the moment. And more and more there's intersection between physical performances and and live performances and and

digital media. And so we want to build a space that is built to be adaptable enough to be able to respond to the needs of our creative community. And so, that's a huge part of what we're building. It

becomes a little more expensive to build a space that's modular, but what it does is it helps us build a space that's built for yes, that someone can come with a seed of an idea and we can say, "You

know, that is a crazy idea, but I think we can make it happen." And maybe it starts here and moves to there and goes through here. Uh and and that's the idea of the incubator, that we move ideas up

through the building and out into the world. Uh sorry, I'll just go back on that slide. Finally, you know, we didn't call it Third Street because it's on Third Street, although it certainly helps. Uh

a big piece of of what we're building is a true third place, and it relates to this idea of belonging. We need places to gather, to connect, to commune, to exchange ideas. And so, uh when we're fully

built out, all the extraordinary things that are happening within our rooms are going to be amazing and the product that comes out of that extraordinary and world-class. But what happens in between

those rooms, in the hallways, in the gathering spaces, in the restaurant, in the future cafe, [clears throat] those places become areas for intersection and exchange that make way for the big I don't

know, for the for the oh, I didn't know you were going to be here. How I'm so glad to see you cuz I have this great idea. The place that actually creates and becomes a catalyst for that kind of

exchange is is important and we need more of them. I got to go faster. >> How about end? >> End. Okay, great. [laughter] Higher education, I know that's important to you. We have so much higher

education underway. Some of our partners, again, Dina covered where all the intersection points with the city. You can dig into the numbers a little bit if you like. Ideally, we're piloting March

28th, opening August 28th. Teller is on board. Teller is our first hero and champion. Look, great cities are built on more than just commerce. They thrive on culture, creativity, and connection. Third

Street can really foster that connection here in in the city. >> Thank you so very much. >> time. >> [laughter] >> I we I really love your enthusiasm. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> All right. Are there

any questions or comments from agency members? Seeing none, is there a motion mayor pro tem? >> Yes, Madam Mayor in just a few minutes of indulgence. Mr. Weller, your passion and everyone present here

is very palpable and we can feel it. Um when you mentioned that 5 years ago Vegas wasn't ready, it kind of throws us back to when we were coming out of COVID and I was hearing from so many of our

local theater companies about displacement, about uncertainty, about their future ability to stay in a venue because then those spaces were kind of not being there for the theater aspect and I just so

appreciate that you've stepped up to now carry this mantle and ensure that we are filling a gap in our local theater space needs and this is going to be so amazing also for LVA students. Hopefully our

local talent can continue to get sharper, do their acting here and not have to leave home. So with that I'm going to move to approve agenda item number five. >> Thank you. Shall we vote? Post. Motion

carries. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> We're all looking forward to coming to the opening. >> Yes, you're all invited. >> Thank you. Agenda item number six, citizen participation.

Public comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters within the jurisdiction of the redevelopment agency. No subject may be acted upon by the redevelopment agency unless that

subject is on the agenda and scheduled for action. If you wish to be heard, come to the podium, give your name for the record, the amount of discussion on any single subject Uh, and the amount of time

any single speaker is allowed will be limited to 1 minute. Is there anybody wishing to speak under this portion of the agenda? Seeing no one, the Redevelopment Agency