Las Vegas mayor bullish on chances for Cashman sale

Yahoo

22-02-2025

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley said she expects a second attempt to auction Cashman Field and the surrounding buildings to net a buyer who will develop the 50-acre parcel into 'a building there that is going to be very beneficial to the city.'
Berkley, at her first news conference since taking office late last year, said she is fielding offers ranging from sports venues to industrial use. But nobody bid at the city's first auction of the Cashman land last November.
At Berkley's own admission, the terms of that sale requiring a bidder to purchase the land before the city reviewed its application, made the process too restrictive and a 'little bit onerous.'
Berkley ran her mayoral campaign, among other things, on her plan to rid the city of the $636 million albatross in the wake of the notorious Badlands golf course litigation. Selling the Cashman land, she has said, is part of that plan.
But describing the flaws in the prior auction process, Berkley said, 'You buy it, you pay us, and then we'll decide later if we're going to like your project.'
The mayor said the city council agreed to change the regulations so a successful bidder would 'have a pretty good idea if that would be accepted by the city council.'
But Las Vegas resident Tera Anderson, vice president of a national real estate development firm who said the first auction's terms were 'far too limiting,' told the 8 News Now Investigators the city needs to loosen those restrictions and make sure it has a plan worthy of the desirable real estate.
'I think the path that they're on is fraught with tremendous risk to the city and not maximizing the opportunity that is this site,' Anderson said Friday. She said the Cashman land is irreplaceable if, for no other reason, 50 Acres in downtown Las Vegas don't come up for sale very often. Done correctly a development could lead to tremendous growth downtown.
If not, she said, it could end up sitting vacant for another decade.The mayor, in office for some 10 weeks, said the property had recently increased in value by a couple of million dollars.
The city has attempted to redevelop and revitalize the area since it acquired the property in 2017.
The 10,000-seat stadium has been home to various sporting events since the 1940s — from Major League Baseball to football games and political events.
It also housed served as a mass vaccination site during the COVID pandemic.
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