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\tBy Joe Schoenmann
\n\tSunday, April 20, 2014 | 2 a.m.<\/p>\n
\tSun coverage
\n\tMore business news
\n\tFremont Street is ground zero in a booze debate that has been simmering for several months and is focused on the question: Is downtown too saturated with alcohol?<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s an odd question to ask in Las Vegas, known worldwide for its partying reputation. But downtown is being revitalized with new investment. And the answer depends largely on how you envision its future.<\/p>\n
\tWill east Fremont Street, one of the oldest sections of the city, become a bustling center of commerce mixed with bars, restaurants, retail and services meant to serve a dense residential population?<\/p>\n
\tOr will it become Bourbon Street West, a nightly bacchanal full of booze, shiny necklaces and bare-it-all wantonness?<\/p>\n
\tWillingly or not, some recent moves by the city could result in more control, making the street less boozy and more neighborly.<\/p>\n
\tOne move occurred this month. At a meeting in a city building, staffers faced an angry audience of store owners from the Fremont Street Experience who sell packaged alcohol. They were angry after reading a draft of a new ordinance that suggested their stores close at 7 p.m. Casinos, however, would be allowed to operate their outdoor bars as usual.<\/p>\n
\tJustification for the proposal was a city report in February that claimed crime and mayhem downtown are tied to the sale of alcohol from these stores. The store owners said the move would drive them out of business, and they claimed that\u2019s just what the casinos want.<\/p>\n
\tThat\u2019s one section of Fremont Street.<\/p>\n
\tAdjacent to and east of the Fremont Street Experience, east Fremont Street also will face some new rules that could slow the proliferation of taverns. In March, the council approved a measure to partially reinstate tavern license fees in the area. For a few years, those fees had been waived in the interest of drawing new business.<\/p>\n
\tNow, taverns there will pay half of the $20,000 standard tavern license fee.<\/p>\n
\tAt the same meeting, the council extended the discount to taverns in the Arts District, a mile to the southwest, saying that area needed more of an economic boost.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe ultimate goal was to light east Fremont on fire,\u201d Councilman Ricki Barlow said. \u201cWe are now in a position where we can taper back a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIndeed, taverns on Fremont Street have sprouted like weeds.<\/p>\n
\tIn a roughly one-block area, from Las Vegas Boulevard east to 6th Street and just beyond, 17 businesses are licensed to sell alcohol. All but a few have opened. Eleven serve just alcohol; the others are combination bar\/restaurants.<\/p>\n
\tAnother bar or restaurant\/bar is expected to open in the old John E. Carson motel, which is being repurposed at 6th and Fremont. Tavern-limited licenses are also being sought for three more spaces in a building at 7th and Carson, one block east of the John E. Carson.<\/p>\n
\tAdditionally, package liquor is expected to be sold at a planned grocery store\/restaurant on Fremont Street between 6th and 7th streets. In the Container Park, the Boozery is alcohol-only and Bin 702 is a wine bar with food.<\/p>\n
\tAlmost all of those businesses have connection via ownership or investment to Tony Hsieh\u2019s Downtown Project. Hsieh is CEO of Zappos, which moved its headquarters downtown last fall.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n
\tWhen Hsieh announced the formation of the Downtown Project a few years ago, he made no secret of his intention to create an area akin to historic 6th Street in Austin, Texas, which is dotted with bars, music venues and restaurants.<\/p>\n
\tWhat\u2019s different about 6th Street is that its taverns and restaurants have a steady supply of customers \u2014 students from nearby University of Texas. Though several thousand homeowners or renters live within a mile or two of east Fremont Street, it lacks the on-site, immediate density of several apartment buildings.<\/p>\n
\tHsieh\u2019s Downtown Project is spending some $200 million acquiring and renovating property around Fremont, but many of its purchases lie untouched or behind fencing awaiting renovations. Further, the Downtown Project has not made any moves to indicate it wants to build apartments or any other kind of high-density housing in the area. Some would-be developers have talked about building something \u2014 but so far that\u2019s only talk.<\/p>\n
\tTapping Las Vegas\u2019 tourists might be one way to maintain a steady supply of customers. To some degree, that\u2019s happening. Some downtowners have taken to calling east Fremont Street \u201cThe Strip II.\u201d Metro even calls its new Fremont Street foot patrol program \u201cResort Corridor Policing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tNo matter how many people are drawn to the area, the same principles behind any successful business will separate the winners from the losers.<\/p>\n
\tMichael Cornthwaite, who owns the Downtown Cocktail Room, Inspire and other businesses \u2014 some with the Downtown Project as an investment partner \u2014 said survivors will likely be those who provide better products and services.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThere\u2019s a reason there are so many great bars in New York City \u2014 because you have to do a great job to survive,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the point. You shouldn\u2019t be able to just slide along and do nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCornthwaite recently pulled three businesses out of the Container Park (a bar, restaurant and espresso outlet), saying he wanted to focus more on his other downtown businesses.<\/p>\n
\tAcross Fremont Street from Inspire, Chris LaPorte, owner of Insert Coin(s), a \u201cbarcade,\u201d sees it a little differently.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s too saturated\u201d with bars, he said.<\/p>\n
\tInsert Coin(s) just celebrated its third anniversary. It opened a second barcade in Minneapolis in 2012.<\/p>\n
\tIn Las Vegas, LaPorte has noticed a dip in business.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cMarket share has definitely been cut to pieces,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are not enough people to split among all of us. There\u2019s very little residential. Parking isn\u2019t as easy here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThis past winter \u2014 bread-and-butter time for bars \u2014 also had several cold, rainy weekends. With cold and rain disappearing, LaPorte said he\u2019s hoping business will improve.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n
\tThere are some who see what\u2019s happening on east Fremont Street as something of a natural outcome of redevelopment.<\/p>\n
\tDeveloper Rich Worthington, president and CEO of the Molasky Group of Cos., said the Gaslamp District in San Diego had a similar growth pattern during its rebirth in the 1980s and \u201990s. Immediately, taverns popped up everywhere.<\/p>\n
\tSome of them went out of business.<\/p>\n
\tIt was bad for bar owners, but there was a silver lining for the district. In many instances, those taverns were replaced by service or retail businesses that could move in less expensively because they didn\u2019t have to pay San Diego\u2019s huge tavern-licensing fee.<\/p>\n
\tThat could happen in Las Vegas, too, Worthington added. It might even be more likely since the city eliminated the no-cost tavern license in the east Fremont area.<\/p>\n
\tWorthington, former president of the Downtown Las Vegas Alliance, a consortium of downtown business leaders, said Las Vegas \u201chad a great idea and it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt produced fantastic results and now we\u2019re getting that (business) density,\u201d he said, adding that partially reinstituting the tavern license fee seemed a good adjustment.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt will all be interesting to see how it looks a few years from now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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