Chinatown received more visitor traffic than Fremont East and the Arts District combined this year, yet the average plaza is worn out, riddled with safety hazards and unequipped to combat the area’s high crime rate.
Palette Tea Lounge is a vibrantly decorated dim sum restaurant with colorful lanterns on the ceiling, lush paintings on the walls and neatly set tables — a welcoming ambiance, that sharply contrasts its exterior. Outside is a broken walkway and a dimly lit parking lot prone to vehicle break-ins. The restaurant’s budget, however, has no flexibility to repave the parking lot or install new lighting.
Owner Michael Li reports over 70 car break-ins outside his property this year. To protect his customers, Li trained the restaurant hosts to urge guests to bring all of their belongings inside.
In January, Li received a letter from Jayson Dagher, commission analyst for Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones, about the “Inspiring Spring Mountain Corridor Improvement Grant Program.” The letter explained that the city wanted to allocate $1.5 million to businesses across Chinatown, with a maximum award of $75,000 per property.
“We sent mail to every single property owner, as well as every small business in Chinatown,” said Dagher.
After sending out letters and going door to door, Dagher arranged office hours in local coffee shops to help people apply for the grant. Over the course of 11 office hours, he met with 338 property owners, managers and tenants.
Conveniently for Li, Dagher held one of these office hours across the street from Palette Tea Lounge at Afterlife Tea, where he explained the application process to Li over bubble tea.
Last month, Li received the news that he would be granted $65,750 towards his $82,187 renovation project.
“I felt absolutely amazing,” said Li. “With these many visitations, we have to make it more presentable. The Strip is absolutely beautiful. Fremont Street is beautiful. If we had an equally nice Chinatown …”
With this grant, Li will install lighting to deter burglary, repave the broken walkway and commission a local artist to paint a mural around the building. As of now, he is considering dancing lions or dim sum.
“We will have a more blooming Chinatown … a safer Chinatown,” said Li.
Dagher recently sent out grant agreements to be signed by all 26 recipients.
One of the other recipients is Nasri Academy, a nonprofit school for gifted children ages 2 through 8th grade.
Founder Bita Nasri has been trying to upgrade the school’s cameras and gate system for years because of frequent burglaries in their neighborhood.
“We don’t have any extra money,” said Nasri. “We don’t have even enough to pay the salaries for our teachers this year, so we can never spend 20 grand on something like this.”
When a parent of the school told her about the grant program, Nasri applied as quickly as she could.
As soon as she heard that her school was granted $26,088.01, she started making calls to start the renovation. As of last week, construction workers began installing a new automated gate. Nasri will also install security cameras and a faster internet system. The project will cost $32,250 in total.
“As we know, schools have been targets, unfortunately,” said Nasri. “This means safety for kids. We couldn’t do it without it.”
Even the businesses that weren’t awarded a grant will benefit from their neighbors with improved lighting and cameras, Nasri said.
The Corridor Improvement Grant is the first direct county investment for Chinatown.
“There’s more visitor traffic in Chinatown than Fremont East and the Arts District combined,” said Dagher. “We deserve a dedicated, coordinated public investment.”
Dagher cites market data from Placer Labs Inc. which shows Chinatown received 23.9 million non-resident visits from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026. By comparison, Fremont East and the Arts District together totaled 11.7 million.
To measure the success of the program, Dagher and the District F team plan to analyze crime and visitor traffic data before and after the renovations.
Dagher notes that some residents may be wary that redevelopment will lead to gentrification.
“We have anti-displacement clauses in our grant agreement, where property owners can’t increase rent,” said Dagher. “Gentrification is a big issue. We are ensuring here that that is not going to happen.”
