Clark County commissioners gave the green light this week to a big housing project on a former Las Vegas casino site.
The county commission on Wednesday approved plans by homebuilder Lennar Corp. for a 279-lot subdivision on the now-empty former Eastside Cannery property in the eastern Las Vegas Valley.
Spanning about 29.5 acres, the project site along Boulder Highway at Harmon Avenue would feature a community of two-story single-family houses, along with two park areas and a trail.
“It’s exciting. It’s a change from a casino, obviously, but it certainly is compatible and harmonious with the area,” land-use attorney Stephanie Gronauer, representing Lennar, told the commission.
Casino owner Boyd Gaming Corp. imploded Eastside Cannery’s hotel tower in March, after saying it intended to sell the site for residential use.
In general, developers often go under contract to buy a property and then close escrow after they obtain project approvals for the site.
Eastside Cannery had been closed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Las Vegas-based Boyd previously said there was not sufficient market demand to reopen the property.
5-foot driveways
County staff had recommended denying the proposed housing development, saying in reports that the project site is more conducive to a higher-density project, given its location along Boulder Highway and the high-frequency bus service in that corridor, and the access to a bus route along Harmon.
Staff also had concerns with the homes’ driveways, which, they noted, would only be 5 feet long.
Gronauer, a partner with law firm Kaempfer Crowell, told the Clark County Planning Commission last month that drivers “can’t park on a shorter driveway. And so it avoids that conflict and that issue that makes communities really not very livable, and Lennar does not want that.”
She pointed to subdivisions with 10-foot driveways and showed pictures of cars parked over the edge, encroaching along the street.
She also cited subdivisions with 5-foot driveways. She said drivers weren’t parking on them and presented pictures that showed a less-cluttered look along the streets.
On Wednesday, she told the county commission that each house will have a two-car garage; that the community will have an additional 100 parking spaces throughout the site; and that there is room for street parking, as well.
Housing on old casino sites
This is isn’t the first time that Miami-based Lennar — one of the biggest homebuilders in the country — has set out to redevelop a former hotel-casino site in Southern Nevada.
Lennar is building a new housing tract on Texas Station’s old footprint in North Las Vegas, after it drew up plans for a 373-lot project with a mix of townhomes and freestanding single-family houses.
Former owner Station Casinos never reopened Texas Station from the pandemic shutdowns, either, and ultimately demolished it and sold the land to a developer.
Eastside Cannery, meanwhile, featured 300-plus hotel rooms, a 64,000-square-foot casino, several bars and restaurants, a 250-seat entertainment lounge, and 20,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space.
Developer Bill Wortman opened the $250 million project in 2008, replacing the 1970s-era Nevada Palace.
In 2016, Boyd Gaming acquired Eastside Cannery and the Cannery hotel-casino in North Las Vegas from Wortman’s company for $230 million in cash.
Las Vegas has a long history of casino implosions, but Eastside Cannery met its demise much sooner than other hotels that were also emptied out, laced with explosives and, in a matter of seconds, reduced to rubble.
The hotel was toppled less than 20 years after it opened, whereas other Las Vegas hotels were often at least three decades old by the time they were imploded.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
