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Joe Downtown: Assisted living center may be Symphony Park’s next tenant

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Symphony Park Plan

It isn't an arena, casino/hotel or walk-up, brownstone living units — all ideas once proposed and still dreamed of — but plans for a skilled nursing and assisted living center in Symphony Park are on the table.

The Las Vegas City Council will consider finalizing the sale of 3.3 acres of land to Citra Real Estate Capital of Marina Del Rey, Calif., during its regular meeting Wednesday.

The city entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Citra in May 2012. Council documents say a sale price of $5 million was negotiated that month. In May and June of this year, however, the same land was appraised at between $7.9 million and $11.5 million.

Documents also say that developers will pick up the $1.5 million expense of installing a box culvert and a concrete water channeling structure, so the net sale price will be about $3.5 million.

The land is identified as Parcel L on a Symphony Park map; it is located in the southeast corner of the the 61 acres now home to the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the Discovery Children's Museum and the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.

If the $71.3 million facility is built, city documents say, it would create 450 temporary construction jobs, leading to a $31.1 million economic benefit, and 892 "direct jobs," for $61.2 million in annual economic benefit. Indirectly, documents also say, it would create another 409 jobs, equal to a $54.4 million annual economic benefit.

Annual property taxes from the project would equal about $781,000.

"The skilled nursing center and assisted living center fill a gap in our health care economy," the city's public purpose/impact analysis says. "The medical services provided by Citra will complement Cleveland Clinic. The employees are paid professionals with incomes higher than the state average hourly pay. The structured parking garage provides additional parking to Smith Center and Children’s Museum patrons."

A city spokesman also said Wednesday that the project will include medical office space and some retail, along with parking.

Citra's website says the group has "provided financing for the senior care sector for 30-plus years."

Though Councilman Bob Beers, Ward 2, said the land sale appears to be a “done deal,” he has some questions about the negotiated price.

"I think property has gone up in value in the last 12 months," he said, adding that might account for the difference between the $5 million of May 2012 and the $7.9 million to $11 million appraisals of May and June 2013. "The question is: (Was) the $5 million negotiated a year ago a fair price (back then)?"

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Joe Schoenmann doesn’t just cover downtown, he lives and works there. Schoenmann is Greenspun Media Group’s embedded downtown journalist, working from an office in the Emergency Arts building.

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