The Commercial Center . A Manny Kess Initiative . District E

Before you can fix a place, you have to know what it is. The Commercial Center is not a generic strip mall. It is one of the valley's first, and one of its most quietly beloved.

The Historic Commercial Center District opened in August 1963 in Paradise Township as one of Las Vegas's first outdoor shopping centers, a roughly 28-acre collection of low-rise buildings at 953 East Sahara Avenue.⁹³ It was built for locals, not tourists, and it stayed that way.

Over sixty years it became a home for the kind of small, independent businesses that give a city its character. The celebrated Thai restaurant Lotus of Siam grew up here.³ And since the 1960s it has been a quiet hub of LGBTQ life in Las Vegas, anchored by long-running bars including one that opened in 1986 and is often called the city's oldest gay bar.¹⁰ It is exactly the kind of off-Strip, locally owned place that is hard to build and easy to lose.

Why spend a whole section on the history before getting to the money and the plan? Because the history is the case. You cannot weigh whether a redevelopment is worth it, or judge what should be protected, without knowing what made the place worth saving in the first place. The Commercial Center is not a blank lot. It is sixty years of a neighborhood, and the plan should treat it that way.

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Est. 1963

One of the valley's first

It opened in August 1963 in Paradise as one of Las Vegas's first outdoor shopping centers, roughly 28 acres of low-rise buildings at 953 East Sahara Avenue.⁹³

● Paradise township, District E

A culinary landmark

Where Lotus of Siam grew up

The nationally celebrated Thai restaurant Lotus of Siam is rooted here. As redevelopment moves forward, its original location is relocating within the center.³

● A small business worth protecting

An LGBTQ home

A community gathering place since the '60s

Since the 1960s the center has been a hub of LGBTQ life in Las Vegas, anchored by long-running bars including one that opened in 1986 and is often called the city's oldest gay bar.¹⁰

● Part of the district's identity

Off the Strip

Built for locals, not tourists

The county's own stated goal for the site is a hub for small businesses, art, shops, and culture away from the Las Vegas Strip. That is what the place already was.³

● Locally owned character

The footprint

Roughly 28 acres

The center spans about 28 acres of low-rise buildings and parking near Sahara Avenue and Maryland Parkway. The county now owns the roughly 1,500-space lot at its heart.³

● A large, central site

Sixty years on

A survivor, now at a crossroads

Few valley retail centers last six decades. The Commercial Center did, on its own character. The question now is whether redevelopment protects that character or trades it away.

● Worth getting right

II . The Money

Follow the public dollars.

This is not private money. It is your money, spent through the county.

Clark County, acting through its Redevelopment Agency, has been buying up the Commercial Center and planning a makeover. The exact accounting is layered, so here are the documented line items rather than one round number. Every figure is footnoted.¹

2024 . two buildings

$12.8M total to acquire two buildings, approved in 2024³

. of which

$6.5M for the New Orleans Square complex (about 1.15 acres), April 2024²

. of which

$6.3M for two buildings (about 84,000 sq ft): $5M to acquire, $1.3M to redevelop²

The parking

The county also owns the roughly 1,500-space parking lot at the center³

2024 . security

$1.2M for an on-site security office, August 2024⁴

Dec 2024 . the plan

A further ~$10M plan: more purchases, renovating one building, demolishing another, plus security and two added police officers⁵

The owner

All of it held by the Clark County Redevelopment Agency, with a stated goal of a small-business, art, and culture hub off the Strip³

$12.8M

Two buildings, 2024³

$1.2M

Security office⁴

~$10M

Further plan announced⁵

~1,500

Parking spaces owned³

Why this matters

Public money carries a public duty to show results.

None of this is inherently wrong. Reinvesting in a beloved, aging center can be exactly the right call. But more than twelve million dollars on buildings, plus the parking lot, plus security, plus a multimillion-dollar plan, is a serious public commitment.³⁴⁵ A commitment that size earns the public a clear answer to a simple question: what are we getting, and when?

We avoid quoting a single grand total here on purpose. Some figures overlap and some are forward-looking. The honest way to talk about public spending is line by line, which is how it is laid out above.

III . What Happened

From a grand opening to a wrecking crew.

Sixty years of neighborhood life, then a fast few years of public spending and demolition. Here is the order of events.

1963

The doors open

The Commercial Center opens in Paradise as one of Las Vegas's first outdoor shopping centers, built for locals on East Sahara Avenue.⁹

April 2024

The county starts buying

The Clark County Redevelopment Agency approves roughly $12.8 million to acquire two buildings, including the New Orleans Square complex. The county also owns the large parking lot.²³

August 2024

A security office, after break-ins

After reports of vandalism, break-ins, and parking-lot safety problems, the county approves $1.2 million for an on-site security office.⁴

December 2024

A bigger plan is announced

The county announces a further roughly $10 million effort: more property purchases, renovating one building, demolishing another, more security, and two added police officers.⁵

July 2025

A key vote fails

A funding decision on whether to renovate or demolish the Orleans Square building fails at the Redevelopment Agency and is expected to return. The future of part of the center is left unresolved.⁶⁷

August 2025

Demolition bids go out

The county puts out a request for bids to demolish two buildings on the site down to their foundations and fence the area.⁶

February 2026

The bulldozers arrive

Demolition begins. Business owners at the center voice concerns about the process and the timeline as the work starts.⁸¹²

Today

Still waiting on the full plan

Years in and millions deep, a clear, public, step-by-step master timeline for the whole center has still not been laid out for residents.³

IV . The Problem

Money and motion, not yet results.

The issue is not that the county acted. It is that residents, business owners, and visitors still cannot see a finished plan or a finish line.

Safety

Break-ins and parking-lot problems

Operators reported vandalism, break-ins, and safety problems in the parking lot serious enough that the county approved $1.2 million for a security office and added two police officers.⁴⁵

Uncertainty

A stalled decision

The renovate-or-demolish call on the Orleans Square building failed to get funding in July 2025 and was left to come back later, leaving part of the center in limbo.⁶⁷

Disruption

Small businesses caught in the middle

As demolition began in 2026, business owners raised concerns about the process and timeline, and some longtime tenants face relocation.³⁸

The core issue

No published finish line

The biggest gap is simple: after years of spending, residents still have not been shown a clear, public, step-by-step timeline for the whole center.³

Committed and underway

About $12.8M to buy two buildings in 2024.³
County ownership of the ~1,500-space parking lot.³
$1.2M security office and two added police officers.⁴⁵
Demolition of buildings, begun February 2026.⁸

Still missing

A clear, public, step-by-step master timeline.³
A resolved decision on the Orleans Square building.⁶
A stated date for visible, year-one results.
Certainty for the small businesses that remain.³

A fair note on the ideas

Plenty of concepts have been floated. Concepts are not a timeline.

The county has discussed turning the center into a home for arts venues, festivals, and culture, and has branded the effort as a reinvention of the site.⁵ Some of that could be genuinely good. But ideas, renderings, and brand names are not the same as a dated, public plan with a budget tied to each step. This page sticks to what has actually been funded, approved, or built, and treats the rest as what it is: ideas.

Year one should be a year of visible progress, not another planning cycle. The Manny Kess platform on the Commercial Center

V . Manny's Plan

A published timeline, the basics first.

Less study. More visible progress.

Manny is a candidate, not yet a commissioner, so these are his proposals for how he would push the Commercial Center forward, not actions he can take today. His approach is the same one he brings to every issue: set a clear plan, do the basics first, and report the results in public.

Step 1

A published, step-by-step timeline

Put a real schedule in writing, with milestones and dates, so residents can hold the county to it instead of waiting on another study.

Step 2

Lighting, cleanliness, safety first

Fix the basics before the big reveal: lighting, cleanliness, safety, parking, and code compliance. The things people feel every day.

Step 3

Protect the small businesses

The places that make the center special, from the restaurants to the longtime tenants, should be kept in the plan, not pushed out by it.

Step 4

Account for every public dollar

Tie the spending to deliverables and report it in the open. Spend the public's money the way a business owner spends his own.

A fair word on the limits. A commissioner is one vote of seven, so no single member can order any of this alone. And until the next election decides the seat, Manny cannot act on it at all. What he is offering is a standard to hold the office to: a plan you can read, basics you can see, and a dollar count you can check.

What a commissioner can push for

A public master timeline with dated milestones.
Basics first: lighting, cleanliness, safety, parking, code.
Spending tied to specific deliverables.
Quarterly progress reported in the open.
A seat at the table for the center's small businesses.

What no commissioner can do

Act alone. Big calls need a majority of the seven.
Promise a finished project overnight.
Override the county budget or state law single-handedly.
And right now, as a candidate, Manny holds no vote at all.

VI . The Yardstick

How you would check the work.

A promise you cannot measure is just a slogan. Here is what visible progress at the Commercial Center would actually look like.

Timeline . a public schedule with dated milestones Dollars . each expense tied to a deliverable Safety . lighting and security fixes you can see Tenants . small businesses retained, not displaced Reporting . quarterly progress, in the open Finish line . a stated date for year-one results Lighting . measurably brighter and safer at night Vacancy . fewer empty storefronts, not more Access . a single public page for plan and progress

None of these require a single extra dollar beyond what the county is already spending. They require a plan on paper and the discipline to report against it. That is the whole idea: not more money, more accountability for the money already committed.³⁵

The Right Questions

What a commissioner should be asking.

Accountability starts with the questions you are willing to ask out loud. These are the ones Manny would put on the record about the Commercial Center.

On the plan

Where is the dated, public master timeline?

If we have spent this much, residents should be able to read exactly what comes next and by when. If it does not exist yet, why not.

On the money

What did each dollar buy?

Every acquisition, every renovation, every demolition tied to a specific, named result. Not a category. A deliverable.

On the tenants

Who stays, and who pays to move?

Which of the longtime small businesses are kept, on what terms, and what the county is doing to avoid pushing out the places people come for.

On the finish

When will residents see year-one results?

A real date for visible progress on the basics, so the public can tell the difference between work and waiting.

On the basics

Are lighting and safety fixed yet?

The county already spent on security after break-ins. So the simple follow-up is whether the everyday basics people feel are actually better now.⁴

On the public

How can residents follow along?

A single, public place to see the plan, the budget, the milestones, and the progress, without filing a records request to find it.

The Standard

What good redevelopment looks like.

This is bigger than one shopping center. It is how Manny thinks the county should handle any project where it spends the public's money. The Commercial Center is just the clearest test of it.

Principle 01

A plan you can read

Before the first dollar, a written, public roadmap with milestones and dates. If residents cannot read the plan, there is no plan.

Principle 02

Basics before showpieces

Lighting, cleanliness, safety, parking, and code first. The flashy reveal comes after the fundamentals are handled, not instead of them.

Principle 03

Keep the people who built it

The small businesses and culture are the asset. A plan that displaces them to renew the buildings has missed the point of renewing the place.

Principle 04

Every dollar tied to a deliverable

Public money should map to a specific result. Not a lump sum and a hope, but this much, for this thing, by this date.

Principle 05

Report it in the open

Quarterly progress, published, in plain language. Residents should not have to file a records request to learn how their project is going.

Principle 06

A stated finish line

A date by which year-one results are visible. Without a finish line, a project is not behind schedule. It has no schedule.

VII . Questions

Straight answers about the Commercial Center.

The things people ask, answered plainly and with sources.

Is the Commercial Center in District E?

Yes. The Commercial Center at 953 East Sahara is in Paradise township, within Clark County Commission District E, the seat Manny is running for.¹¹

How much has the county spent?

In 2024 the county approved about $12.8 million to buy two buildings, on top of owning the parking lot. It also approved $1.2 million for a security office and announced a further plan of roughly $10 million for more purchases, renovation, and demolition. We list these line by line rather than as one total, because some figures overlap or look ahead.²³⁴⁵

Who is running the redevelopment?

The Clark County Redevelopment Agency owns the properties and votes on the project. The Redevelopment Agency is made up of the county commissioners, so the District E seat sits directly over a project happening in District E.¹¹¹

Is the center being demolished?

Part of it. The county put out demolition bids in 2025, and demolition of buildings on the site began in February 2026. The fate of the Orleans Square building, renovate or demolish, was still unresolved after a funding vote failed in July 2025.⁶⁸

What does Manny want to do differently?

Publish a real step-by-step timeline, fix the basics first (lighting, cleanliness, safety, parking, code), protect the small businesses that make the center special, and account for every public dollar in the open. His line is a year of visible progress, not another planning cycle.

Can Manny fix this right now?

No, and it would be wrong to claim otherwise. Manny is a candidate, not a commissioner, so he holds no vote today. And even in office, a commissioner is one of seven votes. What he offers is a standard to hold the seat to.

Is this page nonpartisan?

The facts and figures are nonpartisan and sourced to public records. The plan at the end is Manny's. This page is published by the campaign as voter education, with the committee disclaimer in the footer. For more on the district, see the District E field guide.

Is spending money on the center a bad thing?

No. Reinvesting in a beloved, aging center can be exactly right. The issue is not that the county acted, it is the missing public timeline and clear accounting. Manny's quarrel is with the how, not the whether.

Will the restaurants and bars survive the redevelopment?

That is the open question. Reporting shows at least one longtime tenant relocating within the center as work proceeds, and business owners raised concerns when demolition began. Keeping the small businesses in the plan is one of Manny's core asks.³⁸

Does this only matter if I shop at the Commercial Center?

No. It is a test of how the county handles public money anywhere in District E. The standard Manny sets here, a readable plan, basics first, dollars tied to results, applies to every project the county touches.

Where can I read the original reporting?

Every figure on this page is footnoted in the Sources section below, linking to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, KNPR, county records, and the center's own history. Read them and check our work.

Why not just give a single total for the spending?

Because it would be misleading. Some figures overlap and some are forward-looking, so a single round number could overstate or understate what has actually been committed. The honest way to present public spending is line by line, which is how the Money section lays it out.³⁵

What happens to this page after the election?

The facts here are tied to public records and dates, so they age in the open. If the county publishes a real timeline or the project hits its marks, that is a win for the neighborhood, and this page will say so. The point was never to score points. It was to ask for a plan.

Plain Words

The terms, in plain English.

A few words come up over and over in a redevelopment fight. Here is what they actually mean.

Redevelopment Agency: A county body, made up of the commissioners, that can buy, hold, and improve property to revive an area. The Clark County Redevelopment Agency owns the Commercial Center parcels and votes on the project.¹
Redevelopment: Public investment to renew an aging or struggling area: buying property, fixing or replacing buildings, and improving safety and infrastructure, usually with a stated plan and budget.¹
Unincorporated / Paradise: Land governed by the county rather than a city. The Commercial Center is in Paradise township, unincorporated Clark County, which is why the county board, not a city council, runs this.⁹
Master plan: The overall, public roadmap for what a site will become and when. As of the reporting here, a clear master timeline for the whole center had not been laid out for residents.³
Code compliance: Meeting the basic legal standards for safety, sanitation, and upkeep on a property. It is one of the unglamorous basics Manny puts first.
Request for bids: A public call for contractors to compete for a job, like demolition. The county issued one in 2025 to tear down two buildings at the center.⁶
Acquisition: A government purchase of private property. The county's two 2024 acquisitions at the center totaled about $12.8 million.³
New Orleans Square: One of the complexes inside the Commercial Center. The county approved $6.5 million to acquire it in April 2024.²
Quarterly reporting: Publishing progress every three months so the public can track a project in near real time. It is a recurring theme across Manny's accountability proposals.
Blight: The decline of a property or area through neglect, vacancy, or disrepair. Reversing it is the stated reason redevelopment agencies exist.
Stakeholder: Anyone with a direct interest in the outcome. At the Commercial Center that means the tenants, the customers, the neighbors, and the taxpayers footing the bill.
Mixed-use: A site that combines uses, such as shops, restaurants, culture, and sometimes housing. It is the kind of future commonly floated for the center.⁵
Capital project: A one-time investment in a physical asset, like buying or rebuilding property, as opposed to ongoing operating costs. The Commercial Center work is a capital project.
Displacement: When existing tenants or residents are pushed out by redevelopment. Avoiding it for the center's small businesses is a core ask of this initiative.³
Milestone: A dated checkpoint in a plan. Milestones turn a vague promise into something the public can actually track and hold the county to.
Deliverable: A specific, finished result a project is supposed to produce. Tying each dollar to a deliverable is how spending stays honest.

VIII . Sources & Method

Every figure, shown its work.

Public spending deserves public sourcing. Here is where each footnoted fact comes from.

Clark County Redevelopment Agency (owner of the properties, redevelopment programs): businessinclarkcounty.com redevelopment agency
Las Vegas Review-Journal, county spending on Commercial Center buildings ($6.5M New Orleans Square; $6.3M two buildings), May 3, 2024: reviewjournal.com
Las Vegas Review-Journal, $12.8M for two buildings, county-owned ~1,500-space lot, redevelopment goal and Lotus of Siam relocation, July 3, 2024: reviewjournal.com
KNPR, county approves $1.2M for a security office after reported vandalism and break-ins, August 22, 2024: knpr.org
Business in Clark County, county to invest about $10M (more purchases, renovation, demolition, security, two added officers), December 31, 2024: businessinclarkcounty.com
NVBEX, redevelopment request for bids, Orleans Square funding vote failure (July 16, 2025) and demolition bid, August 8, 2025: nevbex.com
News3LV, commissioners weigh costly rehab or demolition of a Commercial Center building: news3lv.com
8 News Now, business owners voice concerns amid Commercial Center demolition: 8newsnow.com
Commercial Center District, history (opened August 1963, Paradise, first outdoor shopping center): commercialcenterdistrict.com
Vice, the history of the center's LGBTQ nightlife and longtime bars: vice.com
Clark County, District E composition (Paradise, Sunrise Manor, Whitney, Winchester, and part of the City of Las Vegas): clarkcountynv.gov District E
KTNV, demolition begins on the Historic Commercial Center District (February 2026): ktnv.com

How we handled the money. We list the county's spending as documented line items and deliberately do not state a single grand total, because some figures overlap and some are forward-looking. The $12.8 million for two buildings in 2024 is well documented. The roughly $10 million further plan is partly looking ahead.

Ideas versus decisions. The county has floated various concepts for the site's future. This page sticks to what has been funded, approved, or physically done: purchases, a security office, a stalled Orleans Square vote, and demolition that began in February 2026. Concepts that are not yet decided are left out.

Issue, not attack. This page is about a public project and public money, not about any one official. The point is simple and bipartisan: when the county spends millions, residents deserve a clear plan and a clear finish line.

Found an error? If a figure here is out of date or a source has better numbers, the campaign wants to know. The whole value of a page like this is that it is correct. Reach the team through the main site, and if the county publishes a real timeline, this page will be glad to update and say so.

The Bigger Picture

One center, the whole approach.

The Commercial Center is a single project, but it is also a window into how Manny would do the job. Watch how he handles this and you know how he would handle the rest.

District E is full of places the county touches: neighborhoods, commercial corridors, parks, and projects that live or die on whether someone sets a plan and follows it. The Commercial Center is the clearest live example. Public money is already committed. The buildings are already coming down. The only variable left is accountability: will residents get a readable plan, visible basics, and an honest accounting, or another cycle of studies and renderings.

That is the thread through everything Manny runs on. Tie spending to outcomes. Do the basics people feel. Report the results in public. Be reachable enough that someone can ask you a hard question and get a straight answer. The Commercial Center just happens to be where all of that is being tested right now, on a site people love, with money that belongs to the public.

If it goes right

A restored center that keeps its character and its small businesses.
A public timeline residents trusted because it was met.
Proof that county money can produce visible results.
A model the county can repeat across District E.

If it drifts

Millions spent with little a resident can point to.
Beloved businesses gone, character with them.
Another study, another year, another delay.
More reason for people to tune county government out.

Manny's whole case is that the second outcome is a choice, not a fate. The difference is whether someone in the seat treats public money like it is their own and shows the work. To see the district this project sits in, read the District E field guide.

Get Involved

How to weigh in.

This is your money and your neighborhood. Here is the nonpartisan way to follow it and be heard, no matter who you support.

01

Watch a meeting

The Redevelopment Agency votes in public. Agendas and schedules are posted by the county. One meeting tells you more than any rendering.¹

02

Read the reporting

Every figure here is footnoted to public sources. Start with the Sources section and check our work against the originals.

03

Reach the office

For a county matter, contact the District E commissioner's office. It represents the area the Commercial Center sits in.¹¹

04

Check your district

Confirm you live and vote in District E, and read the District E field guide for the full lay of the land.

The Short Version

If you remember five things.

The whole initiative, distilled. Each line is backed by the sources below.

The place

A 1963 Paradise landmark in District E, home to Lotus of Siam and a decades-long LGBTQ scene.⁹¹⁰

The money

About $12.8M on two buildings in 2024, plus the parking lot, $1.2M for security, and a further ~$10M plan, all public.³⁴⁵

The status

Demolition began February 2026; the Orleans Square decision stalled after a July 2025 funding vote failed.⁶⁸

The gap

After years and millions, residents still have not been shown a clear, public, step-by-step timeline.³

Manny's plan

A published timeline, the basics first, protect the small businesses, and account for every dollar.

That is the Commercial Center in five lines. None of it asks for more money. It asks for a plan you can read and a finish line you can hold the county to.

A note from Manny

A year of visible progress. Not another planning cycle.

Hire local. Build local.

I love this place. So do the people who eat here, shop here, and have gathered here for sixty years. The county has put real money into it, and that is fine. What is missing is a plan you can read and a date you can hold us to. Fix the lights. Clean it up. Keep the small businesses. Show the receipts. That is not a slogan. That is the job.

See the District E guide → Back to the campaign

The Commercial Center.

Pick a door in.

The Place

The Money

What Happened

The Problem

Manny's Plan

Sources

A 1963 original, off the Strip.