Last month I named the big losers of Las Vegas for 2006. The top spot loser was the disastrous nearly unoccupied and totally customer free $100 million downtown mall, Neonopolis. Today's Las Vegas Sun looks at the new developer for the project and discovers a number of failed projects, botched deals and judgements against him that apparently the City Council was unaware about when they approved the sale of the complex of which the city owns the foundation and the parking garage. The Sun's John Katsilometes asked Mayor Goodman about the expensive embarrassment and his honor replied in language that eerily recalls the President's response to questions over the war in Iraq:  "Neonopolis has been an albatross around my neck for years as you know. But I think it can be the centerpiece of downtown, I really do. I wouldn't be saying that if I didn't mean it. I don't have any time frame about what will happen with Neonopolis, but I am optimistic." I have an idea: how about a homeless shelter?

Recently, after I went there to see punk band GBH play an all ages show at an arcade, I wrote about the economic disaster downtown called Neonopolis. The expensive mall that was in part paid for by the tax payers was not meant for punk shows but to lure affluent tourists and young urban professionals downtown. The place seems cursed, and has caused nothing but bad will for almost everyone connected to it. The building of Neonopolis alone caused enough eminent domain issues to fill a month's worth of programing at Fox News. In fact, though Neonopolis opened in 2002 (two years late) the last of the eminent domain case settlements didn't happen until 2004 when the city cut a $4.5 million check to a family for the land that now holds The Fremont Street Experience's empty parking garage nearby. Many retail tenants fled long ago, the food court was a disaster; there have been management issues and even a controversy alleging discrimination in refusing to allow space to be leased to a gay club (yes, there was a settlement paid in that case, too). So, what to do with this big, expensive and empty monument to a happening future for downtown that never happened? The obvious answer, a casino, is out of the question. The downtown casino owners were among the main backers in pushing the project in the first place, and obviously their goal was to increase traffic to their tables and not to have Neonopolis as competition. So, one of Neonopolis' original limitations was that no gambling was allowed there at all. Of course, in the face of total failure that rule has already been bent a little for some slots. Last week there was another plan announced to replace some movie theatres with a studio for a television poker game show. But now it looks like a white knight has arrived to purchase the mall. According to the Review-Journal:

"Sources said local businessman Rohit Joshi sees promise in others' failure, and his group is willing to risk an undisclosed sum for the chance to turn things around. That vision does not depart from the project's current urban retail and entertainment concept."