The Athletics are looking to start preliminary work on their Las Vegas ballpark to keep the project on track to be completed for the 2028 MLB season.
On Tuesday night, the Paradise Town Advisory Board unanimously approved several site design aspects and waivers of development standards for the project, including parking requirement reductions, reduced landscaping guidelines, traffic mitigation plans, and the ability to store construction materials on the Tropicana site.
Clark County’s department of comprehensive planning listed a condition on the project that would allow for a grading permit to be issued before a development agreement is in place with the A’s.
Last week, the A’s filed for a commercial grading permit, which would allow them to get work going on the $1.75 billion, 33,000-fan capacity stadium. The process would include excavation of the site, some underground utility work and initial foundation work ahead of the team entering into a development agreement with the county.
Similar to Allegiant Stadium process
Newly hired A’s president Marc Badain said that was also something the Raiders did during the early stages of the construction of Allegiant Stadium. He was president of the Raiders and led their stadium efforts at the time.
“Similar process to Allegiant, we did some things in phases that same way and I’m sure we’ll follow that same procedure,” Badain said Tuesday night after the advisory board meeting.
Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson, whose district encompasses the future A’s ballpark, said last week that he expects that the county will work with the A’s on the potential phased work approach, while hammering out a development agreement with the MLB club.
“Obviously there are things that have to be coordinated with us (the county), but there has been some discussion about it and we know how to get things done,” Gibson said last week. “We know there are things that need to be done first and more quickly. We’re going to see building plans in due course, but we’re going to get groundbreaking done there in late spring, early summer. That’s because we’ve got a deadline. It’s not just the A’s that have a deadline; we have a deadline on us. It’s can we do this in that time and we will.”
The A’s would be responsible for paying for all work on the project before the development agreement is in place and the entitlement process is completed.
Timeline
The A’s have previously stated they expect work to begin on the site between April and June under a 31-month to 33-month work schedule. If the project starts in June and takes 33 months, the ballpark would be completed in March 2028.
Along with the development agreement, the A’s also need to complete the entitlement process with the county.
That’s up for final approval at an April 2 Clark County Commission meeting. The town advisory board serves an advisory role to the county commission.
Tuesday’s meeting marked the first public meeting with a Clark County board regarding the project. The A’s and their lobbyists have been meeting with the county in private since the process began, sorting out the various details to get this point.
“It seemed positive, but this will be the first of many meetings like this (with the county),” Badain said. “Our team was extremely well prepared, as you heard in their decision. They were pleased with what they saw, they were pleased with the answers to their questions, so we’ll continue to move forward.”
The A’s plan to host various events at the ballpark and need to obtain permits for live entertainment, recreational, office, vocational training, outdoor dining and drinking, outdoor market, and mobile food truck vendors.
The 955,100 square foot, six-story ballpark will feature a round footprint, with 30,000 fixed seats and room for 3,000 standing-room-only fans.
Reduced parking waiver
The A’s are also asking for a reduction in the required parking spaces, from 7,650 to 2,470. Those spots would be located in a parking garage on the southeast corner of the site.
That reduction comes after a study from transportation consultant Kimley-Horn listed 49,000 parking spots within walking distance of the ballpark. That would make the A’s ballpark the only urban MLB stadium to where parking within walking distance exceeds the seating capacity at the stadium, the study noted.
“As we studied this, there’s certainly a science and a thought process of having more distributed parking, a little bit more spread out is actually better for not only the person that coming to the game for that game day experience, but also for the traffic in and around the ballpark,” Jennifer Lazovich, attorney with Kaempfer Cromwell, who represents the A’s, said during the meeting.
To ensure smooth traffic flow around the stadium on game days, the A’s plan to reconfigure the intersection of Giles Street and Reno Avenue, just south of the ballpark. A new pedestrian bridge is also planned for one of the main exits from the stadium to Giles.
Ride hailing and taxi cabs, public buses, walking and the Las Vegas Monorail were also modes of transportation available that would support the reduced parking request.
Contact Mick Akers at [email protected] or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
