Clark County Greenlights $340M Mixed-Use Tower Steps From Fremont Street

Clark County commissioners voted 5-2 Thursday to approve a $340 million mixed-use development at Casino Center Boulevard and Clark Avenue, a site that has sat as a surface parking lot for 11 years. The project — a 42-story tower combining 680 residential units, 94,000 square feet of Class A office space, and ground-floor retail — is being pushed forward by Nevadan development firm Basin Street Properties in partnership with Los Angeles-based Harridge Development Group. Construction is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2027.

The timing is not accidental. Downtown Las Vegas has watched the Strip and the southwest suburbs absorb billions in new investment while the Fremont Street corridor limped along on tourism dollars and Legacy District grants. A wave of remote workers relocated here during the pandemic — Clark County's population grew by roughly 48,000 residents between 2022 and 2025 according to county planning figures — and those new residents have created persistent demand for housing within walking distance of employment centers. The vacancy rate for multifamily units within a mile of the Fremont Street Experience dropped to 3.1 percent in the first quarter of 2026, the tightest it has been since 2006.

The approved plan calls for 136 of the 680 units to be designated affordable under Nevada's Live Near Work program, with rents capped at 80 percent of Area Median Income — currently $1,247 per month for a one-bedroom in Clark County. The retail podium fronting Casino Center Boulevard is already drawing interest from local operators. The Downtown Container Park, three blocks east on Fremont Street East, pioneered that neighborhood's revival a decade ago, and city planners say they see this project as the next anchor point in connecting the Arts District on South Main Street to the Fremont corridor.

What the Site Will Look Like — and What Gets Demolished

The 1.4-acre parcel is not entirely empty. A single-story commercial building currently housing a tax preparation office will be demolished under demolition permits the county expects to issue by September. The tower's design, produced by Gensler's Las Vegas studio, features a stepped profile intended to preserve sightlines toward the Union Pacific Railroad trail, which runs along the project's northern boundary. The ground floor is planned as a through-block paseo connecting Casino Center Boulevard to 1st Street — a pedestrian link that city planners have been trying to engineer into this block since the Downtown Centennial Plan was adopted in 2016.

Parking has been the sharpest point of contention. Residents of the adjacent John S. Park neighborhood argued at three separate public hearings that surface parking would be lost and street congestion would worsen. Commissioners attached a condition requiring the developer to enter a shared-parking agreement with the nearby City of Las Vegas-owned garage on Lewis Avenue before pulling building permits. Basin Street Properties has 90 days to execute that agreement.

What Happens Next for Buyers and Renters

Pre-leasing for the residential units is not expected to open until late 2028 at the earliest, given the construction timeline. Market-rate units are projected to list between $1,850 and $3,400 per month, based on comparable Class A deliveries in the downtown submarket — figures from Colliers International's Q1 2026 Las Vegas Multifamily Report show average asking rents in the urban core at $1,610 per month, suggesting significant upward pressure is already baked into the projections.

For anyone watching the broader downtown market, this approval is a signal worth tracking. Three other development teams have active pre-application filings with Clark County for sites within four blocks of this project. County planning staff confirmed that two of those — on Bonneville Avenue and on South Main Street near the Arts Factory — are expected to reach the commission before the end of 2026. The dominoes, it appears, have started to fall.