Las Vegas Mulls Cashman Center Redevelopment (Again)

Posted on: August 2, 2022, 06:41h. 

Last updated on: August 3, 2022, 02:05h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

The City of Las Vegas is considering redeveloping the Cashman Center, the site of a shuttered exhibit hall and an underused minor-league sports stadium, into a medical complex. The plan was brought to the city council by Las Vegas-based Tru Development LLC after a new stadium envisioned for the 50-acre downtown property never materialized.

The City of Las Vegas is considering redeveloping Cashman Field, site of a shuttered exhibit hall and an underused minor-league sports stadium, into a medical complex. (Image: lasvegasnevada.gov)
The City of Las Vegas is considering redeveloping the Cashman Center, the site of the Cashman Center exhibit hall and Cashman Field, into a medical complex. (Image: lasvegasnevada.gov)

According to the proposal, the developer plans a medical campus, including a children’s hospital run by the Vegas Children’s Hospital Foundation and related medical office space and facilities.

The measure is expected to go before council this week.

The Cashman Center includes the 98,000-square-foot Cashman Center exhibit hall and the 10,000-seat Cashman Field. Tru Development has developed several apartment projects and retail spaces in Southern Nevada. But its website does not feature any medical projects.

This isn’t the first time redevelopment has been floated for the Cashman Center. In 2018, in an attempt to persuade Amazon to open its second Las Vegas headquarters, the city offered the entire complex to the e-commerce giant for free. The proposal was rejected by Amazon, as was the city’s offer of Cashman Center to Raiders owner Mark Davis as the site for the new Raiders Stadium.

Historical Vegas Ties

Named for “Big” Jim Cashman and his family of early Vegas entrepreneurs, the Cashman Center exhibit hall has hosted national events since it opened in 1948. More recently, these included the second 2008 Democratic presidential debate and the 2008-2009 US Bowling Congress Open Championships. Falling largely into disuse by 2017, the city closed the facility after it hosted the Moscow Ballet.

From 1983 to 2000, Cashman Field hosted the Las Vegas Stars, the San Diego Padres Pacific Coast League Triple-A baseball team. In 2001, the team became the Las Vegas 51s, the top farm club of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In 2008, the 51s switched affiliations to the Toronto Blue Jays and, five years later, to the New York Mets. (The 51s left Cashman in 2019 and currently play as the Las Vegas Aviators, an Oakland A’s farm team, in the new Las Vegas Ballpark in the Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin.)

On Aug. 24, 1964, Cashman Field became the site of the very first Raiders victory in Las Vegas, when the then-Oakland football team defeated the Houston Oilers 34-20 in an American Football League preseason game.

Dim Those Lights

Currently, Cashman Field hosts the Las Vegas Lights. But the city’s lease agreement with the United Soccer League team allows it to break its contract if officials lock in a definitive agreement with a developer for another use.

In June 2022, the city council voted to approve an agreement to host up to 10 concerts on Cashman Field. They’ll decide the concert dates before year’s end.