Shopping The Strip For Less

LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas Boulevard South is already home to some of the world's best-known fashion boutiques, including Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace and Tiffany & Co.

This fall, shoppers seeking less-pricey attire will also have an opportunity to shop the Strip with the scheduled debut of the thoroughfare's first Ross Dress For Less store.

Sig Anderson and Mark Stefan, principals with San Francisco-based City Center Retail, said Tuesday their company is developing a nearly 38,000-square-foot shopping center at the northeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard South and Convention Center Drive. The project will cost approximately $60 million.

Dubbed Silver City Plaza in honor of its lot's longtime casino occupant, plans call for a 32,000-square-foot store site on the center's north end; four adjacent 1,200-square-foot sites; a nearly 4,765-square-foot space abutting an existing Walgreens drugstore to the south; and nearly 300 outdoor parking spaces.

Stefan said Newark, Calif.-based Ross Stores has agreed to rent the center's largest space, while an unnamed restaurant operator is close to leasing the 4,765-square-foot site.

"It fits the needs of 24-hour-a-day life along the Strip," Stefan said of the likely restaurant occupant.

He hopes to complete that lease, as well as agreements for the four smaller sites, within the next two weeks.

Stefan believes the center's tenants will offer new options for local visitors, as well as locals who work within the Strip corridor.

"Let's face it. People can only gamble so many hours and shopping is a form of entertainment," Stefan said. "Some of the folks coming here aren't going to be shopping at Nordstrom or Tiffany, so Ross felt confident its customers are coming here and it could take advantage of that."

City Center Retail previously built the Gold Key Shops retail center, located about one block south of its new development. That project, which City Center Retail no longer owns, includes a Starbucks coffee shop.

Anderson said his company is also reviewing other sites in Southern Nevada, though no additional deals have been announced.