Development Bond Agreement for All Net Arena Approved Could an NBA Team Follow?

All Net Resort and Arena is a planned entertainment complex in Las Vegas. A project of businessman and former basketball player Jackie Robinson, the complex will encompass a resort hotel, retail and restaurant space, and a multi-purpose indoor arena with a retractable roof. Its location is set on the Las Vegas Strip at the former site of a Wet ‘n Wild waterpark, next to the Sahara Las Vegas in Winchester, Nevada. Designed by the Cuningham Group, it was initially planned to open in 2017. Robinson announced in August 2019 that he was in the final stages of getting his loan for the project, which was expected to cost nearly $3 billion. Those plans have since fallen through and is giving it another go at getting the project started with the current bond that was recently approved.

All Net Arena Las Vegas
All Net Arena Concept Las Vegas

All Net Arena Files Key Agreement as County Deadline Nears

That step is this: a development agreement between the county, the owner of the land, and the developer, former Runnin’ Rebel Jackie Robinson. In the proposed project’s long history, it’s the first time an agreement of that type has been finalized. It was filed Monday.

All Net Arena Plaza Las Vegas

Former UNLV basketball star Robinson has been the driving force behind this proposed basketball arena, hotel, entertainment, and shopping complex.

“Truthfully, this is a major step in the right direction. So I’m very proud of him,” says Segerblom.

The project would be built on 27 acres on the north end of The Strip, but it’s shown more promise than progress. Groundbreaking was 2014; earth moving happened in 2017; but in 2021, the site sits, silent. We’ve been looking at dirt for seven years, as the proposal rode out a recovering local economy and hiccups with lenders.

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Last October, the county gave “All Net” six months to get key agreements done or the county was going to pull the plug.

“It’s time to fish or cut bait here,” Segerblom told All Net representatives at a zoning meeting at the time. The county deadline is next month.

“So he’s gonna have everything the county commission needs by the time they need it,” All Net board member Dr. Loring Jacobs told me Thursday.

He told me today Robinson is firming up financing and working on getting the other thing the county needs: a bond agreement that pays to fill this hole if construction stops.

“Well, first of all, with the Covid thing, it set us back a little bit but the good news is it’s gonna take about three years to build the project, so by the time the project’s done things should be at full-stroke again, locally, hopefully,” says Jacobs.

“All Net” has faced skepticism. Critics have doubted whether it’s needed because Las Vegas already has one major league arena. Robinson hopes his proposed 23,000 seat venue would be a home for the NBA, even though there’s been chatter the league may head to T-Mobile Arena, the current home of NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights.

“It pencils out even without an NBA team, with the concerts and everything else that goes on at the village,” All Net’s Jacobs told me, referring to the other amenities the project would have. “The NBA team is just kind of like it will be great and fun, and he’s hoping it’ll happen, but if it doesn’t it won’t affect things.”

The agreement filed Monday includes approvals from the landowner, Paul Lowden, the President of the Archon Corporation and Robinson, who is listed as the Manager of Dribble Dunk LLC,  the tenant. Under the terms, Robinson’s company would pay Lowden’s All Net Land Development, LLC $100,000 a month in rent, with an option to buy the land for $400,000,000.

The agreement also spells out the obligations Lowden, as the owner, and Robinson, as the developer, would have with Clark County, including pedestrian , traffic management and money for fire facilities.

Robinson and All Net go before the County Commission on April 7th.

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