Thanks for joining us. Im bob massi. What if you could change your whole neighborhood or even an entire city . Im gonna introduce you to some people who are doing just that, with amazing results. Downtown las vegas has a rich history, but as the famous strip got built up and the suburbs grew outward, well, much of old vegas it became abandoned. Then came the recession, which devastated the entire area. Attorney Oscar Goodman was mayor at that time. His wife, carolyn, now is the current mayor. When you become the mayor, you see the first signs of blight. I didnt even know what the word meant at the time. Windows were becoming boarded up in the downtown. I had been around the country. I went through various downtowns, and i saw what looked to me like war zones rubble and the like. And i didnt want that here for las vegas. Things were looking pretty bleak for vegas, especially downtown, and despite the financial troubles, the city had already committed to moving out of this building, which housed city hall, the municipal court, and the metropolitan Police Department. That would have left this enormous campus simply empty another massive hole in already depressed downtown las vegas. But tony hsieh, the c. E. O. Of Online Retail giant zappos he approached the mayor. Rather than constructing a new headquarters for the rapidly expanding zappos, well, tony hsieh had an idea. He wanted to take over and repurpose the Old City Hall. The end result was the largest Ribbon Cutting ever. Cut [ cheers and applause ]. With every single zappos employee taking part. It was just the beginning of what some people say saved downtown las vegas. Lets go take a look at exactly what they did. As you know, its a historic building. The buildings over 40 years old. It was the very first city hall that the city actually built itself to be the government seat. There was the metropolitan Police Department here, the municipal courts. For us, it was an adaptive reuse of an old building. So, we respected the exterior of the building. We added a very modest neon sign on the outside, but, really, the magic is on the inside, where we really transformed the building and zappified it, as we like to say. And that they did. Not only does it not look like a courthouse and city hall anymore, it doesnt look like any Corporate Office youve ever seen. The unique zappos culture has taken over. In all the days ive practiced law, i remember walking in here, and i remember what was here a lot of the city attorneys and things like that. And now another extension of zappos walk into a room that is full of stuffed animals. We have these plastic balls. We have zebras. This is just part of our culture. There are some things from the old building that zappos couldnt resist leaving alone, like the decor of the company gym. This is the old holding tank, where they used to bring the prisoners in the city. This is for our employees here to come and work out. Most of the second floor of the Old City Hall in this part of the building was the old city jail. They used to bring the prisoners through the basement, and, actually, they would land here on the second floor, where they would be processed, given a nice uniform to wear, and stayed a few nights. Another historic piece of old vegas was left untouched the old city chambers, which is now zappos corporate meeting space. This we left exactly the way it was when it was city council. You can tell by the design the stereotypical late 80s, early 90s. Oh, absolutely. And to have a company like yours to come in and sort of preserve this is really very nice, you know, because its sort of a part of the past. Exactly. You know, for us, preserving this historic building, especially the exterior of the building, which is covered almost 90 of the building is all travertine marble. We respected that. Thank you so much for calling zappos. My name is shannon. And who am i speaking with today . The call center is the backbone of our operation over 600 strong, from our 1,600 employees. Theyre located in this area and several parts of the building. These folks are on the phones 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, helping our customers out. And filling the Old City Hall with thousands of young zappo employees had an immediate effect on the surrounding area. So much of what tony hsieh has brought to town, which truly has electrified us, cause, boy, have we gotten International Focus on us because of this youthful, energized collision of people, and its so exciting. When we come back, zappos decided to transform not just their headquarters but all of downtown, using a giant, firebreathing praying mantis. 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Its a fact. Kind of like grandkids equals free tech support. Oh, look at you, so great to see you none of this works. Come on in. Im bob massi, the property man. When tony hsieh and zappos plopped themselves down in the middle of downtown las vegas, well, things started to change. But then he decided to really shake things up and transform the entire area. He launched a massive privateredevelopment program called the downtown project. The project itself has been funded entirely by tony hsieh. So, theres 350 million been put into this project. 200 million went into property just buying real estate so the project itself owns 65 acres of land in downtown. 50 million went into funding a whole bunch of Tech Companies to try and bring innovation and creativity downtown. 50 million went into Small Businesses everything from hairdressing salons to amazing restaurants, food and beverage, bars, juice bars, yoga studios, just to really try and kind of be a catalyst for change for this community. Along comes tony hsieh and zappos, and they take over the Old City Hall, and he brings in the critical mass, where we now have the Little Grocery stores. And a week ago, i actually went to a bookstore in the downtown. It was phenomenal i mean, a real bookstore in downtown las vegas. I came to las vegas about 14 years ago and been working in the casinos and cooking as a chef. Natalie young had always wanted to open a restaurant, but she was completely broke. Then she met tony hsieh and suddenly had a 250,000 loan. Tony walked in to where i was at, and he said, what size restaurant do you want . And eight months later, i had my own restaurant. I paid back the loan in a year and three months, so its a winwin situation for everybody. Its been amazing. Across the street, there was a motel 6 right when i moved in here, and that was pretty much it. Now theres five restaurants in the very close vicinity of here and other Small Businesses that are coming in. John curran is head of rgg, the downtown projects housingdevelopment arm. Here weve got glutton, which is sort of a gourmetcomfortfood concept. And right next door, its got vegenation, which is an all vegan, or plantpowered, as they call it, restaurant. Fremont street just cant be beat when lady luck shines on me downtown Las Vegas Area had long been blighted, but they didnt want to disneyfy old vegas, so on the outside, the old vegas vibe remains, while the inside is completely transformed. So, john e. Carson was a 64unit extendedstay residence hotel. Each of the units was like 10x10. It had a sink and a closet in it and a shared toilet. The old john e. Carson hotel may look the same as it has for decades on the outside, but it is now the home of new stores like the doughnut store. This very cool, kitsch, retro kind of design doughnut shop that has the best doughnuts in town. If theres something standing and in good shape, like the john e. Carson was, were really not going to tear it apart and reassemble it, so you get this sort of collision of the old and new. Its so exciting, what theyre doing. Theres an old medical office converted into the beat, which is a coffee shop really cute. But all those examining rooms made into individual art galleries. And they have life is beautiful, which is a special event. You know, you talk about the burning man . Well, they used a similar concept, but they make it into an urban experience, and they have music, they have speeches, theyve got artwork, they have a cooking fair. I mean, it goes on for three days and nights. It doesnt stop. I remember our first first friday here when i was the mayor. I guess its like 14 years ago. 30 people came. Now they get 20,000 down there. The local barbershop been around for decades, and they have seen the neighborhood transform around them. Its changing dramatically, and we love it here. The neighborhood was pretty bad. When we moved down here, it was all base you know what im saying . Drugs, prostitution. But now it has there wasnt even restaurants down here at the time. A lot of people are starting to walk around and smile. Its a smiling area now. Never seen the sky so blue an old motel, long run down and abandoned, has been brought back to life as a swanky boutique hotel, but that classic old vegas vibe remains. We are an 86room hotel. All 86 rooms are individually designed, unique to one another different artwork, furniture, and layouts, as well. In the old days, this was basically really did become somewhat of a rundown motel, correct . This originally was a travelodge built in 1962. With the changes that have been happening in the last couple of years, what weve seen is that a lot of people are coming down here and gravitating down here, just to come hang out and take downtown in and just hang out. Well, i can tell you this this is definitely not a room from 1962. No. Not at all. This is beautiful. Thank you. The gold spike was a casino way past its prime. I was scared to go into the casino for fear of getting a secondary lung disease. Now its a boutique hotel. That used to be in the pit, where we used to have table games. Yep. Thered be Gaming Machines all throughout here. You know, its just one of those things where it used to be a lot smokier back then, as well. What you see here monday through friday during the day is you walk in and theres people working on their computers. We use it more as a coworking space, and as we get later on into the evening, the lights get dim, the music gets a little bit louder, the happy hour starts, and it morphs into a party pretty much every night. So while people work in the day, they party at night. But how do you know if a business will succeed . Well, you could try them out first by putting them in a shipping container. Container park is a collection of businesses which inhabit 30 reconstructed shipping containers and 41 metal tubes. They plopped them down on the former site of an old rundown motel and put a giant treehouse playground in the middle out front, a giant, firebreathing praying mantis that tony hsieh got at burning man. Mark rowland runs dtp ventures, which supports the businesses created by the downtown project. There are lots of Small Businesses working out of these little containers, and its shops only, so its a little bit of a business incubator. So, lets talk about these containers. Like, for example, im looking at this barbecue. Yep, big erns bbq. So, this is a container . Thats an old shipping container repurposed. They came from a shipping yard in southern california, and we repurposed them, you know, redecorated them, insulated them, and did whatever we had to do to get them to be habitable structures. Weve got six foodandbeverage outlets, which range from barbecue to tacos to gourmet hot dogs and a vegan restaurant. The largest container in there is about 1,200 square feet, and thats a toy store. They have all the coolest toys in the world, according to them. Theres a lot of sort of boutique, fashion, crafts. Not every business survives, and the downtown project has certainly seen some come and go. Some businesses have started and stopped, and a bunch of businesses have started and grown. The other good thing about the project itself is we have a ton of people that can help. All these businesses, whether its marketing support, finance support, operational, human support, so that they can actually run their business as best they possibly can, flourish, and continue to grow. I moved over here two years ago, and this was a vacant block of land. There was nothing here. And then as soon as the containers went in and the playground went in, it was the first time id literally ever seen young children, mothers with strollers, walking down the streets. In downtown las vegas. Downtown las vegas. Thats really amazing. Is this something you think that should go to other places in the united states, other cities that have been going through tough times . Not just the united states. All over the world . Could be globally. Yeah. Up next, youve heard of buying a fixerupper, right . How bout buying a 1. 2millionsquarefoot fixerupper . Well meet the man who did this, plus an update on a story we brought you a few weeks ago of a couple fighting to keep their home. Stick around. [ woman vocalizing ] when it comes to Small Business, shes in the know. So strap yourselves in for action flo Small Business edition. Oh, no im up to my neck in operating costs ill save the day for plumbers and bakers and scapers of lawn, shes got insurance savvy you can count on. You chipped my birdbath now youre gonna pay not so fast i cover more than just cars and trucks. Action flo did somebody say insurance . Children flo action flo cut can i get a smoothie, please . Ooh they got smoothies . For me. Thanks for staying with us. Im bob massi, the property man. Sometimes when everyone is running one way, youll find one person going the other direction. Thats the case with Roland Sansone, and he might just save an entire neighborhood by doing it. If you think buying a house is a big investment, how about buying 75 acres of fading Shopping Mall . As shoppers flock to the internet in the everexpanding suburbs, malls across america have faced some real tough times. But thats where one man sees an opportunity to not just bring back the american Shopping Mall but revitalize an entire neighborhood in the process. Throughout the 1970s, the Boulevard Mall well, it was the place to shop in las vegas. It was the first and the most popular Shopping Mall in the area. But as time marched on, the mall and its surrounding area fell on some hard times. Now developer Roland Sansone is taking a major gamble. He bought the Boulevard Mall for 54 million and is sinking more than 25 million to complete it. This is the old dillards building. Its approximately 200,000 square feet. Its been vacant for about eight years, and when we purchased the mall, a large portion of the mall was vacant and abandoned. We felt that it had a lot of potential. The upstairs will probably never be retail again, so were converting it, as you can see, into office use. We are taking the downstairs and cutting it up for retail. The actual exterior of the mall hasnt seen much change in it. It was built back in the 60s. We are creating a completely new facade on the outside. Were bringing the inside out. Weve got a lot of outofthebox things going on. For example, weve got entertainment, like free magic show on the weekends, live music, live dj. The shopping is gonna be like a secondary aspect. The experience will be number one. What were doing is were creating what will almost be like a Downtown Disney feel to the outside. Its awnings, large walkways, landscaping, music. Ironically, it was the recession and the realestate crash that allowed them to make this happen. A lot of the malls had a lot of heavy debt, which then required large rents, and with the malls going into foreclosure, People Like Us were able to come around and pick up these malls at a discount and able to offer discounted rates to people. Like any city over the years, things change, and this became a blighted area. Tell us about whats happened with malls all over the country. Certain parts of the cities or towns got forgotten or left behind and became blighted. As the neighborhoods turned, these 100plus malls around the country have become abandoned. Now you have what you see opportunity for those of us that have a vision for changing the malls into something else. Particularly in todays day, where so much is done on the internet, a lot of people think malls are extinct. Its fun because many people said it cant be done. Old malls like this should be torn down and turned in to an apartment complex or something else. But i feel people still want to shop in air conditioning. Its about a new experience. Its about entertainment, dining, and shopping all included as one. And now were gonna walk into a place that was abandoned for years, and, again, youre gonna revitalize that. Lets go take a look. Right. Empty for about eight years, so lets see. Now were in here, which, basically has been, as you said, abandoned for eight years. Finding a bigbox user today is, i think, next to impossible. What does that mean a bigbox user . 200,000 square feet, which is what this building is, so were cutting the building up to accommodate smaller users. Makes it easier to market and get tenants . Yeah. Its risky because were doing something without having a tenant signed up. Its gonna create jobs and energy and families coming together again. Itll create hundreds of jobs not a hundred but several hundred jobs. This is a pretty aggressive move. So, what do