Demolition work at Sahara Square is underway and construction is scheduled to start in October 1998. Located on the southwest corner of Maryland Parkway and East Sahara Avenue, Sahara Square was originally built in 1967.

When the $21-million redevelopment project is completed in the summer of 1999, the new Sahara Square will have 95,234 square feet of gross leasable area, including a modern 57,708 square-foot Lucky Market, a 15,481 square-foot Sav-on drugstore with a drive-through prescription pick-up window and 24,045 square feet of other retailers, together with a new Terrible Herbst service station on the corner.

Principal partners in the Sahara Square redevelopment are Ken Sullivan Jr., Irwin A. Molasky and Laurich Properties, Inc. president Hank Gordon. "Sahara Square is blessed with a fantastic location, but without a current anchor to attract traffic, it has become obsolete, as has the existing Lucky store located to the south at Karen and Maryland Parkway," says Gordon. "Next summer, the new modern Lucky and Sav-on stores will attract shoppers from miles around, for years to come." Gordon adds, "To complement the new Sahara Square, I would like, in the future, to redevelop the Commercial Center to the west of Sahara Square and replace it with a new modern shopping center containing large national retailers, many of which cannot find locations within the inner city since there are no large parcels of land left. However, it cannot be accomplished without the help of a redevelopment agency."

Presently, Clark County does not have a redevelopment agency like those found in the City of Las Vegas, City of Henderson, and City of North Las Vegas. Myrna Williams, County Commissioner for this district, was instrumental in encouraging Mr. Gordon to redevelop the Sahara Square property, in spite of the fact that no redevelopment agency exists. "With all of the retail development going on in the suburbs of the Las Vegas Valley, it is refreshing to see a retail developer returning to an older neighborhood," says Williams. "The new Sahara Square will be a shot in the arm to an area that was once one of the valley's major retail corridors."

Keith W. Bassett of Realty Holdings Group is the exclusive leasing agent for Sahara Square. MCG Architects is the project architect, and CRS Consulting Engineers of Nevada, Inc. is handling the civil engineering. Construction financing for the Sahara Square redevelopment is being provided by Bank One of Arizona, with permanent financing from Banc One Capital Group.

Laurich Properties, Inc. is the largest and only Las Vegas-based shopping center developer with more than 3-million square feet of retail space in Southern Nevada. Since 1990, Laurich Properties has been responsible for more than two-dozen neighborhood and power shopping centers in the Las Vegas area. Presently, Laurich has over 22 retail projects in the planning and/or development stages in Las Vegas.