It's a familiar story in image-conscious Las Vegas: When something reaches middle age, it gets ditched for something newer. In the case of the 40-year-old City Hall, not only did Las Vegas outgrow the facility, but the building also needed at least $1.5 million in energy-related retrofits. So the city's 600 employees left the old facility and moved into a swanky new $146.2-million, seven-story building in February, just around the corner from the old one.
Fortunately, Las Vegas is also famous for reinvention, meaning the vacant building won't stay empty for long. Internet retail giant Zappos.com signed a 15-year, $18-million lease to occupy the city's former digs in December 2010 and is currently spending $43.5 million to update the 11-story building completed by Del E. Webb in 1973. The Penta Building Group, Las Vegas, is the design-build general contractor, with KMD, San Francisco, as architect and Las Vegas-based Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto as associate architect. Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle is the construction manager.