Commercial Center is Excited for The County to be Taking an interest in the Day to Day Lives of our Small Business Owners. This is Historic in itself. At no other time in history has there been an interest to inform the public of the lives of our Business Owners by Clark County in this way. Thank you To Diane Taylor for taking time to get to know our Community and tell their stories. Thank You Tom for sharing this project. Not only will this to preserve the Legacy of some of our Businesses, but it is also directly helping small family businesses.
Before we share the stories, which have been beautifully written, We want to set the record straight for the Las Vegas Community and to preserve the integrity of the history of The Business Association and The Dedication of Paula Sadler President and Visionary Leader for over two decades. Leading the revival of this important area.
Up to this point these articles have been emailed. We have created this page to share these articles as we wait for a new Facebook page tentatively to be created by Clark County for Commercial Center Tenants. Although The Commercial Center does have a Facebook page created by the Business Association, and website. President Paula Sadler proposed her Documentary project as far back as 2009, and has been collecting stories, memorabilia, photos and videos for a full length, full feature on Commercial Center. She reached out to UNLV at Various times, to initiate a collaboration for a student project, but UNLV was non-responsive. Recently as the Redevelopment restarted in Late 2021, by early 2024 “Arts in the Center” started from College of Fine Arts, Clark County Announce New Arts Innovation Project Series The series, ‘Arts in the Center,’ will run Feb. 28 to June 5, 2024 at Historic Commercial Center and will highlight works from CFA schools and departments. All of these productions were focused at The Composers Room. Although Dean Warren Cob Met with Sadler at Tom Michelle on September 25, 2023 at the then open Square Bar, toured A Harmony Salon & Spa for a possible space to have live music, as Harmony has held second Saturday Salon featuring local musicians for 2-hours monthly for several years. Balkan Bar & Grill and Banquet Halls were toured, amazing wide-open spaces beautifully set and available for Art, Music and Entertainment and a few other spaces-But all UNLV productions have been showcased at the Composers room as of 12/6/2024.
The Business Association has fought long and hard for recognition from Clark County. Now that they own more than the Parking Lot, with the purchase of 3 buildings, they have taken Sadler’s Ideas and expanding with a massive budget at their disposal. Had this level of interest with Security, Events, Collaboration, had taken place at Sadler’s Request years in advance as she saw the bigger picture had a real grasp on the root problem, hundreds of businesses would have been spared closure, the overall reputation of Commercial Center would have been spared decades of decline. Wether through grants, or county sponsored projects the Blight that has been referred to again and again, either never would have happened or at least not to the degree Commercial Center suffered before Sadler’s arrival and would not have lasted as long. 2024-20 years after Sadler’s arrival The County has finally responded to Sadler’s Request of Security, Arts and collaboration. But this was done in the County’s time, not when it was needed.
Going forward let the record reflect the Association and Sadler have been advocating, and fighting for the Survival of Commercial Center when no one cared. Now since 2023 after many years of groundwork and keeping up the area had been done, a total rebranding and ongoing community cleanups without the assistance of the County had been done, Focus in recent articles Mention Tick Segarblom, Ross Miller, and The Composers room as a driving force “Revitalizing Commercial Center”. President Paula Sadler’s Interview in UNLV Documentary on her 30-year history with the area, and 20 years of business ownership and community work were removed on the Request of the Clark County. They did not want her to be featured, and for people not to know the work she has done. This was most likely due to her opposition to Abusive Eminent Domain and Abusive Redevelopment-as the sole voice for justice for so many years.
There are many issues not only with Clark County government which need to be addressed as with many local municipalities, Paula Sadler is a dedicated advocate for truth and justice, not only as A Commercial Center Customer and Tenant, but a Woman Business Owner, and A Transgendered Woman Business Owner- whom some would like to see silenced and forgotten and completely written out of history.
Sadler has been a driving force, an advocate for community partnerships with UNLV for over a decade. She has worked tirelessly to put Commercial Center back on the Map since 2004. The Scarlett Tones were set to perform or the UNLV Mariachi at Sadler’s community production on October 21, 2023 Commercial Center’s official 60th anniversary. On October 18th days before the Festival UNLV backed out and said the Scarlett Tones were not available. There was no posting on UNLV website to help with attendance, No posting on District E website as promised. A sponsorship that was offered also did not arrive, putting a strain on the Community project that had hard costs of over $50,000. We were informed that UNLV did not receive funding yet from Clark County. UNLV lost out on an opportunity to be a part of an important Historic event, and Clark County lost out as the Event was not officially recognized although permits were applied for months in advance, insurance taken out, and all the steps followed for a public festival. While in other areas of the County all kinds of events and festivals continued to be approved, and many partnered or sponsored by Clark County. Why would Clark County not want to approve and assist a non-profit production for a Historic Part of Las Vegas? When they just spent over 400k on a Block Party to kick off Redevelopment on May 18, 2023? Millions were at their disposal, yet the business association did not ask for any funding, unless there were community grants already available. The Association put out a press release and email blast that had sponsorship opportunities and a representative of Clark County responded, and it was brought to the Attention of Tick Segarblom.
Hi to all of you Commercial Center tenants.
10-3-2024
Starting today, we are working with noted long-time Las Vegas journalist, Diane Taylor, in the months to come to bring you interesting stories and feature articles about your fellow tenants and business people.
In this inaugural piece, Diane spoke with the owners of the legendary John Fish Jewelers. How did their business start…and when? Why did the business move to Commercial Center? What celebrities have passed through their doors over the years?
Read on and find out!
By the way, new stories will be emailed on a regular basis and those published will ultimately live on a new Facebook page that is being designed for the use of Commercial Center tenants only. More on that in the very near future.
In the meantime, Happy Reading (and thanks in advance, Diane, for helping to shine a bright spotlight on so many of our incredible Commercial Center businesses!)
Tom
Tom Michel
Producer, Metropolis Theatricals Las Vegas LLC (not for profit)
and
Project Manager,
South of Sahara Avenue Redevelopment Project – Clark County, NV
702.533.0075
