LVCVA sets salary for its new CEO
Hill will get $375K a year; bonus available
Going into Tuesday’s Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors meeting, Steve Hill said he had no idea how much he was going to be paid as president and CEO of the organization.
On Tuesday, he got the answer: $375,000 a year with the possibility of a 40 percent performance bonus.
The board, in a unanimous vote, approved a three-year employment agreement with two one-year extensions with annual reviews for raises and bonuses, effective Sept. 1.
Hill’s predecessor, Rossi Ralenkotter, didn’t have an employment agreement with the board.
A year ago, Hill headed the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. Gov. Brian Sandoval liked his work and appointed him to lead the Southernnevadatourisminfrastructure Committee, a group tasked with prioritizing capital works projects that could benefit Southern Nevada’s biggest industry.
Among the ideas to come out of the committee was a plan to develop an indoor football stadium suitable for housing an NFL team and an expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Centertohelpthecity maintain its position as the nation’s dominant trade show host.
Sandoval again liked Hill’s style and appointed him to chair the Las Vegas Stadium Authority. Meanwhile, Ralenkotter, with an
HILL
LVCVA, guided by consulting project manager Terry Miller of Cordell Corp., agreed to three additional related projects as well as locking in a 67-foot shift of the entire project footprint to the west.
The new projects will include building landscaping and wall buffers along Paradise Road and Elvis Presley Boulevard and a canopy over the building’s loading docks for a total of $10 million. The LVCVA also is contributing $10 million for hazardous materials remediation and site improvements for newly acquired land west of the building.
LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill said shifting the project slightly to the west would produce more room for trucks to access loading docks on the east side of the building for trade shows moving in and out of the exhibition space.
“I’m really glad we were able to negotiate that shift,” Hill said after Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s probably something we would have regretted not doing in the decades ahead if we hadn’t done it.”
He explained that trucks entering the loading dock area would have had to squeeze through an 18-foot pinch point near the Springhill Suites by Marriott property near the southeast corner of Paradise Road and
Elvis Presley Boulevard.
Moving everything to the west was possible thanks to the June 12 acquisition of 8.3 acres from the Irwin Kishner estate for $49.8 million. There was only one problem: An apartment complex on 1.24 acres at 3064 Kishner Drive was under the control of The Siegel Group.
On Tuesday, the board authorized a land swap with Siegel. Under terms of the deal, the LVCVA will get the 1.24 acres and 0.9 acres of Kishner Drive in exchange for 0.8 acres fronting Convention Center Drive and $9.8 million cash. Siegel will retain ownership of commercial property just west of the Kishner land while the LVCVA will get 9.64 contiguous acres that it will use for parking and outdoor exhibit space. Hill said holding that land would enable the LVCVA to plan for an attractive point of entry along Las Vegas Boulevard.
Total value of the transaction is estimated at $64.3 million — roughly $6.67 million per acre and below the $7 million-per-acre appraisal value.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702477-3893. Follow @Rickvelotta on Twitter.