Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
Wade Bohn sees the “temporary” metal bridge on Flamingo Road flying over Koval Lane east of the Strip and sees only one thing: lost business from customers who drive past his Jay’s Market store at the street level.
Bohn reached out to Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom for help to remove the bridge that was supposedly installed on a temporary basis to accommodate the Formula 1 race promoter for the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November.
But Bohn recalled for LVSportsBiz that Segerblom informed him that LVCVA CEO Steve Hill said not only was the bridge not coming down after the 90-minute F1 road race, it’s going to stay put right through Super Bowl 58, which is at Allegiant Stadium Feb. 11.
Enough was enough, Bohn said. He and PR consultant Lisa Mayo attended a Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority board meeting just two days ago to implore the public tourism agency to work toward removing the flyover bridge so that surface street businesses can stay alive.
The F1 race and the bridge have already caused one business casualty. The Port of Subs sandwich shop inside the market has closed.
Mayo, representing Bohn and about a half-dozen other businesses that lost $20 million in revenues because the F1 race impeded access to their stores and restaurants, made a statement to the LVCVA board Tuesday. In part, she said,
There are two immediate requests:
- Remove the bridge that is over Harmon and impede traffic to Flamingo.
- Create and F1 Small Business Recovery Fund to reimburse those small business owners who lost a total of more than $20 million dollars.
“Imagine not changing anything about your product, how you market, your customer service, nothing and you watch your business drops off fifty percent or more in a matter of months,” she said in her statement. “There is literally nothing you can do because the government gave the right-of-way.”
Bohn told LVSportsBiz.com Thursday — a week after our site broke news that business owners wanted Clark County, F1 and the LVCVA to compensate them for their losses — that he now has an appointment to talk with Hill about the bridge staying up through the Super Bowl and about the business loss compensation request.
Bohn said he learned the BattleBots operation off Flamingo Road not too far from the Koval Lane intersection was compensated for a month’s worth of income from F1 because of the race’s impact on that business, so the Jay’s Market owner noted there is a precedent to compensating businesses for lost revenues.
LVSportsBiz.com contacted BattleBots for comment, but there was no response.
The car race, put on by Liberty Media’s Formula 1, was highly controversial because Clark County commissioners gave the green light to F1 to take over the region’s most vital commercial corridor and turn it into a 3.8-mile race course.
The big hotel companies like MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment cashed in on the Nov. 16-18 event, but many businesses were the sacrificial lambs for an event that publicized various economic impact numbers.
The race attracted rich global tourists while disrupting commerce and traffic along the Strip corridor like no other event in Las Vegas history. In addition, the F1 race offered scant community outreach, and, in fact, recommended people stay away from the Strip corridor during the three-day event if they did not have a direct connection to the race as a fan or worker.