Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024 | 2 a.m.
For a group of businesses near the Las Vegas Strip, road construction and closures for this week’s Las Vegas Grand Prix continue to be costly.
Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, a spokesperson for several of those businesses, calls the effects from the race — now in its second year — “intolerable for the business owners.” Four businesses have taken legal action over lost revenue against Formula One, which is contracted to host the race for 10 years.
The race-week impact, according to Mayo-DeRiso, includes:
• Jay’s Market has one driveway blocked with the new expanded pedestrian bridge. Business is down substantially.
• Stage Door Casino’s business is “very slow” and locals aren’t coming to the area.
• Ferraro’s Ristorante is seeing lower dinner counts, slow or no Uber transportation and many late arrivals for dinner.
• Battista’s Hole in the Wall is doing business almost exclusively with tourists who can walk to the restaurant, and experiencing almost no business from local clientele.
The race events are Thursday through Saturday, and are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors, all with their eyes set on the drivers who will be racing at top speeds of roughly 200 mph down the 3.8-mile, 17-turn track that includes the heart of the Las Vegas Strip.
To make the race happen, Las Vegas Boulevard, Koval Lane and Harmon and Sands avenues will be shut down a couple hours each night for the race. That means visitor traffic to the affected businesses comes to a halt — during race week, and while the racecourse is assembled and disassembled.
Four Las Vegas businesses have taken legal action against the racing organization: Ellis Island, Ferraro’s, Battista’s and Stage Door — which filed a joint lawsuit. Legal action from Jay’s Market is still pending, Mayo-DeRiso said.
The most recent lawsuit, filed jointly in the Clark County District Court by Battista’s — an Italian restaurant near the Linq Promenade — and Stage Door, alleges the “future and well-being” of the businesses “has been placed in jeopardy by” Clark County and the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The lawsuit alleges that “the F1 Race poses an existential threat to the future viability of Stage Door” due to “wrongful interference with business rights,” and demands compensation.
Ellis Island was the first to take action earlier this year by filing a lawsuit April 30 seeking damages of more than $50,000 and alleging “millions” lost because of race-related road construction in the months prior to the inaugural race.
Lori Nelson-Kraft, senior vice president of corporate affairs at Las Vegas Grand Prix, said the organization for the past nine months has met with a group of around 900 stakeholders with businesses near the race circuit.
Those meetings involved the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, as well as businesses within corridors along Flamingo Road, Harmon Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. In response to feedback from the businesses, Nelson-Kraft said race organizers reduced the size of the temporary vehicular bridge on Flamingo Road by 50% to avoid cutting off entrances to businesses like Jay’s Market, which sits at the corner of East Flamingo Road and Harmon Avenue.
The bridge helps to alleviate traffic congestion as crews worked on the track and served as an entrance to casinos inside the circuit on race days.
The bridge was placed entirely on the east-bound traffic lanes of Flamingo Road, leaving all west-bound traffic open. Randy Markin, who owns Stage Door Casino, Stage Door Liquor and Battista’s Hole in the Wall, told the Sun during the summer that he wasn’t part of the discussion. Due to the ongoing lawsuit, Markin said he could not give any new comment.
“All those businesses have had regularly scheduled meetings, whether they’re virtual or in-person, where we share updates, we collect their information (and) we’ve made adjustments based on information that they shared with us,” Nelson-Kraft said. “So, there have been open lines of communication and taking feedback and lessons learned.”
Nelson-Kraft said the race had done more work this year to promote local businesses to incoming visitors and include them in the race week events.
In August, the business owners urged the Clark County Commission to “make us first” during a public meeting.
Wade Bohn, owner of Jay’s Market, said his business was “booming” in August, with sales up 60% and people “pumping a ton of gas,” but added that he would have to prepare his employees for another possible millions in lost revenue during the race weekend.
He previously told the Sun that his 2023 revenue was down by $4 million from 2022, when he reported gains of $8.5 million over the prior year.
“We all need to work together so that people who have been adversely impacted are taken care of at some level. I am an integral part of someone impacted and no one is working with me,” Bohn told the commission in August.
He addressed Commissioner Tick Segerblom, saying, “You also said it is important no one feel like they’ve been screwed by the process. In your own words. Chairman Segerblom, I’ve been screwed by the process, as have many, lots of them.”
Taking a page from the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee, Las Vegas Grand Prix organizers compiled a booklet of over 100 businesses — from construction services to restaurants — that was sent out to visiting racing teams, businesses and partners.
Businesses in the directory will be asked to report their performance during race week to officials so the organization can analyze the results and consider expanding the program in 2025.
Additionally, more than 50 local vendors and groups — including local DJs, UNLV’s Rebel Girls and BBQ Mexicana — will participate in the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix Fan Experience. It’s a new effort from the race officials to get more locals involved with race festivities and reach out to people who may want to learn more about the Formula One race league, Nelson-Kraft said.
The free fan experience event is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday across from the Wynn Las Vegas.
“It’s been really vital to us to make sure we are inclusive of our local business community and finding ways for them to also be part of the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix,” Nelson-Kraft said.