LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Clark County is getting close to opening its new Special Events Venue at Desert Breeze Regional Park in the southwest valley, making its debut in mid-October. It will provide a home for music festivals, food festivals and watch parties, among other uses.
When it’s ready to go, the special events venue will have a 7.5-acre field, an entry plaza that includes a ticket office, extra parking, and facilities including a warehouse that will help organizers set up the events.
The venue will be the first of many improvements coming to Desert Breeze just south of existing park features. Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones showed 8 News Now progress on the venue on Thursday.
“We’re looking at at least 12,000 people that can fit in here right now,” Jones said. “We’ll kind of see as we go along, maybe maybe a little bit more than that, depending on what kind of concert or event that’s going on here.”
Jones is excited about the possibilities.
“But really just can accommodate anything, right? I mean, for those of us that have been here for a long time, we used to have ‘Red, White and Boom,’ a big Fourth of July fireworks festival and extreme thing, other, other types of events like that. We’re looking to bring back those types of community events.” Really bring in this entire community to desert breeze, you know? I mean, this is, this is exciting. This is literally the place where Imagine Dragons got their start. So, very exciting.”
Special Events Venue at Desert Breeze Regional Park
A master plan for Desert Breeze park shows what residents can expect in the coming years — the special events venue, four new soccer fields, two multi-use fields and a new baseball complex that will include the valley’s only adaptive-use field. The unique field is designed around the idea of including players with handicaps, and it will be right in the middle of the action.
The master plan for the park appears below, along with more details on each of the new features:
Phase I improvements are funded, and future phases have not yet been determined. Completion dates for each part of Phase I have not been released. Existing facilities at the park have been lightened in the image above. Overall, additional parking will be available, but the park will rely on existing parking areas as well.
The 14.5-acre venue is at the center of the image below, labeled “7.” The main field in the middle is about 7.5 acres, with two natural turf fields — about 2.5 acres each — that will be adjacent to the main field. Those two fields are not part of the Phase I project.
When it’s completed, the venue will be the largest of its kind in the county.
Phase I of the venue’s development is shown in the diagram below, but the orientation is different than the other diagrams. North is at the top in this diagram, while the others show north to the right.
The foot traffic to the venue and other planned park features could provide a boost for businesses in the area.
“I think it should be great,” Edward De La Rosa said. He’s part-owner of Madhouse Coffee at 8470 Desert Inn Road. “They hear the music festivals. I hear the all inclusive baseball diamonds, sporting events, watch parties. I don’t see really any sort of downside to this.”
De La Rosa said the changes to the park could be just what businesses need. He said he’s planning to put new signs and a new mural on the side of his building.
Baseball Complex with adaptive field
The Clark County Commission approved a contract worth nearly $22 million on July 16 for a new set of baseball fields.
“This will be an adaptive field for people who are in wheelchairs or have other disabilities, first in Clark County,” Jones said. The new baseball fields will double the number currently available Desert Breeze falls in District F, which Jones represents.
The rendering below shows what the new baseball fields will look like when they are completed.
The fields are an addition to the existing regional park at Desert Breeze. Expansion will include four fields with dugouts, bleachers, shade structures and warm-up areas.
In addition, there will be an adaptive use field, shaded accessible seating, an accessible playground including ramps to play elements and sensory play features, an accessible restroom building, an accessible shaded picnic area, accessible parking as well as accessible routes to all elements.
Inclusivity is an important goal behind the adaptive field, which is positioned at the center of the new baseball facility.
Construction on the baseball complex should begin soon. It is expected to be the next project on the master plan to open, but a timetable has not been released.
More soccer fields, pickleball
The master plan shows four additional soccer fields and two multi-use fields that are part of the plan for the south end of Desert Breeze Park. The soccer fields will be south of the new events venue and two multi-use fields will be east of the venue.
Expanded parking along Durango Drive is also shown on the master plan, along with 16 pickleball courts and an inclusive playground with picnic shade structures.
Further north, between Spring Mountain Road and Desert Inn Road, the master plan shows a plaza with shade structures, seating, walking loops and play areas with grass fields. There’s also a large parking area. A timetable for this part of the development has not been disclosed. The area is currently used as an unpaved parking lot. The big “Tacos and Tamales” festival in the spring fills the parking area.
