By the time he's through, he hopes to help
create the world's largest co-working space -- where fledgling companies,
independent entrepreneurs and angel investors toil in an informal cooperative
setting -- and a thriving tech ecosystem of young start-ups while burnishing
downtown's downtrodden reputation.
"It is the revitalization of the city's core," says Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman. "We're seeing the fruits of a dream that started with my husband."
Like so many entrepreneurs, Hsieh and his team of advisers are pursuing tech companies to jump-start the regional economy. An influx of tech start-ups has proved to be a driver for local businesses and an impetus for cultural enrichment. In San Francisco,Buyjacketswonderat Great Prices.A fashionreplicawatches is an item which is used to contribute, there are some 36,600 people who work in tech, up 13% from the dot-com peak in 2001, says real estate services firm CBRE. More than 500 start-ups have set up shop in Los Angeles and its environs.
There is competition from elsewhere in Nevada, too. In Reno,Visit wintert-shirts for Christian Louboutin. Apple plans to set up shop in a big way. In late June, Apple said it would build a $1 billion data center there. Just down the interstate from Reno in nearby Fernley,It has a 322,000-square-foot fulfillment center.
"This project could be insane," says Zappos co-founder Nick Swinmurn, who left the company in 2006 and now lives in Northern California. "could be the next Austin or just another sleepy couple of blocks in Vegas. I think it will take five years.We are a professional Jimmy Choo guccishoes." But "Tony is in it for the long haul," he says. "He wants to live in a cool place, a utopia."
By the end of 2013, Zappos plans to relocate more than 1,500 employees from its suburban Henderson, Nev., headquarters, where it has been based since 2004, to Las Vegas' City Hall building downtown. The 300,000-square-foot campus, which broke ground in July and is under construction, can accommodate 2,000 workers.
"The idea went from 'let's build a campus' to 'let's build a city,'" Hsieh says in his soft voice.
Naturally, Hsieh wants as many Zappos employees to move downtown as possible, so one of the first uses of all that money was to snap up about 50 units in the 25-story The Ogden, one of the neighborhood's only luxury high-rise condo buildings.
Think of The Ogden as tech's version of New York's legendary Chelsea Hotel, known for its celebrity residents. But at The Ogden, engineers and technicians -- not artists and poets -- live and work side by side in a building that is equal parts dormitory and office complex.
One tenant, Romotive, wants to create the world's first affordable personal robot, for $150. Perched on the 21st floor, covering some 22,000 square feet, the transplanted Seattle start-up has sweeping vistas of the Strip. But the company's 18 employees aren't tempted by gambling, bars and other diversions. They typically work 18-hour days, eating and socializing with one another at the Ogden.
"We're building the strongest.culture here," says Romotive CEO Keller Rinaudo.
Online marketer Digital Royalty and Ticket Cake, a ticketing agency, are among The Ogden's other occupants.
A block away, Las Vegas Fashion Lab, a 5,600-square-foot co-working space, is about to open. "There's so much momentum and excitement," says owner Meghan Boyd. "Things are popping up on the grid."
The immediate neighborhood is dotted with several new businesses -- Le Thai restaurant, Tech Cocktail video production, the Coterie boutique, and the forthcoming Eat and Commonwealth restaurants. The crown jewel is the city-funded Smith Center, a $150 million theater currently home to a production of Wicked. Switch Communications opened a co-working space for midsize tech businesses in the southwest part of town.
To be sure, plenty of work needs to be done. There are pockets of vacant buildings, plenty of homeless people, and sirens from emergency vehicles puncture the night.
Still, longtime local businessman Michael Cornthwaite contends that "people go where the jobs and vibrant new businesses are."
"It is the revitalization of the city's core," says Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman. "We're seeing the fruits of a dream that started with my husband."
Like so many entrepreneurs, Hsieh and his team of advisers are pursuing tech companies to jump-start the regional economy. An influx of tech start-ups has proved to be a driver for local businesses and an impetus for cultural enrichment. In San Francisco,Buyjacketswonderat Great Prices.A fashionreplicawatches is an item which is used to contribute, there are some 36,600 people who work in tech, up 13% from the dot-com peak in 2001, says real estate services firm CBRE. More than 500 start-ups have set up shop in Los Angeles and its environs.
There is competition from elsewhere in Nevada, too. In Reno,Visit wintert-shirts for Christian Louboutin. Apple plans to set up shop in a big way. In late June, Apple said it would build a $1 billion data center there. Just down the interstate from Reno in nearby Fernley,It has a 322,000-square-foot fulfillment center.
"This project could be insane," says Zappos co-founder Nick Swinmurn, who left the company in 2006 and now lives in Northern California. "could be the next Austin or just another sleepy couple of blocks in Vegas. I think it will take five years.We are a professional Jimmy Choo guccishoes." But "Tony is in it for the long haul," he says. "He wants to live in a cool place, a utopia."
By the end of 2013, Zappos plans to relocate more than 1,500 employees from its suburban Henderson, Nev., headquarters, where it has been based since 2004, to Las Vegas' City Hall building downtown. The 300,000-square-foot campus, which broke ground in July and is under construction, can accommodate 2,000 workers.
"The idea went from 'let's build a campus' to 'let's build a city,'" Hsieh says in his soft voice.
Naturally, Hsieh wants as many Zappos employees to move downtown as possible, so one of the first uses of all that money was to snap up about 50 units in the 25-story The Ogden, one of the neighborhood's only luxury high-rise condo buildings.
Think of The Ogden as tech's version of New York's legendary Chelsea Hotel, known for its celebrity residents. But at The Ogden, engineers and technicians -- not artists and poets -- live and work side by side in a building that is equal parts dormitory and office complex.
One tenant, Romotive, wants to create the world's first affordable personal robot, for $150. Perched on the 21st floor, covering some 22,000 square feet, the transplanted Seattle start-up has sweeping vistas of the Strip. But the company's 18 employees aren't tempted by gambling, bars and other diversions. They typically work 18-hour days, eating and socializing with one another at the Ogden.
"We're building the strongest.culture here," says Romotive CEO Keller Rinaudo.
Online marketer Digital Royalty and Ticket Cake, a ticketing agency, are among The Ogden's other occupants.
A block away, Las Vegas Fashion Lab, a 5,600-square-foot co-working space, is about to open. "There's so much momentum and excitement," says owner Meghan Boyd. "Things are popping up on the grid."
The immediate neighborhood is dotted with several new businesses -- Le Thai restaurant, Tech Cocktail video production, the Coterie boutique, and the forthcoming Eat and Commonwealth restaurants. The crown jewel is the city-funded Smith Center, a $150 million theater currently home to a production of Wicked. Switch Communications opened a co-working space for midsize tech businesses in the southwest part of town.
To be sure, plenty of work needs to be done. There are pockets of vacant buildings, plenty of homeless people, and sirens from emergency vehicles puncture the night.
Still, longtime local businessman Michael Cornthwaite contends that "people go where the jobs and vibrant new businesses are."
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