LAS VEGAS—Finnish-born, London-based businessman Poju Zabludowicz has submitted a proposal to the Las Vegas Office of Business Development to build an art museum in a 40-year-old brick building on East Fremont St, the Las Vegas Sun reports. The museum would house his extensive contemporary art collection as well as a club and restaurant.

This proposal is one of four being considered in hopes of transforming a street once populated by drug dealers, prostitutes, and the homeless into a mini-Bourbon St. called the Fremont Entertainment District. The other proposals include a retail and hotel project, a 24-hour diner and comedy club, and a nightlife project comprised mainly of night clubs.

Terry Murphy, a local consultant representing Zabludowicz, who is chief executive and chairman of Tamares Group, a private investment group, said the museum "would become a central gathering place for people and help bolster Las Vegas’s position in the international art community." Murphy suggests that the museum proposal would further the city's goal of "developing a vibrant downtown and reversing its image as a cultural wasteland." Libby Lumpkin, executive director of the Las Vegas Art Museum, agrees that a new museum housing Zabludowicz's collection would be "a gift" and should be an easy choice.

The decision is somewhat complicated by the Tamares Group's history in the area. Doug DeMasi, a Las Vegas real estate broker, notes that the group already owns three storefronts in the area that are all empty. He says, “I don’t think the city should be rewarding that kind of ownership.”