Council approves deal offered FBI

Erin Neff

Thursday, Aug. 19, 1999 | 12:05 p.m.

This is how the Las Vegas City Council voted Wednesday to spend taxpayer money:

To Ellsworth Peck Construction Co. for dewatering improvements at the Water Pollution Control Facility.

For installation and implementation of a time and attendance software management system.

To Las Vegas Paving Corp. for installation of walks, landscaping, playground equipment, lighting and picnic shelters at Ansan Park.

To Cedco Inc. for renovation of Lubertha Johnson Park.

To rent yearly office space in the Manpower building at 314 Las Vegas Blvd. North.

The FBI had one foot outside the city limits when it got wind of an offer it couldn't refuse.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, in an effort to keep the agency within his city's boundaries, offered 5.3 acres of land to the bureau for free.

On Wednesday the City Council approved the offer in hopes that the FBI will build a $15 million to $20 million Class A office building on Stella Lake Drive between Lake Mead Boulevard and Mount Mariah Drive in the city's Enterprise Park.

"We were actually headed out of you city until you intervened," Grant Ashley, the FBI's special agent in charge, told Goodman.

The land has an estimated market value of $1,029,400, according to Jeff Maresh, the city's director of business development. The city's base cost including land and infrastructure is $577,000.

The planned building, which must be approved by the U.S. General Services Administration, will be a minimum of 80,000 square feet and will house all locally based FBI administration and field personnel.

If approved, the GSA will hire an architect and developer for the project. The government would then lease the building from the developer for at least 15 years.

As a result, Maresh said, the FBI would be subject to property taxes, estimated at $150,000 annually. The city could recoup its base cost within four years, Maresh added.

The proposed site has the required space for a 100-foot setback from the road that the FBI requires for security reasons. Although the bureau wanted to find a site closer to the downtown federal building under construction, there was not a site large enough for such a setback to be included in a building project, Ashley said.

The FBI has grown too large for its current building at Charleston Boulevard and Seventh Street and was considering moving to county land near the airport when Goodman intervened.

For security purposes, the bureau does not discuss how many people it employs locally, or the number of people who would be using the proposed building.

The FBI is currently housed in one main building, but does have three other sites in which agents and support staff are located.

"I think that the whole project over there really will revitalize that part of Councilman (Gary) Reese's ward," Goodman said.

In addition to the proposed FBI building, the enterprise park has a new Postal Service branch and is near the Veterans Administration Ambulatory Clinic. A new McDonald's restaurant is now open at Lake Mead and Martin Luther King.

A retail site on 3.1 acres at the corner of Martin Luther King and Mount Mariah Drive is currently under negotiation. It is also possible Metro Police will locate a substation nearby.

The council unanimously approved the offer, with Councilman Michael McDonald absent from the vote due to his attendance at the County Commission meeting.

"Ultimately this is going to help anchor future development," Reese said.

West Las Vegas resident Beatrice Turner said she is pleased by the prospective project, but said she wished the city would have held a community meeting to let residents know this type of large project was planned for that area.

"That was just thrown on us," Turner said.