Industrial site at Apex may finally become reality

Adrienne Packer

Friday, July 16, 1999 | 1:52 a.m.

A 21,000-acre chunk of desert land that Clark County leaders heralded 10 years ago as an industrial park that would keep chemical factories away from residential areas might finally be developed.

Clark County's exclusive 10-year option to buy the U.S. Bureau of Land Management property known as the Apex Industrial Park expires July 31.

With the commission's blessing Tuesday, the county will buy 11,421 acres from the BLM, using about $9.5 million from private firms. The deeds then will be transferred to the five companies that plan to build at the industrial park.

"I have their money and that's what I'll use to buy the land," said Doug Bell, county community resources manager. "Basically we're a conduit between the private sector and the BLM."

If approved, the land deal will be the first since an industrial park was created a decade ago to pacify Henderson residents who feared their homes were dangerously close to chemical factories.

When the option was granted in 1989, Silver State Disposal Service bought 2,184 acres for its Apex landfill and Kerr-McGee Corporation purchased 3,351 acres for a rocket fuel blending and storage facility.

Since then, interest in the land that straddles Interstate 15 nearly 20 miles northeast of Las Vegas has been almost nonexistent.

Bell said the third and final land sale will include five companies -- Silver State, Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Chemical Lime Company, Ulysses Corporation and Apex Industrial Park Inc., the master developers of the park.

The list of 16 investors for the Apex Industrial Park reads like a Who's Who in Las Vegas and includes elected officials or people with close ties to elected officials.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is an investor, as are developers Joanne and Andrew Levy and Edward Hoffman. The Levys are related to the late Al Levy, a former Las Vegas city councilman. County Commissioner Erin Kenny's husband, John, is involved in the group and shares a North Tenaya Way office complex -- where Kenny once had her campaign headquarters -- with Hoffman.

Other investors include Peter and Thomas Thomas, of the Thomas and Mack Company, Imperial Palace hotel-casino owner Ralph Engelstad and retired advertising executive Rod Reber.

Bell said when the land deals are completed, about 4,000 acres will still be owned by the BLM. The surplus property will be used for utility corridors and as an endangered species protection area.

The county's decision to purchase the land for private companies rather than naming itself the master developer was more economically efficient, Bell said. Had the county developed the land, it would have had to buy it from the BLM at fair market value and pay the federal government 50 percent of its profits.

"With the risk and expense, we decided we weren't going to be master developers," Bell said. "The next scenario was to sell the land to businesses already out there."

Silver State and Kerr-McGee have long been established on the land, and Georgia Pacific and Chemical Lime Company own mining claims on the property.

The Apex Industrial Park was created soon after the Pacific Engineering & Production Co. (PEPCON) plant exploded in Henderson in May 1988, killing two workers, injuring 350 people and rattling the entire community.

Residents had already expressed concerns about housing developments creeping closer to the chemical factories that date back to World War II. The explosion prompted then-Gov. Richard Bryan to push the county into finding an alternate site for hazardous industrial facilities.

In 1989, then President George Bush granted the option for the BLM land to the county.

Few companies were interested in relocating to the newly created industrial park because of a lack of water. Bell said the master developer -- Apex Industrial Park Inc. -- is responsible for improvements on the property.

Apex president David Carver was out of town and could not be reached for comment. Carver has said, however, that his company has applied for groundwater permits and water could be pumped to the sit from as far away as 20 miles.

Bell said the proposal benefits the county in many ways. Not only does the county recover nearly $1 million it had invested in the property, but when the land is transferred to private companies it becomes part of the county's tax role.

But perhaps most important, the deal creates a useful industrial park.

"As long as you don't have a real alternative site, you're enforcement is limited," Bell said. "As soon as you tighten the screws on people, they will shut down and go elsewhere."

The alternative site also will help the county diversify its economy and create more job opportunities, county officials said.

"With the ongoing relocation of hazardous industrial facilities from the Las Vegas Valley to this site, we will all be able to state that we did more than simply assist our economy grow," County Manager Dale Askew wrote in his report to the commission.

"We also helped create a safer and more environmentally friendly community for our residents and visitors."