Business owners root for downtown campus

Valerie Miller

Thursday, Feb. 24, 2000 | 11:01 a.m.

Henderson business owners are ready for the struggling downtown area to become a college town.

City officials announced Wednesday the site they have chosen for the new Nevada State College at Henderson is 300 acres on the east side of Boulder Highway between Pabco Road and Water Street -- about a mile from downtown.

"This is nothing but positive for Water Street and downtown," said Steven "Staz" DeStout, who is the owner of Staz's Nevada Indian motorcycle shop, 1 Water St.

"The whole downtown shuts down at 5 p.m. right now," said Linda Markiewicz, an employee of the Water Street Coffee Co., 306 Water St., who was looking forward to drawing business from the college. "A lot of college kids hang out at cafes. It's the in-thing now."

Henderson officials plan to realign and extend Water Street, the main artery downtown, across Boulder Highway to draw traffic from the proposed campus directly into the downtown area.

"We will change the angle of Water Street, to make it better for crossing," Assistant City Manager Bonnie Rinaldi said.

The land for the college, technically in Clark County, is owned by the LandWell Co., which is Black Mountain Industrial Park's real estate developing arm, Vicki Taylor, assistant to the city manager, said.

LandWell plans a 2,400-acre master-planned community adjacent to the college site. Black Mountain Industrial Park, where Henderson's titanium, chemical and other plants operate, is across Boulder Highway.

If the Henderson City Council and Board of Regents approve the site, the city will have to acquire the land -- either through a purchase or land swap.

The land is valued at close to $45 million, but it is unlikely the city would pay that, Taylor said. The city hopes to work out a public-private partnership with LandWell.

"While we don't expect LandWell to donate the site for the college, we feel we can work out a public-private partnership with them," Rinaldi said. "The city does have land that they (LandWell) are interested in for their master-planned community, so it would be mutually beneficial." LandWell also plans to ask Henderson to annex the community, she said.

Downtown Henderson businesses, which have struggled for the past two decades, also hope to benefit from an influx of shoppers from the college.

"I know business will pick up. It (the college) will bring a whole new generation downtown," said Ron Olivarra, owner of the Gold Mine Tavern, 23 Water St. Olivarra, who bought the bar 18 years ago, said the business that a college will bring is desperately needed.

"It will breathe new life into downtown," he said. "All of it."

"We need something to draw people here to downtown, which the college will do," agreed Paul Hodgson, who was helping at the Water Street Cafe. "Right now we just have people coming to downtown to drop off dry cleaning or get their hair cut, and we need more than that."

"I think it is the best thing to happen to Henderson," said Phyllis Thompson, developer of the proposed $120 million Fountain Plaza, a major project in downtown Henderson's revitalization that is expected to break ground by the end of the year. "If everybody works together, it can work."

One downtown employee looked forward to the college location not only for the business it will bring, but also as a potential student. Current plans call for the college to begin offering classes in temporary facilities by fall 2001.

"I like the idea of the college," said David McLaughlin, an employee of Port of Subs, 3 Water St., and a senior at Basic High School. "Henderson is growing, and it deserves to have its own college."

Plans to offer classes by 2001 are going full speed ahead, said Dr. Richard Moore, the college's founding president, who also praised the proposed site.

"I think it is the best of the sites reviewed," he said. "It also gives us room to expand in the future."