Deal reached on land to obtain college site

Valerie Miller

Thursday, March 16, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.

If a verbal agreement reached this week holds up, the city of Henderson will give close to 91 acres to a developer in exchange for the 300 acres proposed as the site for Nevada State College.

Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said Wednesday the city and LandWell Corp. have verbally agreed to an exchange that would cement the plan to place the college just north of the intersection of Boulder Highway and Lake Mead Drive.

Three parcels of city-owned land would be included in the exchange, John Rinaldi, Henderson's property manager, said.

The largest parcel would be 65 acres of unappraised land north of the college site at McCormick Street and Warm Springs Road. The parcel is currently zoned public and semi-public, but will likely be rezoned when added to LandWell's Provenance development, Rinaldi said.

"This is an island of city land, but it is within the Provenance development," Rinaldi explained.

LandWell would get two other parcels in the trade: a 20-acre and a 6-acre site on the north end of Pabco Road, which were formerly used as wastewater evaporation treatment ponds and lie near the bird preserve.

No land now being used for the bird preserve is involved in the trade, he said.

The 20-acre parcel, valued between $400,000 and $500,000, currently has no zoning designation. It will likely be part of the Provenance development, Rinaldi said.

The 6-acre parcel is now zoned for public and semi-public uses and is valued at $138,000, Rinaldi said. LandWell, he said, plans on using that site for a golf course.

LandWell will contribute 300 acres for the college in exchange for the three parcels, Gibson said Wednesday.

LandWell is the development arm of Black Mountain Industries, which owns the Basic Management Industrial complex in Henderson.

Gibson said the agreement stipulates that the land exchange is conditional on the state college being built on the site, which is on the east side of Boulder Highway between Pabco Road and Water Street.

LandWell required that stipulation, because the site still must be approved by the university Board of Regents and funding for the college still must be approved by the Legislature.

Gibson said the exchange would not involve any cash expenditure by the city.

The Provenance master-planned community will be developed as a "pedestrian-friendly college village," Bonnie Rinaldi, assistant city manager, said at a Feb. 29 City Council meeting. The council at that meeting approved the site and authorized the city to begin negotiating with LandWell.

The legislative Advisory Committee to Examine Locating a Four-Year State College in Henderson is scheduled to make a recommendation on the site Friday at the Community College of Southern Nevada's Henderson campus.

Gibson said he is pleased with the LandWell agreement.

"The city has committed to provide the land for the college, and we've gone out and negotiated with a private developer to acquire the land at no cost to the university system," Gibson said.

While Gibson said he did not know the exact value of the 300 acres, Vicki Taylor, assistant to the city manager, had estimated its worth at about $45 million.

Gibson said that while the LandWell property is not the only possible site, it is the best suited for the college.

"The city looked at about seven sites, and the city had land it could have used for the college, but this site is really the best, because it gives us 300 acres instead of a 200-acre site, which we originally thought would be adequate, and it gives us room to expand the college," Gibson explained.

The college could eventually be expanded to 500 to 600 acres, he added.

"The city does not own the additional land needed to expand, but we could acquire it from the land owners," Gibson said. The land owners of the surrounding property include LandWell, he said.

Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, who sits on the advisory committee along with Gibson, also voiced his support of the site. He said he expects the advisory committee Friday to recommend it to the regents.

"I think that the committee members are all in accord on this site," Perkins said Wednesday. "It's hard not to favor this site because of the proximity of infrastructure to this location and the accessibility."

Also on the agenda for Friday's advisory committee meeting is a recommendation of a mission statement and preliminary master plan for the campus, as well as a preliminary enrollment plan and operating budget for the 2001-03 biennium.