Henderson to triple redevelopment area

Valerie Miller

Friday, May 26, 2000 | 10:05 a.m.

Redevelopment efforts in Henderson are on the fast track, as a recent move toward tripling the redevelopment area rolls full speed ahead.

The City Council is slated to vote in November on expanding the redevelopment area from its existing 1,300 acres to more than 4,100. The current redevelopment area is centered on Henderson's downtown area and is expanding outward.

The move would add such private developments as the planned Palm City community in the Calico Ridge area, the 2,400-acre Provenance master-planned community and the adjacent 300-acre proposed site for the Nevada State College on the east side of Boulder Highway, north of Lake Mead Drive.

Community Development Director Mary Kay Peck said the college would be a big asset to redevelopment efforts because it will help spur development of coffee shops, bookstores and printing shops.

"Having the college there would bring in a whole new customer base," she said.

Mayor Jim Gibson said he hopes that the college, which has yet to be funded, helps spur revitalization beyond its immediate area.

"When we talk about redevelopment, we are thinking about more than just downtown," Gibson said. "If we don't link the college to downtown, we are missing one of the biggest opportunities."

On the other end of Henderson's redevelopment area, on the south end of Water Street, Phyllis Thompson's $100 million Fountain Plaza project is a step closer to construction. The Redevelopment Agency gave preliminary approval to a memorandum of understanding with the developer that puts the project on track.

The long-discussed development will bring 6.5 acres of office and retail space, as well as a pharmaceutical college, to downtown Henderson in three phases.

The city-sponsored Henderson Farmers Market has already helped bring people downtown.

"Our main goal is to create a lively, pedestrian-orientated downtown with successful businesses," Peck said. "The Farmers Market brought 5,000 people downtown on a recent night."

The city spent $60,000 last year on the market, which meets in the Henderson Convention Center parking lot on Water Street. Another $164,000 is budgeted for the project this year, city Finance Director Steve Hanson said.

The city provides the site for the Farmers Market and manages the activities of the weekly outdoor market. "We need to bring more foot traffic downtown," Peck said.

While some in Henderson had hoped that the redevelopment process would be quicker, the city is now realizing that revitalization is a long-term effort.

"This is an area that is taking more time than I thought it would," Gibson said. "But I think that it is moving as fast as it can move."

Gibson has learned to be patient with the redevelopment process. "I'm realizing that this is something that takes time."

Peck agrees.

"Successful redevelopment districts are created for 30 years, because redevelopment is a slow process," she said.

If plans for the expansion become a reality, though, redevelopment in Henderson could take place quicker than anyone could have anticipated when the process started in 1995.

Expanding the redevelopment area will allow taxes generated from within the zone to be spread over a larger area.

"Provenance and Palm City could go toward supporting redevelopment projects in downtown Henderson, as well as the economically depressed Pittman area and the Nevada State College," Hanson said.

Provenance alone could bring in about $145 million to the city over the next 25 years, city officials have said.

"I'm hoping that this (expansion) will happen, because it will give us the financing to do things that we have given lip service to for quite some time," Gibson said.