Time running out for developer Thompson

Jeffrey Libby

Monday, Aug. 6, 2001 | 10:44 a.m.

Some say the story of Fountain Plaza hasn't ended.

Henderson developer Phyllis Thompson, a high school dropout, former casino waitress and, more recently, a real estate manager and philanthropist, is one of them.

But if Thompson is going to build the downtown redevelopment project to which she has become inextricably linked during the past 2 1/2 years, she will have to come up with funding sources for $27 million -- within two weeks.

That's when the Henderson Redevelopment Agency plans to launch a national campaign soliciting building proposals for commercial office and retail space at the corner of Water Street and Basic Road, about a block from City Hall.

It is the same site Thompson plans to use to build a 105,000 square-foot commercial complex. She owns more than half of the 7-acre site.

"Once we start with the RFP (request for proposals), we're headed down a path where it'd be difficult to restart with Phyllis," Bob Wilson, manager of the redevelopment agency, said. "We're getting close to that crossroad."

Thompson isn't ready to stop.

In the 1970s and '80s Thompson was known to local contractors searching for cement on a Sunday night as "Mrs. Basic." She and her late husband, Charles "Chuck" Thompson, squeezed a one-truck company, Basic Ready Mix, into a big market and made it despite long odds, eventually selling the 175-truck company in 1991 for about $20 million.

And Thompson says she can build Fountain Plaza, a project she says will bring jobs and new business to a main street that has faded during the past three decades.

Once more, having built one strip mall and a handful of homes, Thompson is a small player in a market of giants, such as developers Del Webb and KB Homes.

And time is short.

Before the city listens to further proposals from Thompson, Wilson said she must provide proof of financial backing from a qualified lender. Letters-of-interest or letters-of-intent won't cut it, he said.

The Henderson City Council on July 17 killed Thompson's exclusive deal to build what would have been the first large-scale commercial complex in the old downtown since the redevelopment agency was formed in 1995. Council members denied a requested 30-day extension, saying they had already granted enough extensions and that additional time would not help her to secure financing.

The deal, which is no longer officially on the table, included city resources as an incentive to Thompson. It included 17 house lots worth $2.6 million, improvements to infrastructure worth another $1.1 million and a percentage of tax revenue over a 25-year period.

"We want to be building within six months, by the first of the year," Wilson said.

Victor Vincent, vice-president of Phyllis E. Thompson, LLC, said the city's plan to break ground with a new developer by January is overly optimistic. Other developers, excepting the largest, will also find it difficult to secure backing for a redevelopment project in an unproven market, he said.

Despite the setbacks, Thompson's desire to build in downtown has not cooled. She has purchased two houses for the Fountain Plaza project since the city canceled the deal, she said. The homes would be demolished if she gets backing. She is closer to a deal with six lenders, she said, but has not obtained a signed contract from any of them.

The loss of the exclusive contract with the city hasn't help her efforts to secure financing, she said.

She has been buoyed, however, by support from residents and local charities. They have sent cards, e-mail and even flowers, she said.

On Friday she read aloud a note sent to her by e-mail. "Everything is OK in the end," the note said. "If it's not, then it's not the end."

Looking up from the note, she rubbed absentmindedly at the "Lucky 13" necklace she has worn since she was a child growing up on Center Street.

"You don't give up. You never give up," she said. "And I'm not going away."