Developer says she’s ready to break ground on Fountain Plaza

Jeffrey Libby

Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2001 | 11:15 a.m.

Gritty, blue-collar downtown Henderson is attracting an upscale crowd with a penchant for perfection.

At the Water Street Coffee Company this past weekend, that meant that a pair of women in their Sunday best returned to the counter and rang the service bell to have their pastries reheated a second time.

There should be more downtown shops offering this level of service opening soon.

Local developer Phyllis Thompson said Friday she plans to break ground next month on a retail and office complex built around a two-acre open-air plaza with numerous fountains and latticed alcoves.

On Thursday she will submit final plans to the city's redevelopment agency for a first phase that would build three retail and office buildings totaling 159,000 square feet at Water Street and Basic Road -- the south tip of the old downtown.

If accepted, the plans for Fountain Plaza will qualify Thompson's company for about $3.8 million in city assistance as part of the first public-private partnership brokered by the city's redevelopment agency. More financial assistance from the city would come each year for the next 25 years through a partial payback to the developer of tax revenues.

Supporters of the project say it would provide the first significant step toward revitalizing 1,307 acres of the old downtown that was designated as blighted by the City Council in 1995. Much of that acreage includes the original 1,000 townsite homes built by the federal government in the 1940s to house workers mining and processing magnesium for the war effort.

"This is the first project of its kind (in the downtown area) and we want this first one to succeed. It's important for it to succeed," Mayor Jim Gibson said. "In our estimation, if this can happen, it would be a good example of the public and private sector working together to bring new business and economic benefit to the downtown."

Bob Wilson, manager of the redevelopment agency, said last week he expects to sign off on Thompson's final design plans with few changes. But the plans, which require zoning amendments, still need approval from the Planning Commission and the City Council.

Thompson says if the project goes through the approval process without any unexpected setbacks, construction of the three buildings could be completed as early as September.

Wilson calls her development team members "eternal optimists."

The project is three years in the making and has seen many delays, including a controversy last July that slowed progress after reports surfaced that Thompson was playing hardball in negotiations with 12 homeowners. Thompson needed to persuade them to sell their homes by last December in order for the project to advance.

At the time Wilson applied some pressure of his own, issuing ultimatums to the developer on at least two occasions. "The sand is running thin," he said, threatening to end Thompson's exclusive agreement with the city.

But six months later, communications between the developer and the agency appear to have improved.

The project has been broken out into three phases, to better "eat the elephant one bite at a time," as Wilson puts it. And Thompson has managed to cut deals with 11 of the 12 homeowners.

She paid close to $16 a square foot for the house lots, amounting to as much as $180,000 for a quarter-acre lot. Most homes in the old downtown area average lots half that size and selling prices closer to $90,000.

Financing the payment plan for Thompson's new plaza, however, remains in negotiation. Three banks are considering writing a $21.8 million loan for the first phase of the project. But no deal has been struck, and Thompson has yet to raise the additional $4 million she says she needs in private funds.

But if Thompson can secure that funding, the city will provide her with 17 house lots worth $2.6 million and off-site improvements to sewer and water infrastructure worth another $1 million. The city also has promised to provide a $200,000 contingency fund.

That's on top of the tax revenue from the project that would be paid back to Thompson over 25 years, though Wilson would not estimate how much that might be worth.

But in order to earn those development incentives, Thompson must sign tenants for at least half of her business space, about 80,000 square feet. She has signed the Nevada School of Pharmacy to a 10-year lease, accounting for 50,000 square feet.

Thompson said she has letters of interest from several utilities companies, an ice cream parlor, a florist, a jewelry store and a dry cleaners. On Friday she discussed leasing a space to Tinocco's Bistro, an upscale lunch spot in Las Vegas that serves $12 lunch entrees and is popular with attorneys.

But to date the ambitious development, Thompson's first as an independent developer, remains in the conceptual stages.

"We want to bring back to the downtown an atmosphere where people can congregate, and communicate, where people can have a good time," Thompson said.

For Thompson, the project's ability to divert people from the booming Galleria Mall on West Sunset Road will center on a two-acre, open-air plaza. Trees, latticework, water misters and fountains will provide shade and relief from the summer heat, she said.

The plaza is in the project's second two phases, along with a convention center, more retail space, a hotel and a parking garage. When complete, the project is expected to provide 1,500 new jobs, a $32 million annual payroll and $3 million a year in city taxes.

The idea behind the plaza of fountains is to create an atmosphere that brings people together to relax, Victor Vincent, vice president of the Thompson development company, said.

"We want to build a place where people can go downtown and pay their utilities, drop off their cleaning, have lunch, maybe buy a book," Vincent said.

Vincent and Gibson both mention The Water Street Coffee Company as an example of the types of businesses needed in downtown. That store, like Starbucks and other shops of the moment, features bright interior paint, high ceilings, curves where 10 years ago carpenters built corners, and three to four types of sugar dispensers. An egg sandwich and a cup of coffee costs about $6.

But a trip north along Water Street reveals that many of the services the Thompson company hopes to bring back to a revitalized downtown already exist.

People can pay their electric bill at Nevada Power, drop off their laundry at Deva's Cleaners, get their nails done at two different locations and have lunch at the Coffee Company, either out on the patio or inside, depending on the season.

But despite the new palm trees lining the main street and the decorative lights illuminating their trunks at night, there are at least three empty storefronts along Water Street. And new businesses aren't exactly lining up to hang out fresh signs.

Henderson may have ranked as the fastest growing city in the nation through the 1990s, exploding from a population in 1989 of 65,000 to more than 200,000 today. But the downtown has seen little of that boom. The growth, in fact, has been just about everywhere but here.

The only significant new construction on Water Street since 1989 has been the City Hall building, kitty-corner to the proposed Fountain Plaza, and the Justice Court building, just across Basic Road from the project.

Just across the street from the popular coffee shop is a small townsite house on Nebraska Avenue, serving as an unpleasant reminder of last year's hot, angry summer.

Owner Philip Orndoff, 74, a retired accountant, still refuses to sell the home he bought in the mid-1990s and has rented since then to his son. Once part of a cozy neighborhood, the house today looks out on mostly parking lot, where 17 homes have been bought up and paved over by the city.

Thompson said she plans to build around Orndoff's house for now, but she hopes to bring him to the negotiating table. Both she and Vincent have difficulty containing their frustration when they discuss his reticence.

But Orndoff, confined to a motorized wheelchair in his Highland Hills home, is resolute in his refusal to sell for the time being.

"You know what the story is. It's called money," Orndoff said. "Anything can be bought or sold for a price. Everything is for sale. And we have a price. But we have never been presented with a bona fide real estate offer."

Like some of the Sunday clientele at the Water Street Coffee Company, Orndoff knows what he's worth, and he's insisting on full service.

archive