Mesquite is hoping for a takeoff

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 | 11:28 a.m.

In the far northeast corner of Clark County, the small town of Mesquite has led the state in growth. Now the town is looking for an airport to fuel its growing metropolitan ambitions.

With a population of about 9,400, Mesquite is still dwarfed by the big towns in the county. Even Boulder City has a population of 15,000, according to the 2000 census.

But a new city airport in Mesquite capable of serving large passenger and cargo jets could be operating within four years, city officials and business boosters say.

The airport would bring in junkets of casino customers for the local resorts and could serve as a cargo portal to both Las Vegas and southwestern Utah, including St. George.

The new airport would be capable of taking all but the biggest commercial jets, far eclipsing the capabilities of the old Mesquite airport, which would become residences under the city's preliminary plans.

Armed with a $500,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration and a federal land grant of 2,500 acres, the city has hired San Francisco-based Ricondo and Associates to do a "master plan" for the new airport.

A big part of the job will be judging the demand for a new airport, said Danielle Rinsler, managing consultant with Ricondo.

"We would be looking at other airports in the region and what the region could support in terms of airports," she said. "Certainly, throughout Clark County there is a strong market for passenger service."

There are several other new airports on the drawing board for the region.

The demand for passenger and cargo flights to Las Vegas has led to crowding at McCarran International Airport, which is run by county government. McCarran handles about 33 million passengers a year, and this week was named the world's seventh-busiest by Airports Council International, a global association of airports.

Clark County Department of Aviation officials have predicted that McCarran will top out within 10 years with about 55 million passengers a year. In response to the crunch, the department is seeking to build its own new airport.

The county received the right to buy 6,500 acres of Bureau of Land Management property in the Ivanpah Valley, a dry lake bed about 30 miles south of Las Vegas, in an October 2000 act of Congress.

The proposed Ivanpah airport would cost about $500 million and open in 2009 at the earliest, McCarran officials have predicted. The Ivanpah airport would handle 25 million to 30 million passengers a year as well as cargo.

The local group of the Sierra Club, an environmental organization that opposed the Ivanpah approval, is also taking a critical stance toward the airport at Mesquite.

"It would be a waste of resources to put a big airport in Ivanpah and in Mesquite," said Jessica Hodge, an organizer with the club in Las Vegas. She said the organization's members will look carefully at the environmental reviews that will be needed for any construction.

Hilarie Grey, McCarran spokeswoman, said county aviation planners don't see a new Mesquite airport as competition for either McCarran or Ivanpah, in part because of the distance from Las Vegas. The proposed Mesquite airport would be about 12 miles closer to Las Vegas than Mesquite itself, but would still be over an hour away on Interstate 15 from the larger town.

City officials in St. George, in southwestern Utah, said they also are hoping to build a new airport. The town of about 50,000 is about 35 miles northwest of Mesquite. That airport would serve the golf courses and recreational needs for the community.

But even with other new airports in the region, Mesquite's new airport would be a benefit to the town and Clark County, said Natalie Hafen, a businesswoman with Prudential Mesquite Realty and a member of a 12-person town committee seeking to establish the new airport.

"It'll be a great addition to the Mesquite area," Hafen said.

The main benefit will be jobs, she said. Hafen envisions an industrial park and cargo operations as an economic alternative to resort-casinos, which dominate Mesquite's business life and employment picture.

"The main concern is bringing in freight," she said.

One part of the congressional act that provides the land for the new airport also provides up to 3,000 more acres for the city to purchase from the BLM. Hafen said the additional acres would be suited for an industrial park or cargo center that would serve the greater Las Vegas area.

Allen Bell, Mesquite's city engineer and director of economic development, sees a different purpose in a new airport. Bell said a focus of the new airport will be to bring in junkets of vacationers and conventioneers to Mesquite.

The airport also could serve as a gateway for e-commerce workers who are seeking a quiet life in the country but need quick access to other cities, Bell said.

Bell said the new airport would cost $50 million to $65 million. The funding source is "uncertain," he said.

One potential revenue source would be a $1 a night room tax on visitors to Mesquite, he said. Another possibility is to work with private investors to develop the airport and an adjacent commercial park.

Selling the old airport would also bring in $8 million or more, Bell said.

The town's old airport is located on about 150 acres inside Mesquite. Bell said the land is well situated for residential development, in part because it is sandwiched between two golf courses.

"We're trying to leave all the potential avenues open" for funding, he said.

One avenue that Bell and Hafen said will not be part of a funding deal is directly taxing the citizens of Mesquite.

Bell said the funding options are only part of the puzzle that needs to come together to build a new airport. He said opening the airport is a realistic goal in four to eight years.

But he believes his town needs the air portal "as soon as we can get it."

"We think it's important to the economy."