37-acre business park set to break ground

Mathis Winkler

Friday, Nov. 23, 2001 | 9:59 a.m.

When Rick Smith first checked out Cheyenne Avenue as a location for a high-end business park, the abundance of available land impressed him.

Lots were still cheap compared with other parts of the Las Vegas Valley, the developer found. The street's proximity to freeways and homes also convinced Smith that the six-mile stretch crossing the city from east to west could draw in more upscale businesses.

"If you can do the same thing that Summerlin did at a cost that is less, and you're 10 minutes from Summerlin, it's hard to imagine that you don't have a competitive advantage," Smith said. "If this can become a street of dreams that includes high-tech companies, it would surpass our greatest intentions."

On Tuesday, RDC/Insight LLC, Smith's company, will break ground on a 37-acre development at the intersection of Cheyenne Avenue and Simmons Street. The first phase, due to open in March, will include office space, buildings for corporate headquarters and distribution centers.

Upon completion in three to four years, CheyenneWest Corporate Center will also include buildings for light industrial companies as well as retail space and restaurants. With about 500,000 square feet of space, the property will be worth roughly $50 million and provide jobs for up to 2,000 people.

Bringing in high-tech businesses will also help the valley's economy to become less dependent on the gaming and tourism industry, Smith said.

The prospect excites city officials.

"It's exactly what we're hoping to see," said Mike Majewski, the city's economic development director, who has been meeting with Smith and other developers along Cheyenne Avenue to discuss their infrastructure needs.

While big, nondescript warehouses have so far dominated the city's business landscape, city officials hope that Smith's project will lead the way to a higher economic level.

Such mixed-use business parks bring in more money for developers, Majewski said, adding that the city also benefits as tax revenue increases.

"It's a perfect joint venture between property owners and the city," he said.

Several other developers are planning similar business parks along Cheyenne Avenue. But it will take years before the vision of a Cheyenne Tech Corridor between North Las Vegas Airport and the Community College of Southern Nevada's Cheyenne campus becomes reality, Mayor Michael Montandon said.

"We won't see it overnight, although this is Vegas and things move a little quicker here than in the rest of the world," he said. "It's better to plan right so that we have the kind of economic city that we want 15 or 20 years from now."

The tech corridor project is part of a plan to improve the city, he said. Higher-end businesses will bring in more affluent employees, who could then live in a proposed master-planned community on 1,900 acres at the northern end of town.

Sharon Powers, the executive director of the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, also described the plan as a "great opportunity" for the city.

But she cautioned that the current economic downturn will make it more difficult to attract businesses in the near future.

One of the city's poster-child tech companies recently closed its doors, she said. Relera, a Denver-based company that provides Internet services for other businesses, shut its North Las Vegas office only a few months after coming to the city, because company officials were unable to attract enough customers, Powers said.

But Smith said that sluggish economic times didn't worry him too much.

"We feel that a downturn is just that," he said, adding that he expected things to pick up again by the middle of next year.

"If you don't aim high, you won't hit anything," Smith said.