Group proposes sports complex at old airport

Dan Kulin

Friday, Dec. 26, 2003 | 11:35 a.m.

The barren patch of desert that is the old and abandoned Boulder City Airport would be transformed into a $25 million sports complex with ball fields for tournaments and sports camps by summer 2005 under a proposal expected to go before the City Council next month.

The Hang Time Sports Complex would include a fitness center for residents to join, plus numerous courts and fields for basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball and softball on 38 acres between Nevada Way and the city's Boulder Creek Golf Club.

The group proposing the project is headed by two former Boulder City High School graduates who see their hometown as the ideal place for a complex featuring sports tournaments, camps, and possibly a place for professional athletes to train or rehabilitate after an injury. Boulder City is a relatively small, quiet place without gambling or strip clubs, that is close, about 20 minutes, from the entertainment-filled Las Vegas Strip.

"The one thing that no one can compete with us on is Las Vegas," Hang Time Sports CEO John Balistere said. "Everyone wants to come to Las Vegas."

The sports complex would also be a boon for the small city, they and the mayor say, because it would bring visitors to Boulder City, and possibly additional business to the nearby city-owned golf course.

"I think it's good and I think it will happen," Mayor Bob Ferraro said. "It would bring a number of new and different people to the city and next to the golf course."

City Councilwoman Andrea Anderson said the complex seems very ambitious, and would be great for the city if it happened.

"It would bring in people to stay here and spend their money and visit the town and then go home," she said.

Balistere and group Vice President Jim Ferrence both pegged the complex's chances of being built around 80 percent. Both said they don't plan to ask the city to help pay for the complex, although they do expect some government funds would be used to pay for a new road, any necessary extensions of water or sewer lines, and maybe even some landscaping in the area.

Under the current proposal, the company would lease the old airport site from the city. Ferrence said the rent could end up being around $100,000 a month. Ferrence said the group also wants an option to lease an additional 20 acres in the future, possibly to build dormitories for the complex.

Buying the property, which in Boulder City would require approval by the voters, seems to not be an option. Ferrence said the group couldn't wait until the November election for a decision on whether they could use the land, and Ferraro said he would oppose a land sale because he said the city should maintain ownership and therefore ultimate control over what happens on the land.

Balistere said hopefully he and Ferrence's ties to the community will help swing support their way. In addition to growing up in the city, Balistere still lives there and was coach of the high school's boys basketball team for most of the 1990s.

Ferrence now lives in Henderson, but his parents still live in Boulder City, and his father Bill is manager of the local credit union. Ferrence is also senior vice president at Paladin Advertising, a Las Vegas firm, and was campaign manager for Ferraro's successful re-election campaign earlier this year.

Ferrence and Ferraro said they don't think their former relationship will keep the mayor from voting on the proposed sports complex. Ferrence said even if it did, the other council members have been so supportive of the proposal that Ferraro's vote wouldn't make or break the project anyway.

"I feel confident that we can come to an agreement with Boulder City," Ferrence said. "The private financing is the key."

Ferrence and Balistere said they plan to meet with many city residents to explain their plan, and show potential skeptics that this project is not going to be a financial burden to the city.

"The knee-jerk reaction is that this is another city-financed project and that's not what's going to happen," Ferrence said. "We're not looking for anything like a check from the city."

Ferraro said he would oppose any city money going to the project. But he said there's a chance some city redevelopment money could be used to pay for infrastructure improvements, such as roads, around the site.

Former City Councilman Bill Smith, who lost the June mayoral election to Ferraro by 18 votes, is one of the people with whom Ferrence and Balistere said they plan to talk before the next council meeting.

Smith said although he hadn't heard of the proposed complex, he hopes the council thoroughly reviews the proposal before agreeing to support it.

Smith said the city was lucky to get out of two recent deals for the land, which was the city airport until about 10 years ago. Previous plans for the site have included a movie studio and space museum, but both fell through.

The City Council is scheduled to consider a memorandum of understanding for Hang Time Sports on Jan. 13.

"It would give us the weight of the city behind the project," Ferrence said about the proposed memorandum.

Balistere said the group's plan calls for keeping the old airport hanger and renovating the inside of it with the hopes of luring the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame to the complex.

Overall the complex would include 11 basketball/volleyball courts indoors, plus eight baseball/softball fields, four tennis courts, four sand volleyball courts, and batting cages outdoors.

Proponents said the idea has already garnered support from some notable names including Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, who Balistere said would host basketball camps there, and a representative from the Los Angeles Clippers, who said in a letter that the team might use the complex for training.