Bond sale OK’d for halfway house

Friday, Sept. 24, 2004 | 9:38 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Board of Finance on Thursday approved the sale of bonds to pay for a halfway house in Las Vegas to prepare prisoners for release.

The $22 million project will be the state's second lease-purchase arrangement for a major public works project.

Lehman Brothers Inc. of Seattle agreed to purchase the $22.4 million in certificates of participation with the state to pay an average interest rate of 4.67 percent for the next 28 years, after which the state will own the building and the land. The total state payment will be $36.7 million.

The halfway house, dubbed Casa Grande, is to be built on Quail Avenue at Wynn Road, near Russell Road.

The state Department of Corrections that oversees the prison system chose developer Irwin Molasky to build the center and then lease it back to the state.

KGA Architecture has been hired to help design the halfway house.

It will house 200 male inmates when it opens next year and an additional 200 in 2006. To qualify for the halfway house, the prisoners will have to be within four months of their release to society and will be able to get jobs and then return to the center at night. They will pay room and board.

State Treasurer Brian Krolicki said part of that room and board money paid to the state would be used to pay off the bonds.

The first lease-purchase agreement entered into by the state called for construction of an office building in Carson City for the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. That construction is now under way.