New state money can lure private funding at UNLV

Monday, Feb. 28, 2005 | 10:56 a.m.

University system officials are asking the Board of Regents and state lawmakers to approve a $20 million expansion to the proposed UNLV Greenspun College of Urban Affairs building, bringing the building's cost to more than $60 million.

The Greenspun family has already agreed to chip in another $10.2 million for the proposed expansion if the state agrees to provide another $9.8 million, UNLV President Carol Harter said.

"They are a very generous family and they are very excited about seeing the center of excellence for their college and their school housed in a first rate facility," Harter said of the Greenspuns.

The expansion would increase the size of the building from 86,000 to 115,000 square feet, Harter said, allowing the university to house almost all of the college's departments in the same building. The expansion also includes $8 million to $9 million in digital equipment for the college's television and radio stations.

If the expansion is approved by the regents, the University and Community College System of Nevada will be asking the Legislature for $95 million more than Gov. Kenny Guinn has already allocated in his capital construction list.

Guinn approved $96.14 million in state capital construction money for the system in his budget proposal, including $24.17 million for the Greenspun building. He also allocated $29 million in estate tax money.

But Harter and other system officials emphasized that the state can leverage its capital construction dollars by more investment in private-public partnerships like the Greenspun expansion.

Like the UNLV College of Urban Affairs, many of the currently unfunded projects on the system's wish list include supplemental money from outside resources, Daniel Klaich, vice chancellor for legal affairs, said. For instance, if lawmakers vote to give the system $67 million more to cover the top nine items on its list of unfunded priorities, they will really be getting almost $140 million in capital construction projects.

"We think that's a pretty exciting proposition," said Klaich, who is helping to organize the system's lobbying efforts.

That $140 million includes the state contribution, the $29 million in estate tax money and about $43 million in outside sources, according to a new proposed draft of the system's capital improvement list.

A lot of those dollars, such as the $10 million from the Greenspun Family Foundation and $3.47 million in federal grant money for the Desert Research Institute's Computer Automated Virtual Environment Facility, will be lost if the state request isn't met, Klaich said.

"All of these are funds that will enhance the state appropriation but they are clearly all dependent on the state appropriation," Klaich said.

Brian Greenspun, president and editor of the Las Vegas Sun, said he and his family decided to invest more money in the College of Urban Affairs after they realized they wouldn't be able to do all they wanted for the college in the current plans. The family already has committed $16 million to the $40 million version.

"From our standpoint, it is silly for us to get involved and build a building that doesn't do the right job," Greenspun said.

It was particularly important to make sure the planned television and radio stations trained journalism students on the digital equipment they will be using in their future workplaces, Greenspun said. The journalism school within the college is named after Greenspun's father, Sun founder Hank Greenspun.

"We don't give these students a chance if we don't train them on the highest technology available," Greenspun said.

Greenspun said he hoped his family's donation would spur more private-public partnerships and that the Legislature would step up and support those partnerships with matching state money.

The proposed expansion would have to be approved by the Board of Regents at a special meeting March 18 before it can be presented to lawmakers, Klaich said.