College officials think big

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 | 10:49 a.m.

Nevada State College President Fred Maryanski currently works in a renovated vitamin factory on the outskirts of Henderson.

But he has big dreams for the 550 acres next to that factory.

Maryanski and other college officials have been in talks with Henderson about ways to integrate the college's needs with the city's development of the master plan for the land.

Both college and city officials see a whole college town that seamlessly combines the academic facilities with housing, retail, food services and recreational uses.

Maryanski is also looking at the possibility of an on-site ambulatory health center and elementary school that would serve the needs of the community while serving as real-life laboratories for Nevada State faculty and students. The college would also partner with Henderson's library district to build a library that would fit the needs of students and the community.

Maryanski, in essence, wants to create the same kind of cultural and intellectual center for Henderson that UNLV President Carol Harter is trying to do on her central Las Vegas campus with Midtown UNLV. But Maryanski gets to start from scratch.

Maryanski said he wants to "build a campus really for the 21st century that serves all of our constituencies."

Henderson also has an additional 100 acres next to the campus that it plans to incorporate into the college's master plan, Bonnie Rinaldi, assistant city manager, said.

The city has designed its master plan around the planned light rail transit hub across the street from the college, and will be incorporating high density housing, retail and food services together, Rinaldi said.

The goal is to create a "walkable" place where people can walk, live and work and never have to use their cars, Rinaldi said.

Both the city and the college still need to work out the legal details of how they can use the land and how they might partner with private entities to develop it, Maryanski and Rinaldi said.

The Bureau of Land Management conveyed the land to the city for the specific use of the college in 2002.

The college hopes to finalize a bid request in the next few months that would be sent out to developers, Spencer Stewart, spokesman for the college, said. The goal is to find one company that has the means to oversee the whole project.

"I think it'd be a feather in anybody's cap to work on such an exciting project," Stewart said.

Anything they build has to fit into the larger educational mission of the college, Maryanski and Stewart said, and the college is not allowed to sell the land to a private developer.

Most likely, the college will enter into a long-term lease arrangement with a developer on the project, Stewart said. That developer could chose to build, finance and operate facilities on the land and pay a fee to the college, or the developer could build the facility and then the college would buy it back.

"We are in the big dream stage," Maryanski said, but he also added that they've had enough talks with the key players to know it is possible.

"We think we've done our homework in terms of feasibility, and we are looking at the legal aspects," Maryanski said.

The goal is to build the campus as quickly as possible by leveraging as many resources as possible, Maryanski said.