Thursday, May 19, 2005 | 10:01 a.m.
Chancellor Jim Rogers is actively pursuing private companies who can help the University and Community College System of Nevada meet some of its space needs.
Rogers has invited Tamkin Development Corp. to give a presentation on their services to the Board of Regents at the June meeting in Reno and plans to invite the Chevron Corp. to present in September, he said Monday.
Both companies specialize in designing, building and financing facilities for public agencies, including higher education systems, Rogers said. Under the lease-purchase arrangement, the private company constructs and pays for the building, and then the public agency leases the space back. Ownership ultimately reverts to the public agency after 10 to 30 years.
The lease-purchase process ultimately would allow the university system to construct buildings faster and cheaper than they currently can under the state Public Works Board, said Rogers, who is pursuing Legislative and regent approval for the concept.
"We've got to learn how to fast track everything," Rogers said.
The arrangements take the burden off the state's bonding capacity because they use money already being paid toward renting space or other revenue streams to cover the cost of the building, Daniel O'Brien, state Public Works manager, said.
State statute currently does not include the university system as one of the agencies allowed to enter into such private-public partnerships, but O'Brien said he saw no reason for the university system to be excluded from the list.
"We'd like to do more ourselves," O'Brien said of lease-purchase arrangements. "It's a way of solving some of the facility needs for the state. If the university has that available, maybe it can solve some of its space problems. All of the institutions are growing tremendously."
The state has had great success with a lease-purchase project in Carson City for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, O'Brien said, and is constructing a lease-purchase project for the Department of Human Resources in Carson City and for the state prison system in Clark County.
Senate Bill 409, which unanimously passed the Senate and is now in the Assembly Government Affairs committee, would include the university system as one of the agencies that can pursue lease-purchase arrangements.
On some lease-purchase projects, Public Works remains fully involved and on others they simply do the inspections, O'Brien said. Projects build on state-land are still subject to state bid and labor requirements.
The lease-purchase projects are also what O'Brien calls "design-build." Projects are fast tracked because they team the architect and the builder together in the beginning rather than designing the project and then sending it out to bid.
Currently, Rogers said, university system officials ask lawmakers for money for buildings, and then in the two-year interim while they are designing the building, the costs skyrocket.
Rogers said he is still looking at what revenue streams the system will use for the lease partnerships, including whether they can use capital construction funds toward the leases. He's hoping a lease-purchase arrangement of some kind may help him build a new classroom facility at the Community College of Southern Nevada.
The college needs a $30 million, 100-classroom facility, officials said, but they only asked for a $10 million, 30-classroom facility because of other pressing capital construction needs in the system.
Most regents said they supported the idea.
"It's something we need to take a strong look at," Regents Chairman Stavros Anthony said.
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