State’s colleges get creative in securing funds for growth

Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006 | 7:41 a.m.

Long-standing efforts to upgrade Nevada's college campuses and build new facilities with the help of private investors are advancing, with officials now broaching legal details of novel financing schemes that venture into uncharted territory for the state.

Nevada hopes to join other states that have successfully incorporated retail centers, restaurants, housing and private research offices on public campuses in order to create revenue streams to help cover the cost of campus and neighborhood improvements.

"We should have been doing this 12 years ago," Regent Mark Alden said at an investment committee meeting Tuesday.

Chancellor Jim Rogers has been pushing these projects since he took office in May 2004, but only in the last few months have the ideas begun moving toward reality, with checklists and timelines toward completion.

But the projects aren't without their challenges. Both UNLV and CCSN, for instance, need acts of Congress to overcome Bureau of Land Management restrictions on their land that prevent commercial use. The projects include:

For as much progress that's being made on the various development fronts, obstacles slow the efforts.

For instance, last week CCSN President Richard Carpenter pulled his college's apartment project from a committee agenda because of too many unanswered questions, including the value of the land at the Henderson campus and tax liability on the revenue generated for the college.

The apartment proposal may become the boilerplate for future private partnerships, so officials are acting with "more scrutiny than normal," said Carpenter, who hopes to bring the project back before regents in January.

"This may be the cookie cutter so we want to make sure the model is perfect," Carpenter said.

Because these are privately funded projects, the system is not required to seek competitive developer bids, but Rogers and other officials say they have pursued partnerships with multiple developers. All of the developers selected so far have donated to the university system.

"There is more than enough work for everybody," Rogers said. The work will go to developers who offer the best deals, he said.

Developer Michael Saltman, who gave more than $2 million to UNLV's Boyd School of Law to create the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution, proposed UNLV's Midtown project along Maryland Parkway. Saltman wants to demolish his Promenade Shopping Center at Harmon Avenue and Maryland Parkway and a second commercial facility he owns at Rochelle Avenue and Maryland Parkway, rebuilding in their place a retail, office and condominium space. He also co-owns the University Park Apartments behind the north side of UNLV's campus, which he plans to demolish to build new student housing.

UNLV recently completed a new student union, will break ground on a new Greenspun College of Urban Affairs next month, and has plans to rebuild the main entrance, Frazier and Grant Hall. Saltman hopes other developers will be attracted to the area by those renovation efforts and says narrowing Maryland Parkway is crucial to making it more pedestrian-friendly.

The goal is to create a university district much like that of UCLA's Westwood Village or Arizona State University's Mill Street that will help recruit people to work and live around UNLV and elevate the quality of campus life.

Clark County commissioners directed UNLV and county workers on Tuesday to seek grant money from the state to help pay for a $600,000 project to temporarily reduce Maryland Parkway to four lanes and measure the traffic impact on neighboring streets. The temporary project includes new curbing and landscaping so drivers will be encouraged to take alternate routes.

The thought of demolishing buildings and narrowing Maryland Parkway is "unsettling" to residents and business owners in the area, but most also see it as a positive move for the community and UNLV.

"Everybody agrees that this is a great project," Saltman said. "The question is just how do we do it."