Monday, July 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.
Henderson is getting some good news about downtown redevelopment.
The 73-acre Lake Mead Crossing project on Water Street will open this month. The project is slated to bring 50 stores and 15 restaurants to the area near downtown Henderson. Target will be the first store to open. Its red-and-white sign is up along busy Lake Mead Parkway.
The opening comes as officials continue to push redevelopment efforts in the oldest section of the city. Over the past several years, there have been major downtown improvements including sidewalk widening and public art. That’s in addition to more than $300 million in planned construction.
The city redevelopment agency will spend more than $600,000 to hire a designer to create a landscape buffer between traffic from Lake Mead Crossing and the residential neighborhood on the east side of Water Street. There are also plans for improvements along Boulder Highway and Pacific Road.
Less than two miles north of Lake Mead Crossing, there are plans for Cadence, the 2,200-acre master planned community being built by Landwell Co. on a former waste site.
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It hasn’t been all good news about redevelopment.
City officials have asked for revisions to redevelopment plans for the Boulder Highway Corridor. The proposal was scheduled to go before the city Planning Commission this summer. But last month commissioners and council members asked for revisions, citing concerns about a park in the median of the busy street, water use for the grass median and use of pedestrian areas in the sweltering desert heat.
The goal is to make an eight-mile section of Boulder Highway into a business district. The Regional Transportation Commission plans to add rapid transit along Boulder Highway in 2011.
Work on the plans is ongoing, city officials said.
The delay comes during the economic slump across the valley, which has delayed several projects in Henderson, including the planned City Towers on Water Street.
Some city officials question the feasibility of developing Boulder Highway, now known as a rough area, during the downturn.
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More than four years ago a vision for something called Hang Time Sports was unveiled in Boulder City. The plans were ambitious: eight baseball diamonds, five soccer fields, 11 indoor basketball courts and a 20,000-square-foot fitness center.
All of it would be placed on 100 acres near the Bootleg Canyon mountain bike park.
A couple of Boulder City natives, John Balistere and political consultant Jim Ferrence, said it would cost about $60 million. They were equipped with letters of support from NBA basketball teams, Pepsi-Cola Co. and Duke and Team USA basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Ferrence also hoped to lure the headquarters for USA Basketball, which trains all the national teams, to the region. The national teams rejected the Las Vegas bid and are now choosing among Louisville, Glendale, Ariz., and the existing facility at Colorado Springs, Colo.
Obviously, the grand vision has never come to fruition. At least not yet.
By the end of the year, the fate of the project will finally be determined.
The company recently entered into a six-month option to lease with Boulder City. It’s now waiting for the city to determine the monthly rate on the 100 acres. Two independent appraisals must be made. In 2005, the rate would have been $25,000 a month, or $300,000 a year.
Many in the small city hope the project pans out to draw business and tourism. The city has been working toward becoming a recreation destination with a pair of city-owned golf courses, a motocross park, the mountain bike park and its proximity to Lake Mead.
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