In 42 acres west of campus, UNLV eyes an opportunity to expand

By Ian Whitaker

Tuesday, April 7, 2015 | 2 a.m.

UNLV may have an opportunity to wiggle out of its cramped, landlocked spot near the Strip.

Administrators are setting their sights on a 42-acre, $50 million plot of empty land​ on Tropicana Avenue and Koval Lane just west of the main campus.

An agreement reached between the UNLV Foundation and the land's manager Wells Fargo would give the university until Dec. 18 to come up with a plan on what to do with the land, whether it be finding a place for a long-delayed multimillion-dollar stadium, research facilities or setting it aside for the medical school. The land is currently owned by Redus LLC.

UNLV finance and business chief Gerry Bomotti said university officials are still in the process of deciding.

“It basically allows us until the end of the calendar year to go through our due diligence steps,” he said.

That includes details like how the land could be connected to the main campus and how students and faculty would travel there. The land is on a busy stretch of Tropicana right on the north edge of two busy McCarran International Airport runways.

“We’re going to examine all the options of what we could use it for,” Bomotti said.

An early plan to site a campus stadium across from the Hard Rock Hotel was torpedoed by the Federal Aviation Administration, which said it was too dangerous for aircraft.

A similar agreement for the 42-acre parcel was reached in the past by Majestic Realty, the California-based developer that UNLV partnered with to find a location and funding for the stadium. In a surprise move, UNLV formally split with Majestic in 2013.

The current UNLV Master Plan calls for the university to revitalize the surrounding property around campus. It also calls for much of the university’s existing athletics facilities to be moved from the northwest side of campus to land west of Swenson Street near the Thomas & Mack Center.

“Much of our planning for the future has been focused on the east side of Maryland Parkway,” Bomotti said. “I think that we’re now trying to investigate the opportunities for growth out west of the campus.”

Final approval on any land sales would have to first be approved by the NSHE Board of Regents.