Developers plan 2 million-square-foot industrial park in Henderson

A consortium of developers led by general contractor Mike Dean and former homebuilder Terry Manley is seeking approval from the city of Henderson to buy 150 acres near Henderson Executive Airport for $13.6 million, with plans to build a 2 million-square-foot industrial park.

The South15 Airport Center would be a joint venture between Dean, owner of M.J. Dean Construction; Manley, owner of New West Co.; and Doug Roberts, partner at Panattoni Development.

The project has some large users "poking around," including FedEx and a large national distribution company, a source familiar with the project said. FedEx occupies a 125,000-square-foot facility in Henderson, and the lease is set to expire soon.

"Our intention is to close (escrow)," Manley said Tuesday. "We're looking at breaking ground in the first quarter of 2013 with infrastructure and some of the backbone."

He said the "gold standard" for industrial land is along the Beltway in the southwest Las Vegas Valley, with easy access to the Strip, McCarran International Airport and California.

"We're sort of pioneering this location," Manley said. "We're going to offer prices lower than the southern leg of the Beltway. We have a location closer to California and the Beltway pricing is starting to get out of reach. It's probably $7, $8, $9, $10 a foot."

Panattoni has been marketing the industrial park for several months but wouldn't start building until escrow had closed, Roberts said. With 15 percent industrial vacancy in Las Vegas, the economy doesn't allow for "speculative" building, he said.

The land, acquired from the Bureau of Land Management, has been in the planning phase for about three years, Henderson economic development director Bob Cooper said. Another 350-acre parcel is located south of the runway.

"We had a period of time where we sat down and asked, 'What would you like out there? What's the best use to sell it for?' We didn't feel culturally that it was best to own and sell a business park. That's what the private sector does," Cooper said.

The Henderson City Council will consider the item at its Oct. 16 meeting.

Before city officials put the property on the market, they researched it for water and sewage, drainage canals, road placement, soil condition and potential power line locations.

"You don't want to buy a pig in a poke," Cooper said. "You've got to know exactly what you're getting."

Cooper said the city set design guidelines for what the industrial park would look like and came across a couple of developers with a great degree of interest. One of them was Panattoni, which has already developed several commercial properties in Las Vegas.

Whoever buys the land has to build an industrial park and come out of the ground with 2 million square feet of buildings, Cooper said. That's going to require millions of dollars in infrastructure work.

The land is being offered at fair market value.

The highest of two appraisals came in a little more than $2 a square foot, Cooper said. It's not going to be a great deal, but it's not a rotten deal either, he said.

Henderson does not receive proceeds from the sale. The money goes to the BLM fund established by the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act of 1998.

The parcel is not a perfect rectangle. There were a variety of parcels totaling about 20 acres that were needed to square off the land, and Panattoni agreed to acquire them.

Panattoni had Amazon.com as a good prospect to put in the park, but the company decided to go to California instead, Cooper said.

"That's the way business recruitment goes. You don't win them all," he said. "They have two businesses waiting in the wings. We'll know about them when they come to us for building permits. The good news is they're moving forward, putting money into the development, hiring for construction and they've got two businesses interested in the park. We've heard FedEx is looking all over the valley."

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.