A Year After Opening, Future Still Bright For Mesquite Exit 118

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

It was just a year ago last week, when the newest interchange on Interstate 15 in northeastern Clark County opened to traffic. It was a grand celebration in the City of Mesquite on July 21, 2016 for the opening of the exit 118. The grand opening event drew a throng of people, despite temperatures being above 100 degrees by mid morning. All were excited to see this $20 million construction project completed and put to good use.

A year later, things appear pretty much the same at exit 118; that is, if you are just speeding by on the interstate. But that status quo perception is quite deceiving. Behind the scenes, there has been a flurry of activity and preparation over the past year for development at the site. And for those who take the time to get off at the exit and take a close look around, it is quickly apparent that a lot of work has been done on the ground too.

The next year is shaping up to be a busy one at exit 118. There are two major projects in the works: the Eagles Landing truck stop, and a regional RV service center by The REV Group. Eagle’s Landing is expected to starting construction within the next couple of months. So progress at exit 118 will soon be quite visible, even for those speeding by on the interstate.
“These things always seem to go slower than you want them to,” said George Gault, the former president of Mesquite Regional Business, Inc. who was instrumental in enticing the two companies to Mesquite. “Of course, everyone wants to see construction get started right away. But it takes some time to get through the process. But we are getting there and it is really exciting.”

Top of the Line Travel Plaza
Eagle’s Landing is expected to be the first of the two projects to start construction. Indeed, there has already been a huge amount of work done in preparation for building on the site.
A mammoth dirt work project has been underway over the past year to fill in a natural depression in the landscape where the new travel plaza facility will be located. The company has moved no less than 785,000 cubic yards of dirt to prepare the 25 acre site.
“I tell people that if they want to see what $1 million of dirt looks like they should take a drive over there and take a look at what they have done,” Gault said. “They have spent a lot of money in just moving dirt. It is pretty impressive.”

Total construction costs on the Eagle’s Landing facility is expected to be at around $10 million, according to Rick Anderson, who is both a partner in Eagle’s Landing and the owner of NCC Construction, the company building the travel plaza. Building plans for the facility have been submitted to the City. They are currently under review and awaiting approval.
Anderson said that the official groundbreaking for Eagle’s Landing is expected to take place by October 1 this year.
“If everything goes according to plan, our goal is to be open in the February to March timeframe,” Anderson said.

The travel plaza will be a huge facility with a main building of 18,600 sq ft. The large convenience store will provide full truck stop services as well as retail services for passenger vehicles. The gas station will be equipped with 14 pumps for cars in the front, and 8 pumps for trucks in the back of the building. More than 10 acres, enough for about 100 spots, will be devoted to semi-truck parking.

The center will also gear toward visitors and tourists to the area. The gas station will offer high octane fuel for travellers looking to fill up their off-road vehicles before hitting the trails, Anderson said.
In addition a Wendy’s restaurant will be located inside of the facility, as well as a Dunkin Donuts coffee shop. A tire shop and a liquor store will also be located on site. And negotiations are underway for a truck washing facility to be placed on a separate, but adjacent, three acre parcel.

Visitors stopping at the travel center will also be met with an impressive Veteran’s Memorial displayed at the front of the property. It will feature a huge bronze figure of an eagle which is 15 feet tall, and having a wingspan of no less than 12 feet. The eagle will be placed on a pedestal with memorial plaques displayed at each side.
“The memorial will have American Flags flying as well as flags honoring veterans from all wars fought by American servicemen,” Anderson said.

As part of its agreement with the City, Eagle’s Landing is committed to hiring a total of 40 employees at the facility. But that is a low number according to Anderson.
“We will easily blow right past that,” Anderson said. ‘Wendy’s alone has told us that they will hire just short of 30. And the truck stop and store will have better than 40.”
By final build-out, the site should be employing a total of 70-90 people, Anderson said.

Once the travel plaza opens, Anderson expects it will become a very busy place. It is in an ideal location to service the 35,000 vehicles per day travelling along I-15, he said.
“It is going to be a high flow center, with easy accessiblity,” Anderson said. “It will be a good place for people to pull off and stop.”

World-class RV Service
A few steps right behind Eagle’s Landing, but offering every bit as much of an economic boon to Mesquite, is the REV Group. The nationwide company manufactures more than 20,000 new specialty vehicles every year, from heavy-duty landscaping equipment to school buses, RVs, motorcoaches and even fire engines.

The REV Group facility being planned in Mesquite is a regional RV Technical Service Center. The facility will be located on 11.4 acres which sits right next to Star Nursery on Pioneer Blvd. in the Mesquite Technical and Commerce Center (MTCC); about a mile from exit 118.

The company’s initial plans were for a 40,000 sq foot facility equipped with 20-30 huge bays for doing full service and repair on all types and sizes of RVs. The company expected to begin with 30-40 employees. But there were plans to quickly ramp up the operation over time, expanding the building to as much as 80,000 sq ft and employ about 70 people. At its full build-out, the facility is expected to handle around 2,000 service appointments annually.

Local Workforce Training
Both of these major employers have expressed interest in partnering with local groups to develop a local workforce that fits their unique needs. Mesquite Works, a non-profit workforce development organization, is working with College of Southern Nevada to provide the necessary training for both facilities.

More to Come?
While enticing these two major companies to locate in Mesquite is viewed as a major triumph, there is still plenty of space for more economic growth as far as the City is concerned.
“It is exciting to see these things moving forward,” said Mesquite City Liaison Officer Aaron Baker. “But we’d love to see a lot more.”

And there is plenty of space for it. Through careful planning and investment, the City has put the MTCC in a very good position, Baker said. He explained that there are a total of 800 acres in the MTCC with 500 of those all ready and waiting for development.
But that also presents one of the most troublesome limitations: that there is virtually nothing already built and ready to move into. That poses a tricky problem especially for small or mid-size industrial operations that are unable, or unwilling, to build a new facility.
“I am getting calls of interest from businesses every week,” said Rachel Dahl, current president of Mesquite Regional Business. “I hear from companies that are wanting 50,000 sq ft, companies that are wanting 200,000 sq ft, even companies that are smaller and just want 5,000 sq ft. But there is nothing out there. If we had buildings we could put people in them because there is tons of interest in Mesquite. But many companies that I have talked to are ready now. They don’t want to wait to build something.”

Another drawback for Mesquite has traditionally been the lack of natural gas service to the city. Baker said that this has been a major negative factor for the city.
“We have had a lot of companies that were very interested in Mesquite but had to pass on it because of that,” Baker said. “They say, ‘I would come here tomorrow, but I just have to have natural gas.”

But bringing natural gas service may soon come to fruition for Mesquite. Recent state legislation has significantly brightened the prospect of bringing service the relatively long distance to the city. And regional utility, Southwest Gas, has already made a filing to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada to bring service to the city. What’s more, the service would be for more than just industrial users.
“Originally the (Southwest Gas) filing was just a commercial play to service new commercial users,” Baker explained. “But it has now shifted and they are talking about possibly doing all new residential. And if enough people in an existing area want them to do a retrofit to bring it to existing homes, they might do that too.”

With all of these factors coming together, the future is considered bright for the city and the general region.
“It is an interesting and exciting time for the area,” Dahl said. “I have seen such a rise, all of a sudden, in inquiries and in interest. Of course, it is a long process from there to actually bringing them here. But it will be exciting to see what is around the corner.”