City Council Approves NRC Development Agreement

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The Mesquite City Council approved a development agreement for a residential project involving up to 352 acres of city-owned land located on Hardy Way, west of Falcon Ridge Blvd., during a meeting held on Tuesday night, Oct. 24. The agreement brought the city together with local developer Nevada Residential Construction (NRC) on the project which is slated to bring a mix of standard market-rate housing along with areas of more affordable workforce housing units.

The project has been a matter of discussion with the city since the beginning of 2022. On June 28, NRC made a proposal to the Council for the purchase of the 352 acres for the housing project. At that time, the Council approved the general concept of the project and also the sale of the land to NRC for economic development purposes. But the council gave instruction that staff work with NRC on a formal development agreement for the project.

At last week’s meeting, Deputy City Manager Martine Green said that city staff had reviewed the agreement and made several changes to it that were needed. These included eliminating a sports complex which had been proposed on an additional 33 acres at the northeast corner of the parcel in an earlier map of the project.

“Even though this is on the agenda today, the item leaves the discussion open to the Council for approval, modification or rejections of the agreement,” Green said.

City Manager Peter Jankowski expressed reticence about committing to sell the entire 350 acres to NRC for this project. He said that he would be more comfortable with agreeing to sell only an initial 110 acres of the land and save the remainder for a later date.

“From the beginning I have been a little bit reserved on this, only because this is the last large piece of property that the city has that has reasonable access to amenities for development,” Jankowski said. “I just want to make sure that this is the best and highest use of this property.”

Jankowski noted that the developer had expressed an interest in purchasing 110 acres at market rate for more standard single-family housing. But NRC also was asking for a discount on 46 acres of the property which would be dedicated to more affordable workforce housing. In addition to receiving the discount, NRC had committed to a profit margin cap on these units to keep them affordable.

According to the development agreement, the developer would work with a specially appointed city committee on what that 46-acre workforce housing component would look like.
But how the rest of the 352 acres is developed would be undefined, Jankowski said. The agreement would give NRC an option on the additional land to purchase it later for the purpose of developing housing.

“I just want to make sure that this council is aware that there are other options out there,” Jankowski said. “This is a developer’s proposal to you. You’re not obligated in any way to accept it.”
City Council member Karen Dutkowski agreed with Jankowski. “I would like to consider further discussion on this and see if (NRC) would be willing to just purchase the first 110 acres or some smaller amount for this,” she said.

In his comments, City Council member Brian Wursten noted that NRC was offering full market rate on most of the land.
“We know this developer,” he added. “This company has built a good part of the area north of the freeway over the years. It is an incredibly good company. We know that they are here and they will be here for a long time. If we don’t do this, and it goes to someone else, where could it end up? We know exactly what we will get with NRC. But who knows what we will get beyond this?”

“No one in this room can answer that,” Jankowski responded. “Because we never have looked for any other options or any other use of this property than this proposal.”

Jankowski agreed that the city needs workforce housing. “But we have quite a number of market rate homes already being built and they are going to continue being built. We don’t have enough workforce housing.”

Jankowski suggested that the 45 acres promised for workforce housing may not be enough to justify selling this entire city-owned parcel.
“If we are looking to sell this parcel, I don’t know anybody I feel more comfortable with than this company and what they would do with it,” Wursten responded.

Councilwoman Sandra Ramaker also expressed support for NRC and the proposal. “I think what they are offering us here is great,” she said. “The 46 acres for workforce housing is very important, I think. It is one of our biggest issues right now. I am excited about it and I’d like to see us go forward.”

Councilman George Gault wanted the agreement to wait for further discussion with NRC. He said that he had toured the manufacturing facility of Las Vegas small home builder, Boxabl, and had seen an opportunity to solve some of the city’s housing problem with that product. He said he wanted to see something like that incorporated into the agreement.

“I’d just like to sit down with these guys and have a conversation about some of these options,” Gault said. “Because, I agree, this is a big chunk and it is kind of our last shot. Whatever we do it is going to be tying this parcel up for the future.”

Councilman Wes Boger reminded that one of the pillars of the city’s master plan was to address workforce housing.
“We have a builder, who has built successfully here for 30 years easily, ready to build exactly what we need,” Boger said. “We have jobs coming now and we need that housing right away.”

Boger suggested that, if NRC was held to only purchasing the 110 acres of the first phase, the developer would likely walk away from the project leaving the city with only more delays.
“I don’t believe that they are going to want to give up phase 2 and phase 3 on this,” Boger said. “Then we wouldn’t have the workforce housing on phase 1.

Boger also suggested that the 33 acres previously discussed for the sports complex could be used instead for additional workforce housing, including Boxabl units, if the 46 acres being proposed was not enough.
Mesquite Mayor Al Litman believed that it was time for the council to take action on the matter. “This thing has been bantered around now for six months plus, with no decisions whatsoever,” he said. “We have got to do something one way or another. My personal opinion is that I’d like to see this project go forward.”

In a comment to the Council, Dylan Jensen, of NRC, said that the developer was looking at the agreement for building workforce housing as a package deal with the rest of the acreage.
“Our incentive for coming in and building the workforce housing for the city is that we get this additional acreage as well,” Jensen said.

He added that the company deserved a final decision by this council. Not more delays.
“We are looking for an answer on this,” he added. “We are ready to move forward on the affordable housing. We are ready to sit down with the city committee and submit some plans. But I’ll be honest with you, the market now, compared to six months ago when we were first starting on this thing, is not the same.”

Wursten asked Jensen if NRC would be willing to, on the additional land, discuss partnering with the city on building apartments to provide both parties residual income for thirty years to come.
“That certainly could be an option,” Jensen said. “We like residual income and we would certainly be open to something like that. We like to leave options open. But we have to get started somewhere.”
“We do have some things to work through on the workforce housing, but we want an answer on our proposal,” Jensen added. “We have tried our best to work with staff and council to this point. And we really don’t want to have to run this into a new council after the election where some of the members may change coming up. We are not interested in waiting on that. We want an answer.”

In the end, Wursten made a motion to approve the development agreement with NRC. The motion was approved with a 4-1 vote of the council. Only Dutkowski was opposed.