Mesquite Trails RV Park Moves Forward

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

Construction has been going forward full steam ahead at the west end of Hafen Lane in Mesquite. Nearly two years after receiving approval from the city, the Mesquite Trails RV Park is beginning to really take shape.

The site grading on the 20-acre parcel is completed, and the utility connections for the 193-space RV park have been installed. The first of three buildings to be built on the site has gone vertical. Work has also begun on the central recreational hub of the park including a large clubhouse, swimming pool, pickleball courts and various other recreational amenities.

The entrance of the park will be off of Hafen Lane. A new road will be built going west on Leavitt Lane at Falcon Ridge Parkway, just south of the new McDonalds. This road will curve south and connect with Hafen Lane just east of Mesquite Trails, replacing the old “No Name Road” which will be removed from use. This will provide easier access to RV customers coming from the I-15 to stay at the park.

But all of this hasn’t come easy for the developers of Mesquite Trails. The timing of the project has been difficult. Occurring during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic as it has, the project has experienced numerous challenges and delays. But it is expected to be completed and opened later this year.

“It has been quite an odyssey to get this thing going,” said developer Steve Kemp, a resident of St. George who is the principal on the project. “It has been an uphill battle against labor shortages and supply chain issues.”

Kemp said that, early on, his contractor had trouble finding workers on the job. A good part of the work was being done by a single crew of just a few workers focusing on one thing at a time. It was slow going.

“The contractor was saying that he could rent all kinds of additional equipment to do the work, but he couldn’t find any employees to operate them,” Kemp said. “That problem seems to be working itself out, though.”

The next big challenge was in obtaining the construction materials needed. Supply chain issues have made the most basic materials difficult to come by, he said.
“Things like electrical transformers have been problematic,” Kemp said. “They just weren’t available. We were told that we had to order things like that about a year in advance. Because they just weren’t there to purchase.”

The site itself also presented some challenges. Crews had to move nearly 110,000 cubic yards of dirt to bring up the site and prepare it for the utility connections needed.

“The site had so many challenges to work through,” Kemp said. “But what kept us working on it was its location. The proximity off of the freeway, and its great visibility from the freeway are just perfect. It is a great location for an RV park.”

Kemp said that the park will cater to the current trend for RV travel. Mesquite’s positioning as a small-town and easily accessible resort community plays into that. The existing golf and gaming amenities already make it an important destination for RV travellers.

But Mesquite is also a draw for the growing outdoor recreation tourism trend, Kemp said. “We are seeing a lot of people gravitating towards places like Mesquite where they can use outdoor recreation like mountain biking, OHV trail riding, hiking, boating on Lake Mead or Powell and the national parks throughout the region,” he said. “We are looking to accommodate people that are using their RVs as a base to go to those types of sites.”

Kemp said that Mesquite Trails is designed to serve two types of travellers.
Firstly, a portion of the park will cater to snowbirds who are coming from northern regions to escape the cold winters. The spaces will be designed for these snowbirds to make their homes there for 6-8 months at a time, Kemp said.

The other portion of the park will feature convenient ‘pull-through’ spaces for visitors that will be staying anywhere from one night to a week or two, Kemp said.

Mesquite Trails is being built only for motorcoaches, motorhomes or fifth wheel vehicles, Kemp added. It is for temporary RV stays only.
“We will not have any permanent residents,” he said. “No one is going to bring two halves of a mobile home together and take the wheels off in this park. It won’t happen.”

The developer has taken great pains to design the common recreation spaces to accommodate a variety of different purposes, Kemp said.
“We have redesigned our main clubhouse about three times,” he said. “We are trying to make it so that it can serve groups of different sizes for various activities and events.”

These could include large and small family reunions, association events, and other group functions; or just serve the needs of individual travellers.

Kemp was hesitant to give a firm planned opening date for the park because of all the delays that have taken place thus far.
“We have moved the anticipated opening date several times so I’m pretty gun shy about planting a firm flag in the ground anywhere,” he said. “But if all goes well, I would probably say we should have a soft opening somewhere around the end of May. I know that is the worst time in Mesquite to open a facility like this; just as summer is starting. But it will also give us some time to work out the kinks before the busy season in the fall.”

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