Dec 31st Issue
 |
 |
 |
 |
Feature Stories - Jun 18th, 2008
 Apex’s New Address The Industrial Park’s Annexation into North Las Vegas by Jennifer Rachel Baumer The City of North Las Vegas just grew a little bit bigger and is poised to do so again – and again – for the next three months. According to North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon, the process of annexation is specified by state law. In order to prevent municipalities from taking too big a bite too quickly or taking non-contiguous parcels, there are formulas in place relative to perimeter versus contiguous pieces of land. Essentially, land to be annexed is broken into phases and introduced at city council meetings, and then at 30 days, finalized and accepted. In May, North Las Vegas annexed the first phase, 1,430 acres of the Apex Industrial Park, a 10,000-acre project located four miles north of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on I-15. Phase two was set to be introduced in early June, presenting some 1,426 acres to be annexed, and again with a piece a little over 2,000 acres, so that in six months some 4,856 acres will have been annexed, beginning the next phase of the life cycle of Apex Industrial Park. “Apex has been a property asset for 20 years, to be used by major industrial users who want 1 million-square-foot regional distribution centers,” said Montandon. But those users haven’t been heading to Apex because there haven’t been municipal utilities. “They’re not willing to have that lack of certainty with infrastructure,” said Montandon. The addition of Apex into North Las Vegas brings in water and sewer from the city, a win for the industrial park and a win for the city which receives returning waste water credit.Michael Holloway, managing principal of Poggemeyer Design Group, Inc., commented, “The one thing that has kept the park development from exploding was obtaining an additional water committment. With annexation into North Las Vegas, water has become available, and the Apex/Kapex industrial areas can now fully develop.” Poggemeyer Design Group is the engineer of record for the park. In addition to the water commitment, a use permit for overhead power lines located within the park, two miles northwest of I-15 and two miles northeast of U.S. Highway 93, has been approved. This will bring power to portions of the park that haven’t had it yet. Once the annexation of phase one was complete and phase two had started, the city had annexed enough acreage to start the special improvement district (SID) process, working with Southern Nevada Water Authority and putting together the SID to pay for the approximate $45 million in utilities.
Room to Grow
According to Mason Harvey, managing member of Apex 385, LLC, the North Hills parcel is one of the few pieces that’s good to go as is, having water, sewer, gas, power and fiber optic in place already when the rest of Apex is waiting on actual water lines. “We can hook up tomorrow and we’re good to go and we have sewer as well. We’re working with North Las Vegas and Clark County via North Las Vegas and finalizing plans,” Harvey said. North Hills Industrial Park also has a good location, with over a half mile of direct frontage onto I-15, a location near the interchange at Hollywood and I-15 speedway and near the proposed I-15 interchange at Farm Road and Las Vegas Boulevard. Harvey states that North Las Vegas is also working through NDOT, Union Pacific and other governing authorities on Apex’s behalf. Union Pacific Railroad is on board, designing 1.25 miles of industry rail with a number of spurs off the main track. The site is suited for heavy industrial, commercial and R&D uses, and some 5 million-square-feet of buildings are being designed for the property. Another parcel, the former Kerr-McGee property, which was a rocket fuel manufacturing plant, also has the advantage of having the infrastructure already in place, according to Adam Titus, president and CEO of Kapex, LLC, which bought the property now known as the Mountain View Industrial Park. The 3,250 acres included in that park are also part of the early annexation process and already have water, sewer, fire hydrants, communication services and entry roads in place. In June, Kapex, LLC was already working with a good 10 potential end-users who wanted to be in full operation as early as possible. Mountain View anticipates 20 million-square-feet of distribution space in its first phase and will take a multi-faceted approach to development, dividing the land into three main usage areas. In the master planned development area, each developer will remain in control of the development long-term, selling only improved lots, and no land will be sold to speculators. The end users development area will cater to those businesses that need larger plots of land, maybe more outside storage and will have access to rail service on the southern side of the property. The third division is a commercial/flex space area on the northern end of the park. Anticipated uses for the Mountain View section of Apex include heavy manufacturing, medium manufacturing and industrial areas with assembly and outside storage. Additionally, the development will have light industrial areas with distribution centers and ancillary support commercial services, from medical centers to food and services for employees.
Foreign Trade Zone
materials shipped into one aren’t subject to customs or duty fees until they are distributed. That, coupled with the fact that Nevada has no warehousing tax, is a good deal for distributors who want to bring in raw or component materials and form them into goods here without paying taxes on the products until they’re released into the U.S. commercial stream. One benefit to manufacturing on-site in an FTZ is added value of the raw material, once it’s manufactured into product, isn’t taxed. Companies are taxed based on the value of the original materials. “The foreign trade zone will be the spark to get millions or 10’s of millions of square feet of regional distribution centers out there,” said Montandon. “It will have a significant economic impact on the whole valley. There’s a small FTZ in the city, but this one has space, good rail service, good infrastructure, good freeway access and room to grow. There’s nothing like that here now.” It’s not just raw materials that can pass through and benefit from an FTZ. Companies can ship in components of a business, say gaming tables and gaming machines for a casino property, and hold them in the FTZ. The property isn’t taxed until it’s released into the U.S. And one more benefit is that companies don’t have to wait through the customs procedures with their property still on docks. Containers can be unloaded and shipped to the FTZ, moving through customs quickly and saving owners time and money.
Taking Advantage of a Good Thing
“It’s very difficult to find property appropriately zoned and reasonably priced for a yard facility,” said Dick Rizzo, vice chairman Perini Building Company. “Apex became our number one choice because it was reasonably priced and allowed that kind of use. We’re going to be using about a third of that land with the understanding we’ll subdivide or lease to others the remainder of the property for similar use for yard maintenance storage area.” After Perini bought in to Apex, the CC&Rs were changed to upgrade the overall quality of the park, but Perini’s land, within the industrial park and close to the freeway, was already purchased before the change in CC&Rs. Perini bought their property from North Hills. This is one of the last large chunks of industrial land available within the Las Vegas Valley. With the annexation of phase one complete, Apex Industrial Park moves into the future, making the transition from under-utilized space to a fully-loaded, ready-to-go industrial park.
|