Building Nevada Briefs - February 2004

Building Nevada Briefs

Home Finding Center Wins Award

The Home Finding Center at the master-planned community of Aliante in North Las Vegas has been awarded top honors in Southwest Contractor Magazine’s "Best of 2003" competition, in the category "Best Public Project Under $ 5 Million". Finalists were judged on design, construction, innovation, ability to overcome unique construction challenges and overall excellence. The Korte Company served as general contractor for the project and JMA Architecture Studio was the architect. The project consisted of a small office, coupled with a retail coffee shop, for prospective homebuyers visiting the Home Finding Center. The Korte Company worked together with the owner and architect on the design-build project to create a dual-purpose facility utilizing the site’s natural geology and desert palette of colors.

Reno Riverfront Project Planned

BCN Development of Denver has been approved by the Reno City Redevelopment Agency to build a 13-story multi-use structure in downtown Reno. The project, named The Palladio, will include: 19,200 square feet of retail space; restaurants on the ground floor with outdoor seating facing the Truckee River; a three-level parking garage; 96 condominiums on upper floors; and a top floor composed of suites. The $22 million project is located on the southeast corner of First and Sierra Streets across from the Century Riverside Theaters. TNT Construction, Inc. of Reno is the general contractor for the project, and Larry Henry of Ludesign Architecture is providing architectural services. BCN has indicated that condo pricing will start at approximately $200,000.

Expansion Underway at Sunrise Hospital

Ground was broken in December for a five-phase, five-story expansion that will add more than 60 pediatric beds to the current 175-bed Sunrise Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas. Kitchell Contractors is general contractor for the $43 million, 210,000-square-foot Women’s and Children’s Expansion/Renovation project, which consists of 110,000 square feet of new construction and 100,000 square feet of renovations to the existing hospital. Architect for the project is KGA Architecture. Upon completion in three years, the project will bring the children’s hospital to a total of 205,985 square feet, and will add labor and delivery areas, C-section rooms, a neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric ICU, post-partum ward, oncology area and staff lounge.

Nevada’s Largest Solar Array Installed

Las Vegas Solar Electric recently completed construction on Nevada’s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) installation on the roof of the newly-built Andrew Lessman’s Your Vitamins Inc. production facility in Henderson. Las Vegas Solar Electric is working as the solar electrical subcontractor on the project for TWC Construction. Jordan Robins, principal of Las Vegas Solar, said that over the useful life of the system, which covers more than 23,000 square feet of flat roof space, it will save more than 14 million gallons of water, which would otherwise be used in electricity-plant production, and will offset the equivalent of 30,215 barrels of crude oil. Robins said it will be the first commercial-scale distributed-generation system to offer renewable energy credits for sale to privately-owned utilities in Nevada. The system will produce more than 21,000 kilowatt hours of air conditioning per month, enough daily electricity to power as many as 25 homes using an average of 30 kilowatt-hours per day.

Mountain View Professional Park Developed

Christopher Commercial is developing Mountain View Professional Park, located in the Las Vegas Technology Center, at the intersection of Smoke Ranch Road and US 95. The 15-acre office park will comprise approximately 150,000 square feet of small professional office buildings ranging from approximately 4,000 square feet to 9,000 square feet, along with freeway-frontage buildings ranging from 18,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet. Three office buildings planned for medical use, encompassing 16,500 square feet, were sold in a recent 30-day period. Christopher Commercial has also started construction of three speculative buildings in the park – two 6,000-square-foot buildings and a 4,500-square-foot building available for sale or lease. The first occupancies are scheduled for the second quarter of 2004. Buildings in the park will feature contemporary architecture with textured exterior finishes, recessed tinted glass with colored aluminum mullions and concrete slab foundations. All buildings will have compatible architectural design and signage, and incorporate a palette of complementary colors. The project will be heavily landscaped and provide a parking ratio of approximately five spaces per 1,000 square feet of building area.