An artist's rendering shows the Harmon Pines Senior Apartments, an affordable housing project to be built at Harmon Avenue and Jones Boulevard land sold below market value to the county.
The Bureau of Land Management sold a 5-acre parcel to Clark County on Friday for construction of the first affordable housing project to be made available under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.
"In a perfect world, we'd be doing 100 of these right now; but you've got to start with one, and this is it," said Douglas Bell, county manager of community resources.
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The land, at Harmon Avenue and Jones Boulevard, was offered to Clark County at less than fair market value in accordance with the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, which Congress passed in 1998. The county immediately transferred ownership of the land to Nevada HAND, a nonprofit organization that will develop the property.
"This is the culmination of nine years of effort, probably more than that," said Mike Mullin, president and founder of Nevada HAND.
Although the appraised value of the land was $3 million, the organization paid $198,000 for it. Clark County chose the developer, which will construct 103 apartment units for seniors at the site.
The $15.8 million project is being funded with what Bell called "lasagna financing" because of the various layers. Mullin said about $11 million will come from a federal, low-income tax credit program administered by the Nevada Housing Division.
Mullin said his organization has developed about 2,000 affordable housing units since he founded it in 1993.
The latest project, which will be called Harmon Pines Senior Apartments, will be available on a first-come, first-served basis to low-income people who are 55 or older. Most of the units have two bedrooms and will rent for about $500 a month.
"This will be a beautiful, mission-style building," Mullin said.
He said construction is scheduled to begin in March and should be completed in about a year. Preleasing will begin in January.
Mullin said those who have moved into other developments built by his organization "feel like they have gotten their life back."
"The seniors are extremely grateful to have a safe, decent place to live that they're proud of," he said.
Mullin said some of the residents have moved from crowded or substandard housing where they were "reluctant to have people come visit."
Harmon Pines will offer its residents such amenities as an exercise room, a community kitchen, a beauty salon, a computer room and free transportation.
"This is the sweetest 5 acres I've ever issued," said Jim Stobaugh, who has worked for the BLM since 1983. "It's been the most rewarding experience of my career."
Mullin said the project will fill only a small percentage of the community's need for affordable housing. The BLM has reserved more than 1,300 acres for affordable housing in the Las Vegas Valley.
Bell said he and others have been working on the issue since the early 1990s. In 1992, he testified before a congressional subcommittee in Las Vegas on the issue of using discounted federal land for affordable housing.
"This is something that just didn't happen overnight."
