New homes planned for residents of sinking North Las Vegas neighborhood

A local developer has drawn up plans for a new subdivision for residents of a sinking North Las Vegas neighborhood, a publicly funded project kickstarted by a state senator with close ties to the builder.

North Las Vegas’ Planning Commission is scheduled Wednesday to consider a proposed 93-lot housing tract along Carey Avenue just west of Martin Luther King Boulevard. The vacant project site spans about 18 acres and is surrounded by wrought-iron fencing.

The developer, Las Vegas-based Community Development Programs Center of Nevada, landed a $37 million state contract last year to build single-family homes for residents of Windsor Park, a historically Black community nearby that for decades has grappled with sunken houses, roads and utilities.

The “horrendous condition” of Windsor Park’s homes has been well documented, and the new development would transform an empty lot into a “vibrant” community, Community Development founder and Executive Director Frank Hawkins told city officials in a letter in April.

His firm acquired the project site that month for $9.9 million, property records show. The purchase included a nearly 1-acre parcel on Carey that was not part of the proposed subdivision.

The state and the developer are under certain funding deadlines, so city staff “expeditiously processed this application,” according to a staff report.

Hawkins did not respond to a request for comment.

Contract budget

Windsor Park was built in the 1960s over geological faults and started sinking decades ago after groundwater was pumped from an underground aquifer.

State Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, introduced a bill in 2023 that financed a project allowing Windsor Park homeowners to exchange their houses for newly built ones nearby. The Nevada Housing Division subsequently awarded the contract to Hawkins’ nonprofit affordable-housing firm.

The $37 million budget called for $1.75 million in developer profit, the Las Vegas Review-Journal previously reported.

Among other things, Neal’s legislation — called the Windsor Park Environmental Justice Act — required the state to pay the homeowners’ moving costs, provide up to $50,000 in restitution and help arrange financing to pay off their existing mortgages.

It also stated that the development and construction contracts for the project must include a preference for firms whose owners currently reside or previously lived in Windsor Park.

‘Decision to move forward needs to be made’

Hawkins grew up in Windsor Park and is a former Las Vegas councilman and Raiders player. He has known Neal’s family for decades, contributed for years to her campaigns and previously employed her at his housing firm, the Review-Journal found.

He was one of only two bidders for the Windsor Park project, and his firm scored higher.

But multiple officials involved with the process had concerns with both bids and suggested releasing the contract again to see if more developers would apply, according to emails obtained from the Housing Division through a public records request.

Neal was involved with the contracting process as a member of an advisory committee but opted out of reviewing the bids, citing Hawkins’ friendship with her late father, Joe Neal, who died in 2020 at age 85 and was Nevada’s first Black state senator.

She did not mention her other ties to Hawkins.

Despite the recusal, she told officials about her concerns with the other applicant at least twice, emails show. She also wrote in an email that a “decision to move forward needs to be made” and that she heard Hawkins wanted the job.

“There is only one clear person who is willing to do this work, qualified and will do this,” Neal wrote to Housing Division officials, adding that to “drag this out further is a problem.”

‘Ethical and transparent practices’

Neal and Hawkins both contended there were no improprieties in the bidding process.

“We have always adhered to ethical and transparent practices, and the suggestion that this process was influenced by inappropriate political maneuvering is both inaccurate and disappointing,” Hawkins previously said in a statement to the Review-Journal.

Neal has said that the contracting process was complete and that the committee selected the top applicant.

“You seem to think this is a joke and these are people’s lives you are playing political games with,” she previously wrote in an email to the Review-Journal.

More recently, Neal sponsored a bill in March that aimed to revise the previous measure. Among other things, it sought to extend deadlines to spend project funds.

Ultimately, the bill stalled and never made it to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s desk in this year’s legislative session, which recently adjourned.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.