EPA plans to move its UNLV offices to planned $120 million complex

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency envisions moving 580 employees from laboratories and offices on and near the UNLV campus into a new $120 million complex somewhere in the valley, according to details of the agency’s plan obtained Friday.

The EPA has not announced a new location. Officials said in a budget document the agency continues to work with federal property managers at the General Services Administration to develop requirements for a building that would be designed to energy-efficient standards.

A vice president for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas said this week the school believed it was near a deal with the EPA and GSA several years ago for the agency to relocate its Environmental Sciences Division to the vacant UNLV Harry Reid Technology and Research Park on Sunset Road and Durango Boulevard.

But the agreement got sidetracked in the aftermath of the GSA’s 2010 western regions conference at the M Resort in Henderson. The $823,000 event that involved the hiring of a mind reader and clowns and videos showing federal workers joking about spending taxpayer money prompted a hold on projects, officials said.

EPA officials did not answer questions this week about the status of negotiations with the university.

Either way, the agency is preparing to depart the UNLV campus, where it has leased five buildings for more than four decades. The latest lease expires on Sept. 30, 2015, with no option to renew.

The EPA also plans to include in the move its Human Resources Office, Financial Center, Office of Civil Rights, its National Center for Radiation Field Operations and its Environmental Response Team-West. Those units lease space in the La Plaza Business Park at 4220 Maryland Parkway, across from the UNLV campus.

The agency’s fiscal 2015 budget request to Congress this week contains $12 million to design a laboratory and administrative office space, an early step in a project expected to cost about $120 million, according to the budget paperwork.

The EPA is paying about $5.2 million in annual rent for its Las Vegas space. A study showed consolidating operations would save $15 million over 20 years.

Meanwhile, UNLV is planning for campus life without the EPA. Life and health sciences colleges will gain a handful of buildings whenever the agency departs.

“Even though they’ve been there since 1966 and they’ve been a great tenant, our master plan is that we need those 8 acres in the core of campus back,” said Gerry Bomotti, UNLV senior vice president for finance and business at UNLV.

Long term, Bomotti said the land would be redeveloped as higher density academic facilities. Asked whether the site might house UNLV’s proposed school of medicine, Bomotti said the grounds are small for a medical school, but that “nothing is off the table.”

Review-Journal writer Kristy Totten contributed to this report. Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at 202-783-1760 or STetreault@stephensmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @STetreaultDC.