New police headquarters plan delayed by quibbling

Plans to create a new 370,000-square-foot headquarters complex for the Metropolitan Police Department were delayed for 30 days due to quibbling between the two local governments that would lease the site.

Two Clark County commissioners who sit on the department's fiscal affairs committee argued Monday that the joint venture, as it stands, would unfairly favor the city of Las Vegas.

Current plans call for Project Alta LLC to build the headquarters at Alta Drive and Martin Luther King Boulevard and then lease the site to the county and city. The county would pay 60 percent of the operating costs -- estimated at about $15 million the first year -- and the city would pick up 40 percent.

However, Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said the city should pay 100 percent of the cost on 70,000 square feet of the site, and that the 60/40 split should apply only to the remaining 300,000 square feet.

The city now supplies Metro with 70,000 square feet of space in City Hall and must, by law, pay the full tab on new space it creates of equal size to house the police, said Assistant County Manager Jeff Wells,.

Any space beyond 70,000 square feet would require the county to cover 60 percent of the cost, Wells said.

Commissioner Susan Brager said the county also was concerned about the site being within the city's redevelopment area. The developer would pay property taxes into the city's redevelopment fund, leaving out the county, she said.

Brager asked that the city and county attorneys meet to resolve the issues, then return to the committee in 30 days.

The developer estimates that the three-building complex would take roughly 2 1/2 years to construct, Brager said. The county would have the option to buy the complex after leasing it for three years.