Aug. 13, 2008

Kingman makes the Times:
Sunday feature points out potential of city for Vegas developers

KINGMAN - The "Kingman secret," as coined by Mayor John Salem, is officially out. Kingman was the subject of a feature published in the New York Times Sunday, which highlights the city's current and future potential as a destination for large Las Vegas-based developers.

The article, written by Times reporter Steve Friess, focuses much of its attention on the recent efforts by the Nevada-based Mardian Group and Rhodes Homes to secure approval to build their planned developments in and around the city. Friess attributes much of the developers' attention to the shrinking land and water resources available to sustain the sprawling growth of Las Vegas.

"(Kingman) is poised to become the freshest face in the Sun Belt's growth spurt," Friess writes. "But even as Kingman rises, the question remains whether it will become a star in its own right or, like its famous son (Andy Devine), is destined to be a sidekick to the region's flashier metropolises."

Both Chris Stevens of Rhodes Homes and Leonard Mardian of the Mardian Group were interviewed for the article. Friess writes how both of the developers are unconcerned with the downturn in the housing market, "even as Las Vegas and Phoenix suffer some of the nation's highest foreclosure rates and steepest home-value declines."

In the article, Mardian predicts an additional million people will migrate to the region over the next decade, then asks rhetorically, "Where are they going to live?" Friess notes that Rhodes' Pravada development has already attracted nearly 500 $2,000 deposits.

Friess also covers the concerns of some residents that the developments will use great amounts of water, possibly requiring them to dig their wells deeper.

He mentions that both developers received their approval before the US Geological Survey had a chance to complete its study of the region's groundwater supply.

"For Kingman residents, the changes to come are drastic and, in some quarters, unwelcome," Friess writes.

But not for Mayor Salem. Salem was elated by the spotlight the Times has cast on the city.

"I didn't think it was going to create quite the commotion it has around town," Salem said in an interview Monday. "For a newspaper that's 3,000 miles away, for me to hear about it third-hand is really kind of exciting."

Salem elaborated on a few points he was quoted on in the article and sought to clarify Friess characterization of him as a mayor "who won election ... on a platform of being friendlier to developers."

"That's not entirely true," Salem said. "The platform I ran on was pro-growth, but definitely planned. I am pro-development, but I certainly didn't win the election on being pro-development."

Salem said while he believes growth is inevitable for Kingman, it is still important for that growth to be planned out accordingly.

"People are going to come no matter what," he said. "We need to be thinking into the future with many things: school, infrastructure, police, fire - all of the city services used to maintain a growth pattern like what we're used to."

Salem anticipated that once growth does get underway, especially following he completion of the four-lane Hoover Dam bridge in 2010, he expected it to be greater than the 5 to 6 percent rate it has been, but not so great as the boom experienced earlier this decade.

"It's going to be more than we're used to, but it's going to be higher for a sustained period of time," he said, though he admitted that prediction was entirely based on "gut feeling."

One thing Salem said he doesn't want to see change is the city's character. When he first arrived in Kingman in 1992, Salem said the people were what first struck him about the city.

"The whole atmosphere, this is something I noticed when I first came here 18 years ago," he said. "There's an openness and a warmth to the people who live here.

"The secret's out," he said. "Kingman's on the map."

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