Lombardo plans to ditch Grant Sawyer for airport office park

The Grant Sawyer State Office Building, seen in 2021. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal)Gov. Joe Lombardo speaks at Valley High School on Friday, March 24, 2023, in Las Vegas. (Chitose Suzuki/Las Vegas Review-Journal).
Gov. Joe Lombardo's administration is planning to abandon the careworn Grant Sawyer state office building near downtown Las Vegas and buy a group of office buildings in a park near Harry Reid International Airport.

Authorities say the move would save the state more than $207 million over an alternative strategy to fix up Grant Sawyer and construct another workplace tower on that home. Grant Sawyer reportedly experiences "dripping sewage, unregulated workplace temperature levels and shabby facilities," according to a file describing the strategy.

Grant Sawyer - - named for a former Democratic governor who served 1959 to 1967 - - opened in 1995. According to the governor's workplace, the strategy to renovate and include to the campus would cost $470 million for a total of 470 square feet of area.

Instead, Lombardo's workplace wishes to buy a series of buildings in stages in the office park located at Warm Springs and Bermuda roadways, near the I-215 Beltway. The purchases would come in stages between July and March 2025, and ultimately see 20 buildings come under state ownership.

That plan would cost $263 million and provide the state an overall of 835,000 square feet of area.

" This gives us the ability to control our destiny in terms of office area in Southern Nevada," said Ben Kieckhefer, Lombardo's chief of staff and a former Nevada state senator. "We want to produce an office environment for state employees that is pleasant to be in.".

The space would also be hassle-free, located right beside Harry Reid International Airport.

The plan would be to locate the majority of the "back workplace" functions of state government in the complex, although there would still be some firms that engage with the general public in the area. Agencies such as the DMV and state public advantages workplaces would still be located around the valley, Kieckhefer stated.

Lombardo's staff isn't the only federal government entity that has its eye on the buildings; the Nevada Legislature is also seeking to purchase some of the structures for its staff, to include workplaces for legislators as well as legislative attorneys, scientists and auditors.

At a recent joint meeting of legislative cash committees, a motion to authorize money to run a minimum of 3 structures in the complex drew a blended reaction; Assembly lawmakers approved it however not enough senators voted yes. (Republicans on the committee objected to the expansion of legislative personnel and the growth of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.) The problem will return to the committee before the session concludes June 5.

The mutual interest in the property has actually become a point of contention between the Democrat-controlled Legislature and Republican Lombardo's administration.

If the airport office park plan is authorized has yet to be chosen, what to do with the Sawyer structure. "We believe there are several usages for the site," Kieckhefer stated.

Contact Steve Sebelius at SSebelius@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253. Follow @SteveSebelius on Twitter.