Spadework " lots of it " at base of project

Long viewed as an eyesore, Helm's Pit in Sparks was transformed into idyllic Sparks Marina. Now RED Development LLC plans to transform the marina's eastern environs into an entertainment mecca.

But first, the groundwork and there's a lot of ground to be worked.

The Legends at Sparks Marina is larger than anything yet built in the Truckee Meadows, a destination retail development of 1.35 million square feet on 148 acres.

Plans include a Scheels All-Sports store, a Triple A baseball stadium, restaurants, entertainment, night clubs and casino.

The developer is currently mass grading the site, which encompasses the old outlet mall at Sparks Boulevard and I-80 and spans west to the edge of Sparks Marina.

The first challenge, says Mike Allen, vice president of construction, is to compact over 600,000 cubic yards of dirt a task that took Mother Earth 3 million to 4 million years.

When Helm's Pit was excavated, he says, that crew left an undocumented fill that is, loose dirt. "We need to put it back into a new topography and compact it," Allen says.

It's a task for seven scrapers and two rollers. Meanwhile, a full-time testing lab with a density machine will monitor the big bruisers.

A second concern is what lies beneath the dirt water.

"The biggest unknown we have is groundwater," says Allen. "How far below the surface it flows. The water table may be low now, but that could change when spring runoff seeps under the surface."

That affects placement of storm and sewer piping, but could also cause problems on deep foundations.

Wanted water is the flip side to unwanted water.

"We bought a bank of water rights in excess of 100 acre-feet," says Allen. Truckee Meadows Water Authority dictates how much water must be allocated per tenant in the retail portion. But the future baseball stadium will require water as well for irrigation of outfield grass.

Local contractors are already on the job. Q&D Construction of Sparks contracted to work on the Scheels building pad. Odyssey Engineering of Sparks is civil engineer consultant and Kleinfelder of Reno is geotechnical consultant. Other bids will be let on an incremental basis, says Allen. He estimates the company will hire 300 workers locally over the course of 18 months.

The predevelopment work required some heavy-duty paper pushing.

Water rights had to be had.

"I wouldn't say it was easy, but it was surmountable," says Dave Claflin, vice president of marketing. "Water rights are so expensive in the West. We have to ask tenants to help pay for water use. Hotels and restaurants those who haven't done business in the West are not accustomed to that cost in their leases."

Marketing began at a grassroots level, getting community and government buy-in, he says.

"Getting STAR Bond funding was a big hurdle." Sparks was asked to sponsor the request, which passed through the state tourism board to the governor. The bonds are available to projects that attract out-of-town tourists to spend retail dollars.

"You could not do a project of this magnitude without that public subsidy," says Claflin. "It may work in Los Angeles, with a huge population and a massive tourist base, but not in a smaller market like Kansas City with a large resident population but no tourist trade. Here, you have the opposite: a small metro area but with millions of tourists."

RED Development has 15 projects open and operating in 11 states, totaling 7 million square feet. With 13 more projects under development, Claflin says the company expects 10 million square feet total. Its flagship development is Legends Kansas City, upon which the Sparks project is based.

The company got its start in the mid-1990s developing large open-air lifestyle centers.

"It was new and innovative then," says Claflin. "Now everyone's doing it. We've since branched out into more unique projects that involve tourism. Destination retail."

Paper and dirt move in lockstep on this project. As Allen moves construction through the unseen phases of dirt prep and infrastructure to above ground construction, Claflin will move from the unseen phases of funding and tenant leasing to the splashily public tip of the iceberg: consumer marketing.