Adventure center moving forward

After years of discussion, it appears the long-awaited Boulder City Adventure Center is becoming a reality.

“We’ve been working on this concept for more than 18 years,” Boulder City Chamber of Commerce CEO Jill Rowland-Lagan said. “This is not a new concept. We tried doing it independently on our own while looking at other parcels of land and never got any traction.”

Over the years, the chamber was able to negotiate and move to its current location at the corner of Nevada Way and Boulder City Parkway, the site of the longtime welcome center. This will be where the new adventure center will be located. Rowland-Lagan said because of the amount of parking and land, this will be the ideal location.

The chamber staff looked at its finances to see if it could pay for the concept of an adventure center, which will feature retrofitted shipping containers to be used by the various adventure businesses. One is currently on the site to show what the others could look like.

But the funding wasn’t there so the chamber began seeking grants to cover the costs.

Just over a year ago, the owner of National Park Express and Boulder City Express, a bus tour company, announced it had received confirmation from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and the Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs that $2.2 million would be used for the Boulder City Adventure Center. In total, between state and federal funding, the adventure city will be awarded roughly $3.85 million.

“National Park Express owner David Huang simply saw the potential and saw how it would not only be beneficial to Boulder City and the operators but he also realized it would be good for business for him in the future because they do so many bus tours into the national parks,” she said. “So, extended experiences here in Boulder City would be an added bonus. He is, and this won’t be exclusive, the initial operator we’ll be starting with and most of the outfitters will be utilizing his services to bring their guests to this parking lot.”

The project is currently in the design phase with renderings, which are subject to change, now available for the public to view. Rowland-Lagan said construction is set to begin in the fall of next year.

Since the announcement that funding would be available, the chamber assembled local adventure outfitters that include helicopter operators, rafters, kayaks and bicycles.

“The idea was to make it a little easier on them,” she said.

Many of these operators shuttle visitors, who are staying on the Las Vegas Strip, back and forth, making several trips a day. The idea of the adventure center is to not only have one central location for these businesses to meet with customers but to help consolidate those trips.

National Park Express will pick guests up from four or five Strip resorts who are scheduled for that time frame, bring them to the center and drop them off in the parking lot where the retrofitted containers/offices will be located. The guests will check in and then get on the individual shuttles to their recreational activity destination.

Rowland-Lagan said that thanks to the use of an app, these businesses can feed off one another. If a visitor sees another activity they would like to participate in while at the center, they can add it and still be able to take a later shuttle back to their hotel. In addition, the first shuttle from the Strip will serve as a circulator, hitting some of the most popular spots in and around Boulder City including downtown and Hoover Dam. It will then be the last shuttle returning to Las Vegas every night.

The adventure center concept has been met with overwhelming support from outfitters, she said. It will cut down on the number of trips each individual business makes into Las Vegas and those associated costs.

“They really felt like it would be highly advantageous to them to have this type of a one-stop shop,” Rowland-Lagan said.

She said in addition to making things easier for the vendors, it will also mean an additional 25-30 jobs created to operate those businesses at the center. She noted that the business kiosks at the center will not replace these operators’ main locations. They will be there as a check-in location and a place for guests to sign all the waivers, use the restrooms and grab a snack before heading out to their adventure destination.

She also added that of those adventure tours that will be located at the center, it will all be on a first-come, first served basis and limited to 18 businesses because of space. However, that does not mean there will be 18 containers. Initially there will be five containers that can each house two separate businesses. The chamber is seeking grant funding for an additional three, which at eight containers will be the maximum number because of space. Some of those individual spaces will be utilized by more than one tour company.

These companies will pay rent on the spaces but Rowland-Lagan said it will be “very reasonable” to help encourage participation. A percentage of that rental fee will be put into a pot for advertising, of which each vendor will have a say on how and where it’s spent.

Phase II of the project will include a small, dark-skies amphitheater, an additional trailhead, EV charging stations, and an area for food trucks.

“In all of this, we want to remain good neighbors and avoid taking away anyone’s views of the lake,” she said, adding that lighting and hours of operation will also be taken into account.

Along with the state’s similar adventure center in Carson City, Rowland-Lagan sees this as yet another way to promote the state.

“Yes, we know that gaming and mining are the two main drivers for the state but outdoor recreation adds to, and is, another huge player in what the experience that these guests have when they come to the state of Nevada,” she said. “We want to be a part of that.”

Ron Eland is editor of the Boulder City Review. He can be reached at reland@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523.