$3 million-plus Ishani Ridge bond to be paid out to Nye County

The Ishani Ridge subdivision in Pahrump was just one of many planned for the area in the early 2000s, when development across the country was booming and the future looked bright. However, the recession hit in late 2007 and the housing market plunged, leading to a halt in much of the valley’s development, including that at Ishani Ridge.

Now, more than a decade later, Nye County is dealing with the fallout from that failed development, voting unanimously on Jan. 22 to accept a bond payment of more than $3.42 million from the company that bonded the Ishani Ridge subdivision.

The Ishani Ridge development agreement was approved in March, 2007 and all 200 single-family lots have been recorded. That development agreement expired as of March, 2012 and in total, only 10 houses out of the planned 200 have been constructed on the 88 acres located at Wilson Road and Ishani Ridge Court that comprise Ishani Ridge. Though some of the development’s infrastructure was installed, much of the work needed to complete the subdivision has never been undertaken.

While the payout is quite large, according to information provided with the Jan. 22 agenda item, it is still not enough to cover the total cost to complete the subdivision improvements as laid out in the development agreement between Nye County and Pahrump 88.

The Nye County Commission will now take on the task of deciding exactly what work gets done using that money.

“Pahrump 88, LLC, was the developer of a residential development project called Ishani Ridge,” information on the agenda item details. “The developer was unable to complete construction of the subdivision improvements. Nye County made a demand upon the developer’s bonding company to complete the subdivision improvements related to the Ishani Ridge subdivision.”

That demand came after a Nov. 7, 2017 vote by the Nye County Commission to call in the bond. Following this, the agenda information explains that the bonding company requested proposals from contractors to complete the remaining subdivision improvements, a process that revealed that the total cost of those improvements would be above and beyond the $3.4 million bond amount.

“The bonding company states that is has determined that the cost to finish the work far exceeds the $3,423,862.50 remaining due on the bond,” the agenda information reads. “Therefore, the bonding company has offered to resolve the matter by turning over the bond funds… to the county in exchange for the county executing an agreement releasing the bonding company from any further responsibility under the development bond.”

Nye County Commissioner Lorinda Wichman made the motion to accept the bond payment, with a second from commissioner Debra Strickland.

Before the vote, commissioner Leo Blundo requested his fellow board members consider amending the motion, “…to accept the funds and to have those funds placed into a segregated account, so we can discuss use in the next 30 days at the next Pahrump meeting.”

Nye County District Attorney’s Office personnel stated that such a motion would be outside of the scope of the agenda item as written and therefore, a separate agenda item would be needed to take that action.

“We’ll do that,” Nye County Commission Chairman John Koenig interjected.

The motion to accept passed with all in favor.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com