MOHAVE COUNTY – A Las Vegas businessman who has been purchasing property in Mohave County since 2005 is moving forward with proposed development of a master-planned community about 25 miles south of Hoover Dam and the southern Nevada border. County officials are processing requests for the Entrata project envisioned by Al Barbarich.
“’Entrata’ is the Italian word for entrance and we see this as an entrance into Arizona,” Barbarich said. “It’s the first private land that you come to entering Arizona from Nevada.”
The County Planning and Zoning Commission in Oct. will consider the major plan amendment and associated multiple rezoning requests submitted by Entrata agent and applicant Kathy Tackett-Hicks of Kingman.
“The project includes over 10,000 acres and there’s a mix of manufacturing, industrial, residential and airport components as well,” Tackett-Hicks said. “It is designed to be a huge economic revenue enhancer for the county and the region, and we’re really excited about it.”
Tackett-Hicks said engineers are already engaged in design activity for infrastructure for the endeavor near the community of White Hills. Improvement of a 9,000-ft. dirt airstrip and development of a business park encompassing about 2,000 acres would follow.
“The first projection for any type of vertical development we think will occur in the next 2-3 years and it is going to be focused on the airpark and industrial manufacturing use directly adjacent to (US) 93,” Tackett-Hicks said. Significant residential construction and development of school, fire service, park and recreation components and other amenities are in the mix to support an all-encompassing community.
“We want this to be a live, work and learn community which is self-contained, and that’s why we’re focused a lot, especially in the early phases, on the economic drivers,” Barbarich said. “I think the more immediate demand is for regional logistics, manufacturing and warehouse distribution-type uses.”
He said multiple decades of development could someday result in as many as 30,000 homes and some 75,000 residents.
“I’m here for the long haul. I expect to be working, developing in Mohave County for the rest of my career, if not my life, and I’ve been doing business in Mohave County for 18 years,” Barbarich said. He noted that his debt-free ownership of the property increases chance for Entrata’s success, unlike a number of other failed master planned communities doomed by debt service and a fluctuating economy.
“I am not financing this with other people’s money. The property that I’ve purchased is all debt free,” Barbarich said. “I’m funding all of the development costs out of my pocket.”
