Long awaited project may come to fruition in Kingman; State to release $20-million pending KDP financing

KINGMAN – A proposed Interstate 40 traffic interchange (TI) should be under construction in Kingman sometime this summer, according to Kingman City Manager Ron Foggin. He provided an update of the Rancho Santa Fe Interchange and Parkway project during Tuesday’s Kingman City Council meeting.

Foggin said the State of Arizona will not release its $20-million contribution until the city and its private sector partner KDP Manager, LLC demonstrates their financing is in place. 

“We have to provide the state proof that we have funding for the entire project, for phase one and phase 2,” Foggin said. “They don’t want to see a TI built that doesn’t go anywhere.”

Foggin said the city has its $16.7-million with $9.9-million coming from cash reserves and another $6.8-million to be generated by bond financing. He said KDP is determined to have its financing secure sometime next month.

“They’re required to provide us with an irrevocable letter of credit for their portion of the project,” Foggin said. “We expect their letter to be received in January, 2022.”

Foggin explained additional steps should advance the project to bid award in May with initial construction in July. “It could be a month earlier, it could be a month later,” Foggin said.

It has not been explained when or why the city project partner formerly identified as Las Vegas-based Sunbelt Development morphed into KDP, LLC. A city news release refers questions to KDP along with a phone number that reaches Sunbelt Development principal Bill Lenhart.

Vice Mayor Ken Watkins said he does not know anything about rebranding to KDP, but that he has heard the Sunbelt and KDP terms used interchangeably. He said the council is euphoric about learning of progress for a project he said had stalled for various reasons, including the pandemic.

Foggin noted that the project was previously positioned for groundbreaking late last year, or early this year. Council member Cherish Sammeli said progress is sometimes born of patience.

“We all just need to trust the process,” Sammeli said. “We have a lot of people looking at our community through social media, through media itself and really paying attention to what Kingman is doing and what’s in our future and how that will affect future development and the way that our community grows.”

Mayor Jen Miles said she is thrilled that KDP recently executed the project development agreement that the city signed off on months ago. She said the interchange and arterials extending north to the airport and south toward Hualapai Mountain Road are key components for growth.

“We know that this infrastructure development positions the city for a promising, prosperous future that leverages our important regional location and assets to advance our transportation, distribution and industrial sectors,” Miles said.

Dave Hawkins