Mark Lewis builds things, no matter what other people say.
After a career that has spanned building grain silos in Alaska to massive event centers in California, he is now working as a consultant on the Carson Nugget project - billed as the largest redevelopment project in the capital city's history.
Lewis said his history, meanwhile, is one of success and failure, but also one of lessons learned by experience.
"I've done redevelopment projects my whole career, 15 or 20 major projects; they're very, very difficult to get done," Lewis said. "They're always very complex and they're always controversial. I've done a large number of them in different settings over the years. That's why Reno wanted me to come to Reno, I'm guessing that's why they wanted me to come here."
Lewis most recently served as the City of Reno's redevelopment director, overseeing the construction of the Reno Aces Ballpark until he was forced out last August, reportedly because of budget cuts.
From 2001 to 2006, Lewis served as the city manager of Stockton, Calif., until he was ousted by the city council after completing a series of redevelopment projects, including the Stockton Events Center and its adjoining baseball park.
Those projects were developed by Regent Development Corporation, a parent group of P3 Development, the company chosen last week to develop the Carson Nugget project.
Lewis said many of the projects he has worked on are successful. He notes sold-out crowds at Aces Ballpark as well as major entertainers such as Carrie Underwood now performing at the Stockton Events Center. He said he wants to see Carson City experience success, too.
"I really believe if we're successful this will be a model that you read about in the New York Times, which wrote about the Aces Ballpark, used as a model across the country how communities can stand together and do something about their fate," he said.
In a 2005 profile, The Stockton Record described Lewis as a developer who, "achieved a cowboy reputation by piling up great civic centers, libraries and ballparks, and by knocking down builders, politicians and citizens who threatened to derail his ambition."
That reputation and his part in developing those projects ultimately resulted in his ouster as Stockton's city manager as well as a grand jury investigation into the city's redevelopment practices.
The grand jury reported in 2006 that the costs of the events center and baseball park grew from an original estimate of $75.1 million to more than $120 million while financing sources were "difficult to track and confirm."
The grand jury also reported that Lewis "unilaterally controlled projects, finances, change orders ... without City Council knowledge and/or approval."
Clem Lee, a former Stockton city councilman who served from 2004 to 2008, was one of the votes that ousted Lewis in 2006. He said Lewis is a visionary, but one willing to do anything to accomplish his goal.
"He'll build something nice and shiny and new and it takes a little while for everything to settle down to find out what the details really are," Lee said. "Then you have to deal with it and by then he may not be around."
Despite the controversy, Lee said he likes the Stockton Events Center and said it was something the city needed to improve its waterfront corridor. But he adds a word of caution.
"The lesson for elected folks: If it seems too good to be true, it usually is, there is nothing that is risk free," Lee said. "If you can't read the Power Point presentation, stop them and have them blow it up so you can see what it says. If they deliver 500 pieces of paper to you in the hopes you can vote on something in three days, tell them to take a hike."
Guy Rocha, a member of the citizens advisory panel on the Nugget project and Nevada's former state archivist, said he's supportive of the project's concept, but adds there are many questions still unanswered, such as which state agencies - if any - will occupy the project's proposed office space.
He said he also trusts Lewis to work in favor of Carson City.
"We're putting trust in the man, there's a certain amount of faith you gotta have," Rocha said. "If you can't trust Mark Lewis perhaps you don't go forward with this project. There are people who are uncomfortable with him. I've taken that leap of faith that Mark Lewis is not going to undo us here. There's a certain amount of risk taking, I'd like to think that his successes outweigh some of the issues he's had in the past."
Steve Neighbors, the sole trustee of the Mae Adams Trust that controls the Carson Nugget, said he chose Lewis as a consultant because of his local experience with public-private partnerships. He adds Lewis' past should not disqualify him from working on the project.
"You can't go get anybody in economic development that nobody will throw stones at," Neighbors said. "I did my own vetting, he's got a good heart... I'm not after somebody who's never had problems. I'm after people who have made errors and learned by them as well."
