The Henderson campus serves about 90 clients who provide either document destruction or packaging and assembly services for business customers. The land donation will allow Opportunity Village to expand its existing programs and begin new ones that will train and employ people in meaningful jobs within the community.

"Over the next five years, because of the growth in Henderson, we'll need to double the number of people we serve at the Walters Family Campus," said Ed Guthrie, executive director for Opportunity Village.  "By giving us this land, LandWell has given an opportunity to another 100 people with disabilities to become contributing members of the Henderson community."

The donated parcel of land is located northeast of Burkholder Boulevard bordering the Henderson campus on East Lake Mead Parkway. In 1992, LandWell donated the original 1.63 acres of land where the campus is located today. 

"As a Henderson-based business, we have a tradition here in supporting our community," said Mark Paris, chief executive officer for the LandWell Company. "We learned Opportunity Village needed room to grow, and we had the ability to fulfill that need by donating this piece of land.  We're pleased to assist with this expansion."

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The LandWell Company is also Opportunity Village's newest document destruction customer. Opportunity Village's successful shredding operation processes and recycles approximately 3.6 million pounds of paper documents annually. 

"Opportunity Village is an exemplary business success story," Paris said.  "Their document destruction program and packaging and assembly services provide their clients with fulfilling jobs, training and social interaction that make their lives more productive and interesting while generating income to sustain the organization."

In 2002, Opportunity Village established its document destruction program at the Walters Campus in Henderson. The operation began as a small pilot project. In the past four years, the program has grown to become the second largest document destruction business in Southern Nevada, employing dozens of people with disabilities and serving approximately 550 customers, including Wells Fargo Bank, Wynn Las Vegas and many others. 

Clients in Opportunity Village's packaging and assembly program package more than 3 million coffee condiment packets and more than 5 million food condiment packets per year.

In 2006, Opportunity Village served more than 3,000 people with disabilities and their families through various programs and services. More than $3 million in wages were paid to clients in the organization's work programs, which permit people with severe disabilities to reduce their need for other government benefits. Due to the work of Opportunity Village, 710 local people are in vocational training programs, placed in jobs or in therapeutic respite programs every day.

Opportunity Village expects to begin development plans for the donated property in the fall of 2007, Guthrie said.

About Opportunity Village

Founded in Las Vegas in 1954, Opportunity Village is a not-for-profit organization serving people in Southern Nevada with intellectual disabilities, enhancing their lives and the lives of their families. Opportunity Village is Nevada's largest independent, not-for-profit agency. It is annually voted as the area's best community organization in the Las Vegas Review-Journal's "Best of Las Vegas" poll.  For more information, visit http://www.opportunityvillage.org/ or call 383-5911 to donate.

About The LandWell Company

The LandWell Company is an affiliate of Basic Management Inc. (BMI), a privately owned holding company incorporated in 1952 to manage the common assets of the industrial plants located within the BMI complex, the site of a world-scale magnesium facility that played a vital role in World War II. BMI affiliates have provided electrical and water transmission services to customers in the southern Las Vegas Valley continuously for more than 50 years.

The LandWell Company is known for its successful development projects in Southern Nevada, including Black Mountain Industrial Center, Valley Auto Mall, and the Traverse Point Mixed-Use Development. The LandWell Company currently is involved in remediating and planning a 2,200-acre parcel of land, which will become a mixed-use master planned community.