North Las Vegas Settling Sinking Fire Station Suit for $3M

Further examination of cracks in the walls and slab showed Station 53 was sinking into the ground.

By Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Source Las Vegas Review-Journal (TNS)

Oct. 16, 2025

2 min read

A probe after cracks appeared showed the station was sinking.

North Las Vegas is moving to settle a lawsuit over a “sinking” fire station, which would see the city recover nearly $3 million of what it spent to repair it.

The city said it spent more than $5 million to fix Fire Station 53, which was built in 2009 on Gowan Road near Simmons Street.

On Wednesday, the City Council approved the settlement recommendation.

While repair costs exceeded $5.4 million, “the litigation was hotly disputed and several issues arose relating causation and evidentiary problems,” the city’s Wednesday agenda said. “However, eventually, a tentative resolution was reached with all defendants.”

Project designers agreed to pay $2.5 million, while constructors will cover $450,000, the city said.

The lawsuit’s defendants are: Dekker/Perich/Sabatini Ltd.; Nevada By Design LLC; Ninyo & Moore; Richardson Construction Inc.; Jackson Family Partnership LLC, Aztech Plastering LLC, and Instant Jungle Landscape.

Richardson Construction is not the same company as W.A. Richardson Builders, which constructed Resorts World.

A few years after construction, “problems with the building arose, including cracks in the walls and slab,” the city said. After investigating, the city said it discovered that the building “was essentially sinking into the ground.”

Fixes included lifting a portion of the building about eight inches and leveling the floors, city officials previously said. Firefighters had to use space heaters to keep warm for months because repairs kept the station from being connected to natural gas service.

At the time, officials blamed expansive soils for the sinking.

Initially, a statute of limitations prevented the city from suing for construction defect, according to North Las Vegas.

The 2019 Nevada Legislature offered a lifeline by extending “the statute of repose” to 10 years, giving the city a few days to file a suit in District Court that July, the city said.

Earlier this year, JW Zunino & Associates, LLC — the landscape architect — paid the city $10,000, the city said.

“Given the uncertainty of litigation and the various issues that arose, City staff and the City Attorney recommend acceptance of these settlements,” according to the agenda item.