Arriving and expanding businesses give North Las Vegas hope

CORRECTION, 10/18/10 -- A story in Sunday’s Review-Journal Business section contained errors. The city of North Las Vegas will lose out on $9.7 million in revenue when the U.S. Marshals Service moves 250 inmates to a new detention center in Pahrump. Also the city of North Las Vegas is facing a $52 million budget deficit next year.

By TONY ILLIA
LAS VEGAS BUSINESS PRESS

Posted: Oct. 17, 2010 | 12:00 a.m.
Updated: Oct. 18, 2010 | 1:58 p.m.

North Las Vegas is known for its gritty resilience. Sure, the recession has hurt business and job growth. But the city continues to thrive with developments under way that signal a future economic comeback. The city issued more than 1,500 business licenses and welcomed 35 new companies during the last year. Twelve other businesses underwent significant expansion, including Southwest Gas Corp., Home Depot, Staples and Target. 

"North Las Vegas has been intelligent and proactive in how it attracts businesses and development to the community," said John Restrepo, principal of Las Vegas-based economic advisory firm Restrepo Consulting Group and a Directions 2010 presenter. "It's going to take that level of initiative and creativity to stimulate economic recovery. Passive municipalities, by contrast, will face longer, more difficult recovery period."  

The city attracted solar-panel manufacturer Amonix, for example, with a $6 million federal tax credit. The Seal Beach, Calif.-based company signed a $3.9 million lease for 214,030 square feet inside the Golden Triangle Industrial Park in July. Amonix will create 278 local jobs. The plant will manufacture enough solar equipment to generate about 150 megawatts of electricity annually. An average home uses around 10 megawatts annually. 

Xtreme Green Products, another ecoconscious company, opened a 30,000-square-foot manufacturing plant this year at 2191 Mendenhall Drive in North Las Vegas. The local company produces electric all-terrain and personal vehicles. The North Las Vegas plant creates 30 jobs. 

ITT Educational Services, meanwhile, in April signed a five-year, $1.6 million lease for 17,637 square feet of office space inside Northport Business Center at 3825 W. Cheyenne Ave. The space gives the school a North Las Vegas address and lets it expand technical-educational offerings. ITT has more than 100 technical institutes in over 30 states. The Northport Business Center is the company's second campus in Southern Nevada.  

Downtown, meanwhile, is undergoing a makeover with façade improvements to the 46-year-old, 95,000-square-foot Jerry's Nugget, on nine acres, at 1821 Las Vegas Blvd. North. The work coincides with the upcoming completion of the first phase of the $121 million North Fifth Street superarterial roadway project, which is the city's largest transportation undertaking. The roadway will eventually span Owens Avenue to the Las Vegas Beltway.

El Super, a grocery store, opened in July at 2021 E. Lake Mead Blvd. inside a former Lucky supermarket. The 37,000-square-foot store created about 100 permanent jobs and 150 ancillary jobs during construction.  

Downtown's economic showpiece comes from the city itself with the construction of a $142 million City Hall. The nine-story, 210,400-square-foot building at 2250 Las Vegas Blvd. North broke ground in June 2009. It's the city's largest project thus far.

The project, on 12 acres, creates 160 construction jobs. The new building will house 350 city employees upon completion in October 2011, while saving an estimated $700,000 a year in energy costs. 

North of downtown lies the 20,000-acre Apex master-planned industrial park. The city has annexed about 11,500 acres or 57 percent of the park since 2008. North Las Vegas has scaled back development requirements to attract new companies and has created City View Business Park, a part of Apex, which has become a foreign-trade zone. The designation creates favorable tariffs and a favorable customs climate for international businesses.

"We are working with several companies looking to expand or relocate from the East Coast, Midwest and nearby California, which is extremely encouraging," North Las Vegas acting business development manager Terri Sheridan said. "The decision to move or relocate doesn't happen quickly, it takes time." 

The North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the city to help attract, retain and expand businesses through the creation of three newly formed committees focused on economic development; military support and private-sector contracting opportunities with Nellis Air Force Base; and small-business aid for those companies with 25 or fewer full-time employees. 

The chamber plans to support and boost city economic efforts through mentoring, public planning participation and a possible incubator program, among other initiatives. The chamber is also working to ally with the Nevada Development Authority and other like-minded private, public and nonprofit groups.  

"If we don't support the city and their mission, nobody else will," chamber President and CEO Michael Varney said. "This is the epicenter of unemployment in the country right now. Negative things happen when people don't have paychecks."  

North Las Vegas eliminated 200 individual paychecks in June to help balance the budget. The city also moved 250 inmates from the North Las Vegas Detention Center to a new facility in Pahrump, thereby saving $9.7 million. The money will go into the city's general fund for operational services.

North Las Vegas must still balance its upcoming $149 million budget. The city faces a $25 million deficit.

The city is getting help from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in $34.2 million in energy efficiency grants to help improve operational efficiency and lower overhead operating costs. The city is reclaiming some jobs through a $5.3 million federal grant to hire or rehire full-time police officers and $3.56 million for North Las Vegas Airport upgrades, both announced in September.

A $257 million North Las Vegas water reclamation plant, scheduled to open in mid-2011, is creating 500 construction jobs. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is generating building 900 jobs with construction of a new hospital at 6900 N. Pecos Road. 

More projects wait in the wings, such as the proposed $110 million, 352,200-square-foot Las Flores shopping center at the northwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Hamilton Street. Montecito Commercial is the project's at-fee developer on behalf of Dallas-based Sarofim Realty Advisors. Plans call for a 14-building lifestyle complex, on 33 acres, with a 70,000-square-foot marketplace, three restaurant pads, and a 100,000-square-foot La Curacao department store. The center was scheduled to break ground a year ago, but construction was delayed by the economic downturn. 

"If somebody is looking for an opportunity to expand or relocate, there is no community in Southern Nevada that has more developable land than North Las Vegas," Varney said. "There is attractively priced land, a pro-business City Council and affordable housing."

Contact reporter Tony Illia at 702-303-5699 or tonyillia@aol.com

New City Hall
North Las Vegas is moving into new digs. The city began work on a $142 million City Hall at 2250 Las Vegas Blvd. North in June 2009. The 210,400 square foot project is being designed by Fentress Architects, the firm responsible for Denver International Airport and the Clark County government complex. The building is supported by a steel-frame skeleton with a skin of Giallo Veneziano granite, which is a light tan, white and black-flecked material imported from Brazil. 
"The design's color palette borrows from the native desert environment for its sand-colored granite and the sunny climate for its blue-sky glass," Fentress spokesman Matt Popowski said. "The building is a visual beacon for efforts to increase downtown revitalization and reflects the city's commitment by providing a catalyst." 
The distinctive look is financially possible because the city sold construction bonds during the peak of Southern Nevada's real estate boom in 2006. The recession enabled the city to renegotiate pricing, which yielded cost savings that enabled upgraded finishes like Brazilian granite.  
The nine-story building will be seven times larger than the existing 28,923-square-foot City Hall that opened in 1966 when the city's population was about 35,000. North Las Vegas's population today is about 224,387 or 84.4 percent more than when City Hall was inaugurated.
The building, on 12 acres, features a 4-acre outdoor civic plaza with a stage for performances and concerts and an interactive slash pad and water fountain. The project will finish construction in October 2011. 

Veterans Affairs
The federal agency in charge of veterans' health is betting big on North Las Vegas.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is building its first new hospital in more than 20 years at 6900 N. Pecos Road in North Las Vegas. The $364.9 million, 1 million-square-foot complex is the agency's largest undertaking to date. 
"We look forward to a future of greatly expanded medical care that will meet the needs of Nevada veterans, not just for today, but for generations to come, especially in Southern Nevada where we have one of the fastest-growing veteran populations in the country," Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said in a statement. 
The seven-story hospital will have 68 patient beds and a 22-bed mental health facility. The 105 foot-tall building will house $75 million in state-of-the-art medical equipment that includes, a 16-room radiology suite with a magnetic resonance imaging machine and positron emission tomography scanner. There will also be three hyperbaric decompression chambers for respiratory patients and a computerized axial tomography scan machine. 
The complex, on 38.7 acres, will have a high-efficiency mechanical system, natural light and low-flow plumbing fixtures. Construction is expected to finish in late 2011.

Wastewater plant
People flush toilets and take showers without a second thought. But North Las Vegas is thinking about the other end of the drain.
The city is taking wastewater into its own hands by building a $257 million wastewater treatment plant at Carey Avenue and Betty Lane just south of Nellis Air Force Base.  
A joint-venture of New-Com and CH2M-Hill is the general contractor; Greeley & Hanson is the design architect. The project is being built on 40 acres of land leased from the U.S. Air Force under a construction manager at-risk contract, which eliminates the risk of cost overruns. The contractor, in other words, gave the city a fixed price for building the plant; if the contractor goes over budget, it pays for the added expense.  
The plant, which will consist of treatment basins, warehouse buildings, pump stations, wastewater processing structures and administration buildings, will treat an estimated 25 million gallons of effluent a day using membrane bioreactor technology that combines microfiltration with bacteria to break down waste.
Construction is expected to finish in mid-2011.

Freeway Upgrades
Interstate 15 is a crucial transportation corridor and economic lifeline for North Vegas. A 5.8-mile-long section between Craig Road and the Spaghetti Bowl recently underwent a much-needed upgrade. On Jan. 20, state officially celebrated the completion of a $242 million I-15 widening.  
The improvements are a welcome relief for North Las Vegas drivers. Although the roadway segment provides important access to the city's industrial sector, it was sorely outdated with portions having been built in the late 1960s. The stretch of interstate now sees more than 170,000 vehicles a day, or about 30 percent more than its design capacity, resulting in frequent gridlock.  
The state-backed project alleviates gridlock by expanding I-15 from six to 10 lanes from the Spaghetti Bowl interchange to Lake Mead Boulevard, and widening I-15 from four and five lanes to eight lanes between Lake Mead Boulevard and Craig Road.
Auxiliary lanes were added between the interchanges, and aging 40-year-old bridges at Bonanza Road, D Street and Washington Avenue were reconstructed. Improvements also included a new four-lane connecting road between I-15 and Bonanza Road that links D and F streets.  

TONY ILLIA/LAS VEGAS BUSINESS PRESS

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Comments

Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

1. Anya Oct. 17, 2010 | 3:09 p.m. Report Abuse

   How about some senior-friendly condos? Single story. Attached garages. Yards with good sunshine. Patios and court yards. Pedestrian friendly to groceries.

2. DaninVegas Oct. 17, 2010 | 11:16 a.m. Report Abuse

   Isn't this the sewer plant project with no place to dump the effluent? Great planning!

3. Fred Oct. 17, 2010 | 8:43 a.m. Report Abuse

   Yes, hope and a good posse would help North Las Vegas.

4. J.Bo Oct. 17, 2010 | 7:56 a.m. Report Abuse

   Why is this article running off the right side of the page and un readable.

5. J.Bo Oct. 17, 2010 | 7:53 a.m. Report Abuse

   You guys re-wrote and changed the entire article, much shorter than just a few minutes ago. That probably explains why you did not post my previous comments. Oh well I know what it said before. HUM

6. J.Bo Oct. 17, 2010 | 7:19 a.m. Report Abuse

   Does it really take 278 employees to produce solar panels for 15 average homes? My math is not adding up. Must be LIB math used here.

7. TONY Oct. 17, 2010 | 7:12 a.m. Report Abuse

   WHO CARES ABOUT THE WATER / NOBODY..........
   WE NEED TO MAKE MONEY $$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$ $$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

8. J.Bo Oct. 17, 2010 | 7:10 a.m. Report Abuse

   I am not a math WHIZ, BUT I am reading that it takes a $6 million tax credit, $3.9 million lease and 278 jobs to create solar panels that will provide power for JUST 15 homes on average. WTF. You do the math......
   
   The city attracted solar-panel manufacturer Amonix, for example, with a $6 million federal tax credit. The Seal Beach, Calif.-based company signed a $3.9 million lease for 214,030 square feet inside the Golden Triangle Industrial Park in July. Amonix will create 278 local jobs. The plant will manufacture enough solar equipment to generate about 150 megawatts of electricity annually. An average home uses around 10 megawatts annually.

9. TONY Oct. 17, 2010 | 6:01 a.m. Report Abuse

   THE RE-ROACHES / BANKERS / TALK GROWTH WHICH
   REALLY MEANS $$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
   DRINKING WATER / THE LAKE / WHO CARES..........