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North Las Vegas Supplement 5

Special Supplement

N O R T H L A S V E G A SN e w S t a r o n t h e H o r i z o n

COPYRIGHT © 2003 REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED UNLESS AUTHORIZED BY PUBLISHER

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North Las Vegas Focuses on 21st Century 6Local Chamber Affords Partnership 15The Economic Development Manager Speaks 16Corridor Grows in Importance 17Harsch Investment Properties 18Tomatoes Thrive in “Steamy” North Las Vegas 19KB Home Pre-Sells Homes in Aliante 20Insight Holdings Helping Develop North Las Vegas 22Celebrate Homes Builds North Las Vegas 24Alliance of Tech Firms in CTC 26LogistiCenter at North Las Vegas 28

population of 480,000 within 20 years.Faced with challenges to its superior

quality of life never seen before, a citycouncil, determined not to let mattersget out-of-control, adopted eight prior-ities in 1997, with planned and qualitygrowth at the top of the list and eco-nomic development not far behind.

Since then, North Las Vegas has as-sembled, within its community develop-ment department, an eager and pro-ac-tive economic development division,which has capitalized on a previouslysuccessful industrial expansion program.By employing a forward-thinking ap-proach of focusing on three high-techareas – technology, transportation andtelecommunications – as key elementsto the city’s future, North Las Vegas hasreadied itself for economic developmentin the 21st century.

CITY COVETS THE THREE “T”S

Technology, transportation andtelecommunications – the three “T”s –are so much a part of the city’s agendathat planning for a high-tech future isnot limited to the economic develop-ment department.

Years ago, the public works depart-ment recognized the growing future offiber optics and began utilizing this newinformation-delivery technology in itstraffic signal program. As a result, NorthLas Vegas has the most comprehensivefiber-optic conduit network in Southern

6 North Las Vegas Supplement

or years, the North Las Vegaseconomy cruised along at anabove-average clip relative toother cities in the country, its pop-

ulation growing by single digits eachyear while managing to attract newmanufacturing and warehousing compa-nies that created hundreds of welcomenon-gaming jobs. In some years it was astruggle, but gains were made neverthe-less. But then, in the late ’80s and early’90s, something happened. Suddenly,North Las Vegas found itself on agrowth-induced rocket ride of sizeableproportions that continues today.

New single-family homes, followed bycommercial centers, popped up fasterthan dandelions in May, setting a newrecord every year the calendars changed.A look at the numbers proves it.

From 1980 to 1990, the populationgrew by just less than 5,000, or 12 per-cent. But from 1990 to 2000, the num-ber of residents jumped almost 80,000 –or 16 times greater than the previousdecade – for a 166 percent growth rate.

To put it a different way, in nearly 50years – from the city’s incorporation in1946 to 1995 – the city added 45,000residents, but in the five years from 1995to 2000, the city population increasedby 50,000.

And that’s just the tip of the develop-ment iceberg. According to Mayor MikeMontandon in his State of the City ad-dress for 2002, the city is only 28 percentbuilt-out, with forecasts predicting a

Cheyenne Technology Corridor Offers High-Tech IncentivesNorth Las Vegas Focuses on 21st Century

Nevada, according to Assistant PublicWorks Director/Transportation ServicesRay Burke.

“We started in 1992 to run conduitalong the rights of way,” Burke ex-plained. “We wanted to find a new rev-enue stream, and providing fiber con-nections seemed to be a good idea.Being the only municipality in the val-ley that owns and maintains its ownfiber lines, we not only install and repairour fiber, but we have certified splicerstoo. Our level of expertise is one of thebest in the western United States.”

When speaking of transportation, thetraditional 20th century forms of highway,rail and air come to mind. But EconomicDevelopment Manager Mike Majewski andhis staff see transportation in a differentlight. Their innovative department envi-sions transportation on a new highway –the Information Superhighway.

“Unlike conventional thinking inwhich transportation is the movementof people and goods, we look at it asalso the movement of ideas and infor-mation,” Majewski said. “We think wehave an economy that’s ready to becomepart of the world economy, where thatmovement of ideas and information isextremely important as well. We viewtelecommunications as a form of trans-portation, not just a utility.”

North Las Vegas in previous decadessnared its share of industrial develop-ment growth in Southern Nevada byheavily marketing the usual modes of

F


transportation, the availability of lowcost land and a business-friendly cityhall. But now, while still actively hunting– and in many cases successfully captur-ing – those traditional manufacturingand warehousing companies, the city haskicked its economic development pro-gram up a notch by meeting the needs ofthe new millennium and creating a high-tech thoroughfare known as theCheyenne Technology Corridor (CTC).

CTC FIRMS LIKE LOCATIONPayroll Solutions, a service-related

company that assists firms with all as-pects of their administrative and humanresource needs, moved to a 5,500-square-foot leased office in the CTC inMay 2002 after spending two years in acramped 1,000-square-foot facility inthe middle of Las Vegas. To Howard Win-ters, who came to the U.S. from Canada12 years ago and spent eight years inFlorida before heading to Las Vegas, itwas the best move he would ever make.

“The future of this valley is in NorthLas Vegas [and] the technology corridoris going to attract high-end businessesthat are going to be attractive to us,”said Winters, the company’s owner. “Welooked at 24 facilities and this locationhad the most affordable office space,which is one reason we chose North LasVegas. We also had more TI (tenant im-

provement) dollars to work with. This isgoing to be our home for a long time.”

Payroll Solutions had 25 employeesat move-in, added seven more duringthe next five months and plans to in-crease to 50 in 2003. Winters is full ofsuperlatives when describing the city’sbusiness climate.

“In the last three years, our businesshas grown 300 percent, so for us themarket and business climate is incredi-ble,” he said. “There’s in excess of $10billion of business within a 30-mile ra-dius and there’s no competition. It’s to-tally unbelievable.”

C. Martin Co., a services contractorthat performs range and facility mainte-nance on the roads and grounds of near-by Nellis Air Force Base, selected the CTCnot only for its quick access to the base,but because the southern portion ofCheyenne Avenue is located in an SBAHistorically Underutilized Business(HUB) Zone, where qualified contractorsget a preference on government con-tracts. Another factor was McCarran In-ternational Airport.

“With our corporate headquarters inRidgecrest, California, and our otherwork sites in North Carolina, Louisiana,New Mexico and two more in California,it’s a lot better to fly out of McCarranthan it is Ridgecrest,” said Bob Gardner,C. Martin’s director of contracts, about

the need to be in remote Inyo Countywhere the Navy’s China Lake facility islocated. “We have to travel a lot, so Mc-Carran was a big deciding factor.”

After only one year here, Gardner saidhis company is so impressed with thebusiness climate and government atti-tude of North Las Vegas and SouthernNevada that it’s going to close theRidgecrest office and move the corporateheadquarters to North Las Vegas in 2003.

Another Nellis contractor, Dyncorp,which provides range support servicessuch as target management, logisticssupport, civil engineering and environ-mental compliance monitoring, chose alocation in the technology corridor be-cause of its proximity to the base for its350 workers.

“We chose North Las Vegas because itwas easy to get in and out to the clientby using I-15,” explained Caroline Longa-necker, Dyncorp’s manager of corporatecommunications. “We’ve found the busi-ness climate to be very positive and real-ly enjoy it around there. We haven’t heardof any complaints from our people.”

As these three examples clearly pointout, the city’s motto – “Your Communi-ty of Choice” – is still alive and relevantto members of the business community,which continues to find North Las Vegasand its Cheyenne Technology Corridortheir choice for doing business.

GOING THE EXTRA MILEEven after companies in the corridor

have moved in and opened their doors,the North Las Vegas economic develop-ment team’s assistance continues, sothey can make sure their new neighborsare happy neighbors.

In one particular instance, as a way tocontinue promoting cooperation withcompanies in the Cheyenne corridor, theeconomic development staff conducteda survey of employees new to the area.The one-page survey asked employees aseries of questions, such as what kindsof retail and commercial services weretheir top priorities. Nearly 400 personsresponded, indicating their top threechoices were fast food restaurants,banks, and sit-down restaurants. Manyalso named specific companies theywould like to see locate in the CTC.

The information will be used in mar-

The North Las Vegas City Council consists of: (left to right) Robert L. Eliason, Shari Buck,Mayor Michael L. Montandon, Stephanie S. Smith, William E. Robinson.


keting efforts to encourage desired com-panies to consider a CTC location. Thedividends of such an effort not only helpto broaden the local economy with newchoices, but also go a long ways to en-suring CTC employers have a satisfiedand productive work force.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

While many new companies locatingin the CTC have discovered the city is anexcellent choice for their needs, otherbusinesses have found North Las Vegasequally as rewarding.

Advanced Cyber Solutions (ACS),which moved to the city in July 2001, isone of those companies. Founded in1995, ACS specializes in key and rapidlyadvancing technologies, such as cablingfor data, telephone and fiber optic sys-tems, network integration and wirelessdata communications solutions. It alsoinstalls its systems, making it a one-stop shop for technology by providing“end-to-end” solutions.

“The business climate here is very fa-vorable, and I especially like what they’redoing with the Cheyenne Technology Cor-ridor,” said Jim Ratigan, president andmajority owner of ACS. “I like the direc-tion the city is going in its dealings withbusiness. The city is very cooperative.We’re very, very high on the city.”

Foster West, a manufacturer of cus-tom thermoplastic compounds used pre-dominantly in medical products, shipsmuch of its product to California and the

West Coast, but when the companybegan searching for a western locationin the early ’90s, it quickly ruled out Cal-ifornia because it was too expensive.

“For us, it was the cost of doing busi-ness,” said Lori Waterman, the compa-ny’s general manager, who establishedthe North Las Vegas location in 1994.“[In North Las Vegas], we found theutilities, especially power costs, and theleasing of space to be quite reasonable.The climate was a plus, because toomuch humidity puts a lot of moistureinto the plastics, which causes prob-lems. Transportation costs from NorthLas Vegas to our western customers wasa big factor also.”

After eight years, she still thinksNorth Las Vegas was the right choice.“Being in Nevada is great, since we’veseldom experienced any problems,” shesaid. “The city’s economic developmentpeople made us a priority.” Watermansaid there are indications the companymay need to expand soon, and if it does,it will be in North Las Vegas. “We’restaying here without a doubt,” she said.

Hickman Telcom, which sells and in-stalls state-of-the-art telephone andcomputer systems for various office ap-plications, is a “family company” thatopened in North Las Vegas four yearsago. It’s a family company in the sensethat five of its 12 employees are fromthe Hickman family.

“I came from Wisconsin in 1977, metMurray in 1980 when he came here fromCalifornia, and we got married,” said

President Cheri Hickman. “Our two sonsare technicians and our daughter is inthe sales department.” Murray Hickmanserves as the company’s vice presidentof operations.

The couple established the company in1988, working out of their home for thenext 10 years. “Gibson Construction wasour customer at the time, and they hada suite available in their building. Wedecided it was time to have a businesslocation,” she said, describing how theydecided to locate in North Las Vegas.“We think the access to the freeway isgreat, since we have employees who livein Green Valley and the northwest. Wefind the business climate excellent herebecause everything is growing so quick-ly in North Las Vegas, and these newcompanies need our services.”

Hickman, whose company lists theState of Nevada, the Metropolitan PoliceDepartment, M.J. Dean Construction andother commercial builders as its cus-tomers, said expansion is in the compa-ny’s game plan, and it would like tohave its own North Las Vegas building inthe future.

GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS LOCATE HERE

Two of North Las Vegas’ most ad-vanced engineering and technology-dri-ven companies are government contrac-tors. They are also two of the city’slargest private sector non-gaming em-ployers – Bechtel Nevada, with 700 em-ployees, and Arcata Associates, with380 workers.

Bechtel Nevada, as the contractor forthe Nevada Operations Office of the U.S.Department of Energy’s National NuclearSecurity Administration, provides stew-ardship over the nation’s nuclear stock-pile, located at the Nevada Test Site(NTS) about 80 miles north of the city.It also develops and deploys a numberof nonmilitary applications and productsused in a variety of civilian situations.

The 1,256 additional Bechtel Nevadaemployees who work at the NTS assistthe University of California’s Los Alamosand Lawrence National Laboratories withthe diagnostics used to measure howtime affects the components of nuclearweapons by conducting sub-critical un-derground testing. The firm also man-


ages and operates the Terrorism TrainingFacility at the NTS, which teaches firstresponders how to react and respond topotential events caused by Weapons ofMass Destruction.

Bechtel Nevada has a Remote SensingLaboratory at Nellis Air Force Base,which takes aerial surveys and thermalphotos to establish baselines for biolog-ical, chemical and pollutant changesover the 3 million-acre Air Force range.

The company also helped at the 2002Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, whereit teamed up with the Los Alamos andLawrence National Laboratories to con-duct radiation and bio-detection checksas part of the international games’ secu-rity network. A lesser-known involve-ment in a civilian application was Bech-tel Nevada’s assistance to lawenforcement in the homicide case of 12-year-old Ashley Pond and 13-year-oldMiranda Gaddis, who were found buriedin the Oregon City backyard of WardWeaver last August. “We helped supportthe FBI search for the Oregon girls,” saidKurt Arnold, senior public relations spe-cialist for Bechtel Nevada. “Two of ourengineers from Bechtel designed theparticular ground-penetrating radar sys-tem that helped discover the girls.”

Bechtel was founded in 1898 and wasin Nevada in the 1930s, when it helpedbuild Boulder Dam. Although BechtelNevada has been here as a defense con-tractor for less than a decade, it’s possi-ble the corporation may be around NorthLas Vegas for a long time.

The NTS is one of five locations beingconsidered in a DOE environmental im-pact study for a $4.1 billion plutonium-pit manufacturing facility that is expect-ed to be operational by 2020. The U.S. isthe only country with the capability ofproducing plutonium pits, one of thecomponents used to trigger nuclearweapons, but none have been madesince 1989, when the only pit productionfacility in Rocky Flats, Colo. was closed.

Arcata Associates, Inc. is one of thecity’s oldest technology-based compa-nies, moving to North Las Vegas fromNorthern California in 1979. One of thereasons the company moved here wasbecause of its contract with Nellis AirForce Base to provide engineering anddata systems for the Air Warfare Center.

“Another reason we liked North LasVegas was our good working relationshipwith city officials, especially MayorSeastrand,” said Arcata’s president, TimWong. The late Jim Seastrand was elect-ed to the city council in 1975 and servedas mayor for 16 years, from 1981 to hisdeath in 1997. “The city and the statehad a good tax structure that was veryfavorable. North Las Vegas has a verypro-active business climate, which letsyou take any issue to the council, whothen tries to resolve it.”

Wong, the son of company founderBuck Wong, said the company diversi-fied in the early ’90s, and today 60 per-cent of its business is with NASA, in-cluding handling all NASA videoteleconferences across the country, per-forming flight research and assisting inthe landings of the Space Shuttle. Italso provides engineering and informa-tion technology services to the Navy andradar data systems to all domestic airtraffic controllers.

“We design and manufacture a radarvideo compression system that’s used inmost major airports like Atlanta, Chicagoand Jacksonville,” Wong said. “Our sys-tem in Boston can take data from sever-al points (because the signal may beblocked by a building or some other ob-struction) as far out as 120 miles, digi-tize it, and compress it on the screen.”

Wong plans to be around North LasVegas for some time, too. “Our businesshas tripled in size the last two years and

we have opportunities for additionalgrowth in the next year,” he said.

COGENERATION FINDS A HOME

North Las Vegas also is the only loca-tion in the Las Vegas Valley where anelectric cogeneration plant teams upwith an agricultural commodity produc-er in a win-win combination.

Las Vegas Cogeneration Co., whoseparent company is Black Hills EnergyCapital Corp. of Golden Colo., becameoperational in 1994 and today, afterhaving $248 million invested in the 50-megawatt plant, has a contract to sell45 megawatts of power to Nevada PowerCo. until 2024. At the same time, thenatural gas-fired plant produces enoughsteam to keep an adjacent 12-acregreenhouse operation warm and humidso it can produce more than 3.5 millionpounds of hydroponically-grown toma-toes annually.

In this case, agriculture puts newtechnology to use to keep accurate,up-to-the-minute information avail-able so growing conditions can bekept at an optimum.

“All our equipment is gas-powered andstate-of-the-art,” said David Robb, gen-eral manager of the cogeneration plant.“By using that type of equipment, we’reable to keep emissions very low whilemaintaining a very high efficiency.”

Black Hills Energy Capital has invest-ed another $160 million in the electricgeneration plant so it can go commer-cial in early 2003 with a 222-megawattaddition that will sell merchant powerto wholesale and retail customers.

“The people have been congenial andhave done everything they could do tohelp us out,” said R.D. Hawkins, theplant manager, who has been workingwith North Las Vegas officials since theearly days of the plant’s construction.“I’ve met a lot of good people with thebest of intentions in mind. The regula-


tory agencies in Nevada have been goodto work with too.”

TRANSPORTATION PLAYS A ROLE

North Las Vegas is well-served in thetransportation department. Interstate15 slices through the heart of the city,linking Salt Lake City with the huge LosAngeles-San Bernardino-Orange County-San Diego metroplex market. On thewestern edge of the city, U.S. 95 linksNorth Las Vegas with Phoenix-Tucson onthe south and Reno to the north.

Additionally, the I-15 and US 93 routehas been designated as a trade corridorassociated with the North American FreeTrade Agreement (NAFTA), which pro-vides a continuous all-weather highwaythrough North Las Vegas that stretchesfrom Canada to Mexico.

And just this past year, the NorthernBeltway connecting I-15 with U.S. 95along the northern fringe of the cityopened an almost totally undevelopedcorridor where much of the city’s futureresidential-commercial-industrial growthwill occur. “I am anxious to witness thedevelopment that will occur along thebeltway route,” commented CouncilmanRobert Eliason. “All you see when youdrive it today is desert, but within justa few years, you’ll have to look hard tosee the desert because of all the devel-opment.”

Throw in the North Las Vegas Airportand the Union Pacific railroad andindustry’s transportation options are all covered.

Based on the diversity of these trans-portation options, two major companieschose to locate in North Las Vegas dur-ing the past 10 years.

Potlatch Corp., one of America’slargest forest-products conglomerates,opened a $50-million, 400,000-square-foot converting facility in 1993 to ser-vice its expanding western market. Atthe 20-acre site, jumbo rolls of tissue

are cut, trimmed, rolled, folded andpackaged into bathroom tissue, papertowels, napkins and facial tissues. Thereason? Economies of scale in shippingheavy rolls of raw tissue versus truck-loads of lightweight finished product.

“The decision was all about freightback then and still is,” said PotlatchPlant Manager Gary Blosl, whose firm’sConsumer Products Division is currentlythe major supplier of private-label tissueproducts to Albertson’s, Smith’s, Vonsand other grocery store chains in theWest. “Shipping the parent rolls here forconverting is less costly than convertingthem in Lewiston, Idaho and then ship-ping the lighter finished products to

southwestern markets.”Potlatch employs about 130 highly

skilled workers at the facility, whichuses computer-controlled technology torun the converting and packaging lines.The plant runs 12-hour shifts around theclock every day of the year. Potlatch uti-lizes a team-based system in whichthere are no supervisors on the floor.“Basically, if there’s a problem, theteams are expected to work it outamong themselves. Consequently, forour employees, people skills are just asimportant as having work and technical

skills,” Blosl said.The plant has been so successful that

in September 2002 the Potlatch board ofdirectors approved a $66 million expan-sion of the North Las Vegas facility,which means another 66 jobs will beadded after an Italian-made 102-inchpaper machine and additional convert-ing equipment come on line in Decem-ber 2003.

“It may be hard to believe, but we’regoing to be making paper in the desert,”Blosl said of the 100,000-square-foot ad-dition, which will boost annual outputfrom more than 5 million cases of prod-uct to almost 9 million cases.

Doing business in North Las Vegas, as

well as the expansion currently under-way, has brought Blosl in close touchwith various city officials. “The city hasbeen very good to work with since wemoved here in 1993, and they continueto demonstrate that they appreciate usbeing here,” he said. “We enjoy the smalltown feel, but appreciate the access wehave to urban population centers.”

Pan Western Corp., a fixture in thelocal trucking industry since 1970, oper-ates a unique 90,000 square-foot ware-house facility in the 320-acre GoldenTriangle Industrial Park north of Craig

Potlatch Corp. produces paper products at its 20-acre site in North Las Vegas.A planned expansion will bring its facility to 500,000 square feet.


Road, which opened in 1998. Situatedon a spur of the Union Pacific Railroad,Pan Western acts as a trans-shipmentfacility that receives goods and com-modities by more than 5,000 rail carsannually, then warehouses and cross-docks truck deliveries so they can bemade locally or into the Southern Cali-fornia area.

According toMitchell Truman,the company’s op-erations manager,Pan Western re-ceives such bulkcommodities assoda ash, ferricchloride, cattlefeed, cement,sand, lumber andpaper. Truman es-timates the facilityreceives and shipsout 500 tons of paper daily to such localcompanies as MACtac, Office Max, Fel-lowes Manufacturing and Berlin Indus-tries.

“We chose North Las Vegas because itwas the only place that had rail service,”Truman said. “It used to be that every-body shipped everything by truck, butmore and more companies are shippingby rail as an alternative.”

He also said the business climate inthe city is exceptional. “We like MayorMike,” Truman said of Montandon, whobegan his term as mayor in 1997 andhas since been re-elected. “He’s user-friendly.” Pan Western, with 120 truck-ing and warehouse employees, also islooking to expand its warehouse spacein the city.

Although transportation was not a de-ciding factor to Nikkiso Cryo Inc., theTokyo-based maker of submersible cryo-genic pumps has discovered just how in-ternational McCarran International Air-port can be since it opened its facility inNorth Las Vegas in April 1997.

“Most people don’t realize this, butSouthern Nevada is a hub for trans-portation to Asia, since Japan Air Lineshas three or four direct flights here eachweek,” said Charles Molina, president ofNikkiso. “Typically, we don’t have U.S.customers, but we do have customersfrom around the world, like Asia and the

Middle East, who come out to our facil-ity here in North Las Vegas and witnessthe performance of the pumps they’rebuying. We run the pumps through a se-ries of liquid propane or methane testsat minus-250 degrees or less.”

Nikkiso’s North Las Vegas plant is theonly cryogenic testing facility of its typein the United States and is one of only

three locations inthe world wherecryogenic pumpsare made. The4.5-acre facility,with 16 employ-ees, consists of a7,000-square-footadministrationbuilding, a main-tenance shop, atest pad connect-ed by pipeline toan on-site tank

farm and lots of open space – a require-ment by the fire department because ofthe explosive nature of the gases.

“We chose North Las Vegas and Neva-da because the city was friendly to thecompany when it wanted to move here,”Molina said. “Also, the weather is idealand it’s easy to move freight from hereto the West Coast where we ship thepumps overseas.”

On a personal note, Molina, whomoved to Nevada two years ago afterworking at GE Aircraft Engines in Cincin-nati, Ohio, said he’s loving it here be-cause of the wide open spaces. “Whereelse can you go out on BLM land, take atrail, camp and see petroglyphs?” Moli-

na said. “You can’t do that any placeelse. It’s great because there’s so muchto see out there.”

TRAINING NEEDS BEING ANSWERED

A trained and trainable workforceconstitutes another key ingredient inthe technology mix. North Las Vegasand Nevada’s higher education officialsrecognize that need, which is being metwith on-going and expanding learningopportunities offered at the post-sec-ondary and high school level.

What makes this especially alluring tocompanies looking at the city as a po-tential location is that both the Com-munity College of Southern Nevada’s(CCSN) Cheyenne Campus and the ClarkCounty School District’s Area TechnicalTrade Center (ATTC) are situated in theCheyenne Technology Corridor – literallyminutes away from any of the five in-dustrial parks and complexes in thehigh-tech thoroughfare.

CCSN offers a variety of skilled learn-ing curriculums geared to meeting thedemands of local business and industry,including the Engineering Technologyprogram, the largest and fastest-grow-ing discipline in the Applied Technolo-gies Division.

“We started with about 120 studentsfive years ago and have grown to morethan 1,000 students and sometimes upto 1,200,” said Warren Hioki, associatedean for Engineering Technology. “We’vehad a 1,000 percent growth factor injust five years.” Course offerings includetelecommunications, electronics, fiber

The MAX bus is an optically-guided high-tech bus scheduledto begin a route in North Las Vegas in 2003.

Mayor Pro Tem William Robinson (third from left) leads a visit of the Economic Development Alliance Team at Nikkiso Cryo Inc.


optics, PC troubleshooting and repairand gaming electronics. CCSN also ishome to one of only eight Cisco Systems’U.S. Area Training Centers, which hasbeen designated as a premier site forCisco Certified Networking Professionaltraining in the United States.

The center features a lab settingwhere students learn by doing, as theydesign and bring to life local and area-wide networks. Course content includesIP addressing, LAN/WAN/VLAN design,Ethernet/Token Rings, cabling and con-nector technology and other highly spe-cialized classes relevant to today’s glob-al information networks.

Recognizing the growing importance

of meeting new technology needs andgrowth in the industry, the Nevada Leg-islature in 2001 approved a $20 millionDigital Technologies Building at theCheyenne Campus, which currently is inthe architectural planning phase.

Last November, John Morgridge,chairman of the board at Cisco Systems,came to the Cheyenne Campus, where hespoke about CCSN’s contributions to In-ternet networking technology educationand economic development. “The mindis the most important resource the orga-nization has,” said the executive of theworld’s largest networking company,which went from $5 million in sales tomore than $19 billion under Morgridge’sleadership. “The Internet and educationcomplement each other, so it’s not sur-prising that Cisco is deeply involved ineducation.”

The Clark County School District has

also weighed in with its recognition ofpreparing career-bound students for occu-pations in the growing technology field.

The Area Technical Trade Center, lo-cated midway in the CTC, is a vocation-al high school that provides tenth,eleventh and twelfth grade studentswith 16 occupational programs, includ-ing computer/network technician. Stu-dents receive their required academiccourses for graduation at their homehigh school and attend ATTC half a dayin one of the occupational programs.Students can earn up to 18 credits to-ward their Associates Degree at CCSN bymaintaining a B average.

The ATTC is one of 17 authorized Cisco

Networking Academies in SouthernNevada. All completed Cisco NetworkingAcademy credits are transferable toCCSN. Course content includes suchclasses as A+ certification training, LAN,WAN, network concepts and technolo-gies, network design and documenta-tion, introduction to network security,network management, and protocols.

“We’re the best kept secret,” saidDavid Philippi, ATTC’s community part-nership coordinator. “We want to estab-lish partnerships with area business. Welike to be in communication with devel-opers so we can offer to be a partner.”The ATTC, according to Philippi, enrollsabout 600 students per year in all 16 oc-cupational areas. From 1982 to 2002, an average of 450 students per yearwere graduated with certificates. Theschool also offers a Job Bank in whichemployers can call in and request poten-

tial job candidates.The importance of having a qualified

workforce is recognized by everyone, in-cluding the North Las Vegas city council.“Businesses that require certain skill setsmust have an employment pool fromwhich to hire, [which is why] we mustensure that adequate educational oppor-tunities are available in our communityso that businesses will want to movehere,” said Councilwoman StephanieSmith, a music educator with the schooldistrict. “While the city council doesn’thave a say in school curriculum, we stillmust support our educational institu-tions and recognize their value to oureconomic future.”

A BUSINESS-FRIENDLYGOVERNMENT

What’s readily apparent, as seenthrough the eyes of the executives asso-ciated with new and relocating compa-nies to North Las Vegas, is that city hallis a friend, not a foe, when it comes toworking with business and industry.

Day after day, in example after exam-ple, business leaders and company man-agers attest to the friendly, small-town-like atmosphere that greets them,whether it’s the mayor, a council mem-ber, the city manager, a departmenthead or even that staff person who han-dles a multitude of tasks to make surethat each and every project is a success.

“I've been a councilman since 1983and have lived in North Las Vegas since1960, [which means] I’ve had the plea-sure of working with our staff more thanany other elected official in our city,”said Councilman and Mayor Pro TemWilliam Robinson. “They are a fine groupof people. They work hard, they are ded-icated, innovative, provide excellent ser-vice, and we couldn’t have succeeded inmaking North Las Vegas the communitythat it is today without them. I amproud to serve with them and am confi-dent that under the city manager’s lead-ership, the plans we’re making today willresult in a successful tomorrow.”

City Manager Kurt Fritsch, a formerdeputy director of the Colorado RiverCommission and assistant city manager,said he’s ready to make things happen.

“Our goal is to make the city easy towork with, allowing businesses and in-

A new Telecommunications Building at the Cheyenne campus of the Community College of Southern Nevada willeducate the workforce necessary to attract high-tech businesses to Southern Nevada


vestors to take advantage of the devel-oping market,” said Fritsch, a politicalscience and economics graduate fromWestern Washington University inBellingham. “We have an outstandingCommunity Development Departmentwith divisions for the promotion of ex-isting benefits and opportunities, aswell as creation of new programs in ex-isting developed areas.”

GROWTH HAS MEANTPROGRESS

Along with all the other entities inthe Las Vegas Valley, North Las Vegashas experienced tremendous growth inrecent years. A recent report by theU.S. Census Bureau named North LasVegas the fifth-fastest-growing largecity in America in the decade from1990 to 2000.

This rapid pace of growth has madeefficient planning an important taskfor North Las Vegas. “The comprehen-sive master-plan is a general guidelinefor how to proceed with growth,” saidCouncilwoman Smith. “We have decid-ed to be proactive, instead of just re-acting to whatever proposal is pre-sented. The master-plan ensuresbetter planning and is more user-friendly to residents and developers.”

The city’s capital improvement plancontains projects designed to keep upwith population growth by construct-ing roads, bridges, flood control facil-ities and parks. The latest plan ap-proved by the council calls forspending more than $441 million forsuch projects over a five-year periodfrom the 2002-2003 fiscal year to the2006-2007 fiscal year. More than $256million is planned for flood controland transportation projects alone. Ofthe $441 million, only $137 million,or 31 percent, is coming from city-generated revenues, while the bal-ance, or roughly $304 million, willcome from a variety of other local,

state and federal sources.“It is hoped this proposed plan fo-

cuses attention on community goalsand needs, reduces scheduling prob-lems in conflicting or overlapping pro-jects, maintains our sound financialcondition and achieves the highestpublic benefit,” Assistant City Manag-er Gregory Rose said.

City planners also are aiming to en-sure a better quality of life for NorthLas Vegas residents by developing awell-balanced mix of commercial, resi-dential, industrial and public uses forland within the city limits.

“I'm proud to say that I’ve livedhere all my life,” said CouncilmanShari Buck. “I think North Las Vegas isa remarkable city with a proud pastand an exciting future.”

HOUSING BUILDS STRONG FOUNDATION

The largest master-planned communi-ty North Las Vegas has ever seen – the1,900-acre Aliante project – is definingthe city’s growth and providing a newdefinition for its quality of life.

Aliante is a mixed-use project of res-idential, commercial, gaming, publicand open space that’s been meticulous-ly crafted by two premier builders –American Nevada Corp. and Del WebbCorp. The first phase, which opened inOctober 2002, is Sun City Aliante, an ac-tive adult community of 1,000 acreswith no more than 2,000 homes. In all,the development along the northernfringe of the city’s boundary is expected

to have as many as 7,500 homes, withan anticipated population of 20,000.

Aliante’s acreage is part of a muchlarger 7,500-acre Bureau of Land Man-agement holding that is being sold off inphases. The acreage, which amounts toslightly less than 12 square miles, holdsthe promise to North Las Vegas’ future.

“With the success that Aliante has al-ready experienced, I look forward to thesale of the next phase of the 7,500acres,” City Manager Fritsch said. “Thefirst parcel is being developed as abenchmark master-planned communityfor North Las Vegas. Subsequent devel-opments in that area will have to followsuit, and at build-out that area will beone of the finest in Southern Nevada.”

Fueled by strong housing demand,North Las Vegas began to develop large-scale, master-planned residential andcommercial projects in the 1990s, led byPardee Homes’ Eldorado Estates at 8,500units and Rancho Del Norte, with 2,000units. As soon as the word got out thattitle companies were doing a land-rushbusiness in North Las Vegas, other devel-opers quickly took out permits, pouredfoundations, nailgunned two-by-fours ata record pace and opened model homesas fast as the paint dried. The subdivisionfrenzy has given city officials much in-sight about master-plan developers.

“With any large-scale community, thecity benefits from an alignment ofgoals with the master-plan developer,”said Montandon, a former appraiserwho now works in construction man-agement. “Unlike a small project,where the developer might move in andout fairly quickly, a master-plan devel-oper is present for a longer period oftime. During this time, he is forced toaddress the same issues as the city,such as quality of life and public safe-ty. To meet these community goals,master-plan developers build amenitiesinto the community, rather than leav-ing them solely on the shoulders of the

The staff of the North Las Vegas Community Development Department assist businesses

in relocating and operating in their city.Left to right: Wally Peterson, Kenny Young,

Peggy Proestas, Pamela Dittmar.


city. As a result, increasing numbers ofpeople are making the decision to livein master-planned communities andthe demand for them continues toclimb. North Las Vegas recognizes thisand in building such a community, wegive people another housing option.”

REDEVELOPMENT IN ACTION

“We must not focus all of our atten-tions on the newer parts of town,” saidCouncilman and North Las Vegas Hous-ing Authority Chairman Robinson. “Themature neighborhoods are the backboneof North Las Vegas. I believe the coun-cil and city staff are committed to revi-talizing the mature parts of our city.”

While a share of the Community De-velopment Department’s work has beendirected toward new homes, new busi-ness and new high-tech projects, its Re-development Division focuses on rehabil-itating homes, revitalizing businessesand reinvesting in the central city rede-velopment area, primarily along LakeMead and Las Vegas Boulevards.

In 1990, North Las Vegas adopted a30-year economic redevelopment plan,which called for rezoning in the 663-acredowntown redevelopment area to allowfor mixed uses, utilizing public-privatepartnerships, expanding redevelopmentboundaries and implementing an aggres-sive marketing campaign aimed at entre-preneurs and organizations that special-ize in doing business in urban areas.

More recently, the department is inthe process of activating a five-yearplan update that will prioritize projectsaimed at making major improvements inthe redevelopment area.

“We believe a robust downtown is cru-cial to the health of any community,”said Jacque Risner, the department’s di-

rector. “Redevelopment is important be-cause revitalizing a mature communityand eliminating blight makes the city abetter place to live overall. It improveseverybody’s quality of life.”

As an example, she mentioned two oldgas stations about a block away from CityHall that were torn down to make way fortwo popular restaurants. “It may notseem like those are huge projects, butthey eliminated blight and will increasethe tax increment,” Risner said. Tax in-crement is the amount of increased prop-erty tax derived from an improved prop-erty as if the property tax had remainedconstant with the old improvements.

North Las Vegas has made great stridesin providing new housing to low-incomefamilies and senior citizens by partner-ing with the city’s housing authority.Last year, nearly 150 senior units wereopened or under construction. “TheCouncil has identified redevelopmentand revitalization as a priority for ourcity,” City Manager Fritsch said.“Through a variety of programs rangingfrom neighborhood cleanup to buildingpermit amnesty, we have aggressivelyworked to rehabilitate our older neigh-borhoods.”

One project the city is hoping to landin the redevelopment area in the future isa downtown transportation center thatwill act as intermodal hub of transporta-tion choices. More immediate, though, isthe new MAX bus – an optically guidedbus that “reads” specially painted direc-tional stripes – that will run in a bus-onlylane from Bruce Street in the downtownarea to Nellis Boulevard near Nellis AirForce Base. The schedule calls for thefirst vehicle to arrive from France in June2003, followed by the completion of thenew bus stop stations. Pre-paid ticketscan be purchased in October, with fullservice starting in November.

NELLIS AFB: A PEACE-KEEPING “NEIGHBOR”

North Las Vegas City Hall may be, asthe blackbird flies, 4.2 miles southwestof the Nellis Air Force Base main run-way, but to an F-16 jet traveling atMach 1 speed, the mayor’s office is asclose as 19 seconds away – making thenation’s largest air combat training cen-ter a real neighbor.

Like North Las Vegas with its three“T”s – technology, transportation andtelecommunications – Nellis, home of

North Las Vegas Lifestyles: North Las Vegas offers many amenities to its residents, such as this recently completed recreation center. The master-planned community ofAliante (right) features parks, trails, golfing and other outdoor activities.

Nellis Air Force Base, an important neighbor to North Las Vegas, is home to more than 135 aircraft.


the Air Warfare Center, the Thunderbirds,the Air Force’s Weapons School and RedFlag, also has it’s three “T”s.

“The base has as its main purposestraining, tactics and testing,” said Nellisspokeswoman Capt. Kelly Cahalan. “Wedo all the advanced training for all ofthe Air Force. This is doctorate-levelflight training.”

The base started out in 1941 as theLas Vegas Army Air Corps GunnerySchool, making it five years older thanthe city itself, but the renamed LasVegas Army Air Field helped give rise tothe community when thousands ofWorld War II soldiers were processed outof the military and returned to civilianlife. Today, as might be expected, hun-dreds of classified high-tech electronicsystems and computer networks used atthe warfare center, the air combat train-ing system and other Air Force unitsmake the base a unique and cutting-edge complex in this world of 21st-cen-tury technology.

“On the tactics side, they literally sitdown and write the book on how to go towar,” Capt. Cahalan said. “It involves in-tegrating all of our high-tech systems.”

The 57th Wing accomplishes flyingoperations at Nellis that involve a totalof more than 135 aircraft – including 55F-16s – assigned to the base, valued atnearly $3.1 billion.

Nellis also has a sister air base about40 miles northwest – the IndianSprings Air Force Auxiliary Field –where the 11th ReconnaissanceSquadron is stationed, making it thefirst of only two of the Air Force’s RQ-1A/A Predator unmanned aerial vehiclesquadrons.

According to figures released in Sep-tember 2002, there were 9,800 active-duty military and 800 civil service work-ers assigned to Nellis and another25,000 retirees in the area, some ofwhom are discovering the new age-re-stricted Aliante master-planned commu-nity is where they want to retire.

The presence of the nation’s leader incombat aircrew training so close toNorth Las Vegas has a definite econom-ic impact on the city. According to theNellis economic impact statement forfiscal year 2001, the base had financialoutlays of $404 million and a combined

active-duty and civilian payroll of morethan $237 million. Retail sales on baseamounted to more than $135 million,while total base expenditures werepegged at more than $334 million. Mil-itary retiree pay amounted to more than$359 million, with more than 59 per-cent attributable to Air Force retirees.

Nellis Air Force Base, as a welcomedneighbor to North Las Vegas, is rou-tinely asked to attend city and chamberevents, while also being the keyparticipant in a local joint military-civilian council.

When you think Nellis, think NorthLas Vegas.

FUTURE LIES OVER THE HORIZON

Since North Las Vegas has so much inits favor, it’s easy to predict that the fu-ture will look as upbeat and bright as thepast. “Almost daily, new developmentand new businesses sprout up in ourcommunity, which increases our dynam-ics, making us more attractive to devel-opers,” said Councilman Robert Eliason,who’s lived in the city for more than 35years and previously served on the plan-ning commission. “This cyclical patternis present in both residential and com-mercial development, [which is why] de-velopers and development from all partsof the spectrum are moving into our city.There are very few major developers orproduct types, that are not representedin North Las Vegas today.”

“The diversity of businesses we havein North Las Vegas – industry, retail,commercial, manufacturing and gaming– is vast,” said Councilman Buck.“There's no doubt in my mind that wewill enjoy continued success in busi-ness attraction and that the range ofbusinesses opening in North Las Vegaswill continue to thrive and expand.”

“Not a day (or week) goes by that I'mnot contacted by a business ownerabout the opportunities in North LasVegas,” Mayor Montandon commented.“Based on that level of interest, I pre-dict that North Las Vegas’ business fu-ture is bright. If I could give one bit ofadvice to businesses considering locat-ing in North Las Vegas, it’s to get innow – the cost of land will only in-crease with each passing year.

To make programs work, the staff ofthe city’s Community DevelopmentDepartment and its Economic Develop-ment Division don’t keep to themselves.These professionals forge external part-nerships with other business and indus-trial organizations with the goal of pro-viding a more comprehensive approachto development and redevelopment.

One such group is the 500-memberNorth Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce,which, since its formation in 1946, hasbeen actively involved in representing theinterests of business people who live orwork in the city.

“We try to help foster economic vitali-ty throughout the entire city,” said SharonPowers, who became the nonprofit orga-nization’s executive director in December2000. “We’re always developing pro-grams for our membership and the entirebusiness community.”

One of these is the North Las VegasEconomic Development Alliance, a three-person team consisting of one personeach from the chamber, the city counciland the city’s economic developmentstaff, who go out and visit targeted com-panies each month to learn how thecompany is doing and whether it’s expe-riencing any challenges, and to deter-mine if action can be taken on its behalfto improve a situation.

Another program is the CEO Round-table, which Powers said brings seniormanagement together to discuss similarissues and provide a forum where,through shared experiences, challengescan be addressed and solved.

“By meeting with key decision makersin North Las Vegas through company vis-its and CEO Roundtables, the city and thebusiness community learn immediatelywhat needs to be done to strengthen ex-isting businesses, see our economy growand attract new companies,” said South-west Ambulance partner John Wilson,who along with Majewski is co-chairmanof the Economic Development Alliance.“Our partnership with the city makes thispossible.”

With interaction like that, it’s nowonder North Las Vegas is a great placeto do business.

Local Chamber Affords Partnership


Mike Majewski has been the city’s Managerof Economic Development since August 2000.As such, he supervises a staff of dedicated peo-ple who work to bring new industry and busi-ness development into North Las Vegas.

He’s helped guide the city’s economic devel-opment program, which as a goal, has fostereddevelopment of the Cheyenne Technology Cor-ridor, a 21st century high-tech thoroughfare de-signed for the location of businesses and in-dustry on the cutting edge of technology-drivenmanufacturing and services.

Q. Why should industry choose to locate inNorth Las Vegas?A. I’d say at the very top of the list would beour treatment of private sector development.We’re very pro-business and we try to makesure the infrastructure is in place to mitigateany negative impacts from growth. Planning thecommunity in such a manner we can assimilate

The Economic Development Manager Speaksthe growth that we know will be coming.

Q. What would the passage of Question 10,which could result in completion of the Beltwayin 10 years, mean for future development inNorth Las Vegas?A. The Beltway in North Las Vegas is a vitallink, especially when you look at the master-planned communities. Unlike other areas in theValley, this master-planned community willgrow around the Northern Beltway and give it achance to plan with transportation links inmind. Furthermore, you look at some of themost advanced technological operations in theentire United States and you look at the NevadaTest Site and what they’re trying to developwith joint ventures in the private sector…andNellis Air Force Base, and that northern leg ofthe Beltway would then connect what could bethe two largest aerospace installations in theUnited States.

Q. What makes North Las Vegas stand apartfrom other industrial locations in the Valley?A. We have a wide variety of land available fordevelopment, all the way from the technology-based type of industries to heavier types of in-dustry. Unlike other areas in the Valley, I thinkwe’re always going to have, in the foreseeablefuture at least, an inventory of industrial landdue to our proximity to the Speedway and theAir Force base. Unlike other areas where indus-trial land is being converted to residential uses,you’ll always have economic forces reserving alarge inventory of industrial land, especiallywith the Air Force base. Not only that, but weprobably have the most reasonably priced landright now in the Valley as well.

Q. How important is airport accessibility?A. Obviously, McCarran International Airport isstill the most important airport for the entire Val-ley. We rely heavily on McCarran as well. How-ever, the North Las Vegas Airport now anchorsthe west end of the Cheyenne Technology Cor-ridor. We feel the airport, which can handle anysize of corporate aircraft, gives us an edge. Aswe try to attract technology-based companiesto the corridor, should any of the companies useprivate aircraft to move from city to city for itsoperations, it’s great to be able to land in NorthLas Vegas and within two minutes be at the op-eration’s doorstep.

Q. What can the city itself deliver to a compa-ny considering the area?A. Our can-do attitude. We can work with theother departments and the other divisions so ifsomeone needs a business license or an in-spection or if they’re having a difficult problem,we can help them resolve that problem. We ac-tually say it on the little pens we hand out atexpos: “We Can Help You Through the Maze.”We really mean that. We also have the TaskForce here. It works a little differently than inother communities, because we assemble atask force of pertinent departments such asplanning, fire and public works, to look at theconceptual design before a company purchas-es a site. And, there is no cost to the companywhatsoever. This way they can have an idea ofwhat might be expected in dollar cost to help intheir decision process.

Q. Where do you see North Las Vegas goingand growing in the next five or 10 years?A. I would say by the end of this decade we’llbe the fastest-growing city in the United States.

The fast-growing city of North Las Vegas is attracting interest from residential and commercial developersbecause of its inexpensive land and the business-friendly city administration. The raised area shown on this map

is the 7,500-acre parcel acquired from the Bureau of Land Management. Within this area, construction hasalready begun on the first phases of the master-planned community of Aliante (shaded), a 1,900-acre mixed-use

project of residential, commercial, gaming, public and open space.

CORRIDOR GROWS IN IMPORTANCE


The six-mile-long Cheyenne Technology Cor-ridor (CTC) is the only high-tech park loca-tion in Southern Nevada where available build-ings, state-of-the-art telecommunications,worker training, air transportation, interstateaccess and other support services come to-gether in one place. The corridor, which runseast and west along Cheyenne Avenue, is an-chored by the Community College of SouthernNevada’s Cheyenne Campus on the east andNorth Las Vegas Airport on the west.

The corridor didn’t happen overnight, but itdid come together nearly effortlessly. First,there was the community college, with its ad-vanced engineering technology program andclasses already in place.The corridor also offersimmediate access to North Las Vegas Airport, a24-hour corporate aircraft airport – the secondbusiest in Nevada – with two runways. Nextcame Level 3, a major telecommunicationsprovider, which constructed the dedicated fiber-optic conduit within the city’s right-of-way. Ithas the only portal in the valley at the nearbyAerojet Building, home of Level 3’s co-location

hotel. Level 3’s 16,000-mile fiber-optic networkis not only connected in North America, but inEurope and Japan as well.

Then industrial developers, following thelead of the Howard Hughes Corporation, whichbuilt the corridor’s first industrial park, recog-nized the synergy being created in the city andcame together to develop four more corporateindustrial complexes that offer accessibility toall 17 existing wireless communicationsproviders in the Las Vegas Valley.

Rob Roy, a principal of Power Pulse, a corri-dor partner that supplies redundant Internetbandwidth, said the CTC is meant to offer thesame capabilities that tech companies from SanJose, Calif. and Los Angeles are used to having.

Together, the five complexes in the CTC totalmore than 375 acres, with more than 3 millionsquare feet of space either built, under con-struction or planned:• The 34-acre Cheyenne Commerce Center,owned by Harsch Investment Properties, offers202,000 square feet of mixed-use space.• Hughes Cheyenne Center, a 209-acre indus-

trial park with 10 buildings and parcels, isowned by Stoltz Management.• RDS/Insight’s 37-acre CheyenneWest Cor-porate Center features 500,000 square feetof space.• The 25-acre Northport Business Center adja-cent to the airport is being developed by Jack-son-Shaw Co.• The 70-acre Cheyenne Valley site is owned bythe Brennan Brothers.• A master-planned, mixed-use businesspark is planned for the 70-acre CheyenneValley site, owned by the Brennan Brothers.The property may be used for retail,office,warehouse or light industrial buildings, in ad-dition to single-family homes.

Development of the complexes and buildingsin the CTC has really paid off for the city. “NorthLas Vegas is uniquely positioned to attract tech-nology businesses,” Mayor Montandon said.“With our proximity and our infrastructure,combined with the newly developed CheyenneTechnology Corridor, we are attracting hightechnology to our city.”

The Cheyenne Technology Corridor (shaded area) is a diversified technology district created through a unique public-private partnership between the City of North Las Vegas,five commercial real estate developers, the Community College of Southern Nevada, the North Las Vegas Airport and several local technology service providers.

ALIANTE

N.L.V.AIRPORT

CCSN

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NELLISAIR FORCE

BASE


Harsch Investment Properties ownsand operates over 5 million squarefeet of industrial properties throughoutSouthern Nevada. Based in Portland, Ore.,Harsch has a company-wide portfolio ofover 12 million square feet of office, retailand industrial space, along with more than3,500 multi-family units. Along with LasVegas, Harsch has regional offices in Port-land, Sacramento, San Francisco, SanDiego and Seattle.

In North Las Vegas, Harsch continuesto expand the company’s portfolio. In De-cember of 2001, it acquired the SpeedwayCommerce Center, comprised of 27 build-ings totaling 1.4 million square feet of of-

fice and industrial space. The property isconveniently located off Interstate 15 ad-jacent to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Harsch has also recently partnered withthe City of North Las Vegas and four otherreal estate developers to create theCheyenne Technology Corridor (CTC)Alliance. The CTC Alliance brings to-gether the best of the public sector andprivate developers to create an unprece-dented commercial corridor on the northend of the Las Vegas Valley.

Along this corridor, Harsch will be de-veloping four buildings at the northeastcorner of Cheyenne Avenue and RevereStreet totaling 202,000 square feet. Theproject will be called Cheyenne Com-merce Center, accommodating tenantswith 800 square feet to 6,000 square feetof flex, mid-bay and distribution space. Itis accessible to I-15, U.S. 95, I-215 andthe North Las Vegas Airport.

Additionally, Harsch developed theHenderson Commerce Center, consistingof five buildings situated in a business-park atmosphere on approximately 13acres. The Henderson Commerce Center

totals 390,000 square feet and accommo-dates tenants ranging from 2,000 squarefeet to 100,000 square feet. HendersonCommerce Center II, a flex/office indus-trial park at Warm Springs and Eastgate, isa 42-acre development that will be con-structed in three phases. This project willcontain eight buildings with a total of820,000 square feet.

Harsch also just completed the renova-tion of The Center at Spring Mountain.The exterior façade was completely recre-ated with an Asian architectural design.Located adjacent to Chinatown Plaza, theproperty more than doubled the size ofChinatown on Spring Mountain Road atValley View.

Future plans call for the company topurchase more than 100 acres in key loca-tions across Southern Nevada to develop afull spectrum of office, industrial and re-tail properties. New construction will in-clude build-to-suit, as well as speculativedevelopment of over 500,000 square feetper year, providing a significant contribu-tion to the growth of Southern Nevada inthe years ahead.

Harsch Investment Properties

N O R T H L A S V E G A S

Helping Build Southern Nevada


According to Ken Gerhart, presidentand site manager for Sunco, red, blueand green are his favorite colors.

The red is for the nearly 4 millionpounds of hydroponically grown beefsteaktomatoes his company harvests each year.The blue is for the sky with so much sun-light in North Las Vegas, making the areaone of the most productive for green-house tomatoes. And the green is not onlyfor the almost $3 million in annual sales,but also for the 117,000 plants that have re-lied on steam generated from the neigh-boring power plant for heat and humidity.

“In the greenhouses, we use sensorsto monitor what the plant is doing. Welook at its uptake and irrigate according-ly,” the third-generation tomato growersaid. “By doing this, we can modify what-ever needs to be changed to fit theplant’s specific needs.”

The Sunco greenhouse covers 500,000square feet on 12 acres of land next to LasVegas Cogeneration, the company thatstarted the tomato operation in 1994. Theplants start from seed in July and are thentransplanted to a perlite “soil” two weekslater. They use a water-nutrient mix lacedwith processed fertilizer for feeding.

“This allows us to control the nutritionof the plant, which is something we mon-itor very closely,” Gerhart said.

Computers, which collect sunlight in-tensity data, control the amount of waterneeded to irrigate the plants. The moresunlight, the less water is needed. Onthose rare cloudy days, the water flows alittle more freely to the plants. Humanerror, something akin to losing a greenthumb, is nearly nonexistent.

Little is left to chance, even the pollina-tion. “The use of bumblebees to pollinate

the plants has worked quite well for us,”Gerhart said. “We have 50 hives, eachwith 50 bees, scattered around thegreenhouse. And we don’t use pesticidesbecause not only does it kill the insects,but it kills the bees as well.”

Once the plants are pollinated, Ger-hart and his crew of 40 workers get busyharvesting 60 days later. “We harvest sixdays a week for almost eight months, allthe way to the following June,” he said.“The 12 acres are split in half, so we har-vest six acres one day and the other six

acres the next day.”After picking, a tomato grader weighs

the fruit, drops it down a chute where 15-pound boxes are filled and stacked. Threetruckloads a week head off to a marketerin Los Angeles. None are shipped directlyto Las Vegas supermarkets.

If you find a “Las Vegas Delight” beek-steak tomato in your favorite supermar-ket, whether it’s in L.A., San Francisco,Phoenix, Portland, Denver or most othermajor western cities, you’ve found atomato grown in North Las Vegas.

Tomatoes Thrive in “Steamy”

North Las Vegas

Tomatoes Thrive in “Steamy”

North Las Vegas


KB Home is giving homebuyers theopportunity to buy early and beamong the first homeowners in Aliante,North Las Vegas’ new master-plannedcommunity. “Aliante is expected to be afast-growing, family oriented community,and KB Home is excited to be pre-sellingthree home series,” said Leah Bryant,president of KB Home Las Vegas Divi-sion. “I think home shoppers will be im-pressed with the community and the vari-ety of homes KB Home is offering.”

The newly developed master-plannedcommunity of Aliante will feature manyrecreation opportunities, including open-space areas and parks. Residents can strollthrough a 20-acre Nature Discovery Park,explore an archeological-themed park,enjoy events at an outdoor amphitheatre,feast in a picnic area and play in soccerfields or tennis and volleyball courts.

Because Aliante is conveniently locatednear Mount Charleston recreation area,residents can hike, ski and camp at themountain or enjoy similar activities intheir own backyard. The community willfeature a trail system and natural arroyo.For a more polished outdoor adventure,residents can tee up at the community’s18-hole, 6,900-yard, par-72 municipalgolf course.

The Aliante master plan incorporatestwo public elementary schools, a publicmiddle school, fire station and library. Pro-posed commercial development will in-clude a shopping center and office parks.

Featuring one- and two-story homes,the San Destin Ravello series offers fivefloor plans ranging from 1,231 square feetto 1,947 square feet. They include two tofour bedrooms, two to 2.5 baths and two-car garages. The San Destin Tivoli seriesoffers six floor plans, including one- andtwo-bedroom homes ranging from 1,717square feet to 2,546 square feet. Thehomes feature three to five bedrooms, two

to three baths and two-car garages. TheSan Destin Palazzo series offers six floorplans ranging from 2,022 square feet to3,803 square feet. The one- and two-storyhomes feature three to six bedrooms, twoto four baths and three-car garages. SanDestin at Aliante sales information isavailable at KB Home’s Iron MountainRanch neighborhood.

KB Home has also introduced the

Homebuyers Club and the Home Finding Center. The Homebuyers Club helps po-tential homebuyers reach their goal ofowning a home by offering free assis-tance, including credit reports, a review oftheir financial situation and credit coun-seling if needed. The Home Finding Cen-ter helps homebuyers find the perfecthome quickly, based on their income,home size desired and preferred locations.

KB Home


Pre-Sells Homes in Aliante

“We Care”

4640 S. Arville, Suite G Las Vegas, NV 89103 702-650-9900

A North Las Vegas Community Partner

Southwest Ambulance


Insight Holdings, a real estate operatingcompany, is developing approximately200 acres within the North Las Vegas citylimits, in several different projects ofvarious types. “The city governmentprovides us with the opportunities weneed to achieve success,” said Jim Zeiter,owner of Insight Holdings.

When the company wanted to build anew type of residential product with 10detached units per acre, city council mem-bers were willing to travel to SouthernCalifornia to view an existing project sothey could evaluate whether it would beright for North Las Vegas. “The councilrealizes there will be a lot of residentialgrowth in the near future, and they makethe effort to be adaptable to the needs ofthe community and its homeowners,” saidZeiter. He received permission to beginthe project, which is being developed byAmstar Homes.

When Insight Holdings purchased 46acres at the southeast corner of Centenni-al Parkway and Decatur, south of the mas-ter-planned community of Aliante, thecity agreed to change its master plan toallow regional commercial developmenton the parcel. It will now be available fora number of options, according to Zeiter,including a hospital, a regional retail cen-ter or a multi-story office project.

CheyenneWest Corporate Center, an-other Insight Holdings project, is a 37-acre mixed-use business park located atCheyenne and Simmons, adjacent to theNorth Las Vegas airport. Upon comple-tion, the $50 million park will consist ofapproximately 500,000 square feet of of-fice, flex and light distribution space, pluson-site support retail services. It is locatedwithin the high-tech Cheyenne Technolo-gy Corridor.

Insight Holdings is also managingAlexander Pecos Industrial Center, a 140-

acre project at Alexander and Pecos. In-sight owns 21 acres, which it will developas six free-standing buildings for sale andan 18,000-square-foot facility for lease tosmall tenants. It plans to partner with an-other company to develop the remainderof the parcel.

Long-term projects include 40 acres onthe Northern I-215 Beltway between theCommerce Street and Fifth Street inter-

changes, and 10 acres at Centennial Park-way and Commerce. The Beltway parcel ismaster-planned for office and housing.Zeiter said the company is considering itsoptions on this property, and will eithersell it or develop it over the next two years.

“We have enjoyed a positive relation-ship with the city of North Las Vegassince 1990,” said Zeiter, “and we are look-ing to continue in the future.”

Insight Holdings


Helping Develop North Las Vegas

Sierra Nevada College5812 S. Pecos, Ste. BLas Vegas, NV 89120

Tel: (702) 434-6599Fax: (702) 436-3838

Please call (702) 434-6599 on how you can be licensed to teach within 3 semesters.


Celebrate Homes specializes in afford-able housing, and it has so far con-structed over 1,200 homes in North LasVegas, bringing over $180 million in valueto the city. The company was founded in1995 by two longtime friends and experi-enced general contractors from SouthernCalifornia: Harry Shull and Steven R.Rosenberg.

Celebrate Homes offers homes pricedfrom $140,000 to $160,000, a range thatappeals to over 65 percent of the Las Vegashome-buying market. The affordabilityfactor attracts a large number of first-timebuyers, as well as “empty-nesters” lookingto downsize.

The company is developing six activeresidential communities in North Las Vegas.Three of them have been very successfuland are nearly sold out: the 171-unit Arroyo

Grande neighborhood, located near Wash-burn and Scott Robinson; 68 units at Silver-wood Ranch, at Cheyenne and Decatur; andNorth Meadows, located at Revere andAlexander, consisting of 217 homes.

A new 195-unit community, NorthMeadows West, is located at Lone Moun-tain and Clayton. Its models opened inJune. Sales are currently underway at Cel-ebrate’s Cheyenne Valley development,comprised of 146 homes at the corner ofValley and Cheyenne. Models are nowopen at Imagination, 121 homes locatednear the I-215 Beltway at Simmons andRanch House Road.

“We want only the very best things forNorth Las Vegas,” said Rosenberg. “We’vebeen here a long time and consider our-selves one of the city’s ‘hometown’builders. We’ve worked closely with thecity for many years and have a good work-ing relationship with city officials.”

Shull served six years on the North LasVegas Planning Commission and is cur-rently active with the North Las VegasChamber of Commerce. “We are the onlybuilders in the city of North Las Vegaswho actually live here,” he said. “We take

an active interest in the community and areproud to be part of helping it grow. I pre-dict that in the near future, North LasVegas will outpace Henderson and becomethe fastest-growing city in the state.”

Celebrate Homes has 30 employees atits North Las Vegas headquarters. To pre-pare for future growth, the company ispreparing to build a 16,000-square-footcorporate headquarters at Cheyenne andAllen. It is also branching out into com-mercial development. One project current-ly underway is a 198,000-square-foot in-dustrial complex in Clark County, nearBoulder Highway and Sunset Road.

Shull and Rosenberg are also expandinginto other markets, including a residentialproject in Southern California and 400units in the Phoenix area.

Celebrate Homes will continue to par-ticipate in the fast-paced growth takingplace in Southern Nevada, said Rosenberg.“We believe Southern Nevada will contin-ue, for the foreseeable future, to be a mag-net for families seeking employment andquality homes,” he said. “We will continueto be a part of that growth, especially inNorth Las Vegas.”

Celebrate Homes


Builds North Las Vegas

Welcome toNorth Las Vegas!For All Your

Waste Disposal and Recycling NeedsPlease Call:

735-5151

770 East Sahara Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada 89104

INSIGHT REALTY ASSOCIATEScheyenne technology corridor

An RDS/insight, llc d e v e l o p m e n t

NowLeasing/Selling

Own For 10%DownOrLess!!

CHEYENNEWESTCORPORATE CENTER

• MIXED USE BUSINESS PARKWITH SUPPORT RETAIL

• OFFICE / FLEX SPACE FOR LEASE

• BUILDINGS FOR LEASE OR SALE

• BUILD-TO-SUIT OPPORTUNITIES

• MID BAY DISTRIBUTION +/_ 6912-52,420 SQ. FT.

• IMPROVED LOTS FOR SALE

• HEART OF THE CHEYENNE TECHNOLOGY CORRIDOR

• CENTRAL LOCATION/MINUTES TO SUMMERLIN

• SBA FINANCING AVAILABLE

COMMUNITYCOLLEGE


Thanks to a unique alliance of high-tech companies in Southern Nevada,businesses located in the CheyenneTechnology Corridor (CTC) have theability to tap into a mature, robust set oftelecommunication and data servicesfaster and for less cost than at other lo-cations. By joining together to providebandwidth, connectivity and businessservices, these innovative firms providethe 21st-century infrastructure needed toconnect the CTC to the world. Membersof the alliance include: Power Pulse, asupplier of redundant Internet band-width; Anexeon, Inc. providing ad-vanced I.T. services; Colocation Gate-ways, which provides world class

Alliance of Tech Firms in CTC


Provides Telecom and Data Services

colocation and internet connections tomultiple service providers through afiber and wireless network; and TheN.O.C., which offers operations-moni-toring for clients’ networks.

Power Pulse offers the Las Vegas Val-ley the high-quality benefits of BGPv4,multi-homed and redundant bandwidth,at West Coast high-volume pricing.Using multiple-provider, fiber optic con-nections as well as DWDM scales ofeconomy and carrier-class equipment,Power Pulse puts multiple providers be-hind every megabit of bandwidth. “Nosingle provider, no matter how large, canmatch this level of redundancy and ser-vice,” said Rob Roy, founder and princi-pal of Power Pulse LLC.

Colocation Gateways provides tele-com switching, routing, multiplexing,transmission and Internet web-hostingequipment. Many high-tech companieschoose to locate their highly sensitive

equipment offsite at its secure location,which offers redundant fiber optic con-nections, abundant electrical power andemergency power, and state-of-the-artsecurity systems. Safety is assured bystate-of-the-art digital security systems,centralized monitoring of all critical sys-tems and surveillance cameras with dig-ital video storage.

With secure carrier-neutral connec-tions located at the Colocation Gatewayscenter, advanced internet solutions pro-vided by Power Pulse Communications,a fiber network built and maintained bythe city of North Las Vegas, and profes-sional I.T. services provided by Anex-eon, Inc., businesses at the CTC are as-sured of the ability to make connectionsquickly, easily and inexpensively. In ad-dition, the partners in the high-tech al-liance are available to provide expert ad-vice for real estate brokers orprospective tenants.


The city of North Las Vegas will soonbe home to a 104-acre industrial/distri-bution park located off I-15 between CraigRoad and Cheyenne Avenue. LogistiCenterat North Las Vegas will be developed byReno-based DP Partners, one of the na-tion’s 10 largest private industrial develop-ers. When completed, the park will add 2million square feet of industrial/distribu-tion space to the Las Vegas Valley.

DP Partners is scheduled to close on theproperty this month and the groundbreak-ing for LogistiCenter at North Las Vegas isplanned for mid-January. Project comple-tion is anticipated for early summer 2003.

DP Partners’ LogistiCenter facilitiescan be found across the nation, strategi-cally located in major markets with effi-cient access to truck, rail and air infra-structure. The facilities are constructed inbusiness parks with full landscaping,curbs, gutters and wide paved corridors.

LogistiCenter at North Las Vegas willoffer numerous enhanced amenities tobusinesses looking to service the LasVegas Valley and the western UnitedStates. The property is positioned alongthe I-15 corridor, linking Southern Neva-da to California and Utah. The buildingswill feature suite sizes from around24,000 square feet, ceiling clear heights of30 feet, a minimum of five dock-high doorpositions per unit, at least one grade leveldoor per unit, minimum 400 amp,277/480V, three-phase power, ESFR firesprinklers, 1 percent skylights and M-2zoning. Due to the generously-sized 104-acre land parcel, DP Partners will alsohave the ability to construct large, build-to-suit facilities within LogistiCenter atNorth Las Vegas.

Headquartered in Reno, DP Partners is

a private industrial developer with an es-tablished portfolio nearing 20 millionsquare feet throughout the country, fo-cused in California, Nevada, Indiana,Pennsylvania and Georgia. Ranked amongthe largest industrial developers in the na-tion, DP Partners serves over 400 nationaland regional clients, including UPS e-Lo-gistics, PepsiCo, USCO, Alcon, FedEx,Overhead Door, Osburn-Hessey Logistics,OfficeMax and Fellowes.

Voit Commercial Brokerage currentlyhandles all of DP Partners’ listingsthroughout Southern Nevada. Voit, whichis a member of CORFAC International, isa full-service brokerage firm specializingin the sales and leasing of office, industri-al and retail properties, in addition to in-vestment property sales. Since the firm'sinception, it has completed sales and leasetransactions valued at approximately $9.1billion. A subsidiary of The Voit Compa-nies, Voit Commercial Brokerage has of-fices in Irvine, Anaheim, Chula Vista andSan Diego, California and in Las Vegas.The Voit Companies is headquartered inWoodland Hills, California.

LogistiCenter atNorth Las Vegas


Will ProvideIndustrial/Distribution

Space

CHEYENNEVALLEY

A Brennan Brothers Developmentwww.cheyennetechnologycorridor.com

Flexible.

CHEYENNE VALLEY, a 70-acremixed-use Business Park within theheart of the Cheyenne TechnologyCorridor, provides:

Flexible Land Use

Business Park

Office

Warehouse

Flex Space

Retail

Residential

Flexible Deal Structure

Purchase

Lease

Lease-Option

Build-to-Suit

(702) 592-4098 � [email protected]

Locate where innovationand industry connect.Only one commercial region in Southern Nevada posit ionsyour business one step ahead.

The Cheyenne Technology Corr idor enables a business touti l ize immediate access to high speed f iber and wireless datanetworks and other advanced capabil ities while providing awide range of transportation options, al l with a qual if ied work-force in the immediate vicinity.

We can provide state of the art facil ities for professional, med-ical, defense, industria l , and technology uses. To jo in leading-edge technology enablers, prominent local developers, and theCity of North Las Vegas in this emerging business market,p lease ca l l Michae l Majewski , Pamela Dittmar or PeggyProestos at 702-734-TECH (8324).

Strategical ly located along the heart of Cheyenne Avenue.

Brennan Brothers • Harsch Investment Properties • Jackson-Shaw CompanyRDS/Insight, LLC • Stoltz Management • City of North Las Vegas

www.cheyennetechnologycorridor.com

NORTH LAS VEGASCITY OF

As long as history can recall, the North hasbeen our constant point of reference.The North Star aided navigators on ships toguide them safely to their destinations, andexplorers in the wilderness finding their wayhome by its stationary position in the sky.Today the North Star still gives direction tothose seeking home.

Once again, we are turning our faces to theNorth as a new star pushes over the horizon.

North Las Vegas, the second fastest growingcity in the U.S., has now taken on a new light.With over 7500 acres of newly planneddevelopment property, an emergingtechnology corridor and a cost-of-livingthat rivals nearby cities, North Las Vegas isturning heads of those choosing a bettercommunity to call their own.

business & technology

everyday living

planned development

City of North Las Vegas Community Development, 2266 Civic Center Drive, North Las Vegas, NV 89030 — 702|633|1523 — www.cityofnorthlasvegas.com

North Las Vegas Supplement€¦ · said Winters, the company’s owner. “We looked at 24...

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