North Las Vegas touts its economic diversity

Brian Seals

Friday, April 24, 1998 | 10:26 a.m.

NORTH LAS VEGAS -- North Las Vegas has long been known as an industrial town in the Valley, but the community's leaders have a different message to get out.

"We're a balanced community," said Jaque Risner, North Las Vegas economic development coordinator.

The North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce held its annual bus tour of the city Thursday to get the word out that the city has a balanced economy and still has room to grow.

To be sure, the city still has an industrial base, especially in the warehouse and distribution field.

"I think we see those businesses because Las Vegas is a centrally located area between California and, say, Salt Lake City and places to the east," said North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce President Steve Mongrain.

The city's proximity to rail service and its lower-priced land also are a draw for warehouse and distribution, an industry that requires open space.

Thursday's tour featured a string of development and expansions illustrating warehouse/distribution facilities. For example, TJ Maxx is expanding its distribution center from 497,000 square feet to 800,000 square feet. The 320-acre Golden Triangle industrial park features rail service to the park's interior sites and houses Houston Lumber, a major wood distributor. A 103,000-square-foot facility by Civic Center Properties will house food processing and distribution facilities when completed.

However, the city's industrial sites also house a plethora of operations ranging from construction to printing to storage facilities and manufacturing.

In the future, North Las Vegas hopes to lure high-tech research and development-type operations. It has gotten a start with Bechtel, the 1,200-employee overseer of the Energy Department test site on Highland Drive. Risner added that though Las Vegas Speedway isn't technically in North Las Vegas, its proximity to the city could possibly attract automotive research and development operations.

North Las Vegas has become diversified thanks to its industrial base, said Risner. That base has caused waves of development. The industrial jobs spawned residential development, which in turn has lured commercial and retail operations.

The 14-acre Gateway Plaza was completed six months ago and is anchored by Lucky and Sav-On stores. Not far away, a Wal-Mart is the first store to operate at the 55-acre North Mesa Shopping Center that will also have office space as well as casino and entertainment space.

With all the development comes a need for meeting space. That will be accomplished by the $10 million Millennium, an indoor events center of 82,305 square feet on 12.4 acres expected to be completed by February. The center will offer sports, entertainment and convention space to the city, said James MacFarlane, co-developer of the project.

Chamber officials hope highlighting the city's growth will spur more development in North Las Vegas. "It's really an exciting place to be in this kind of economy," Mongrain said.