Industrial park on track to add hundreds of jobs

Bob Shemeligian

Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998 | 9:58 a.m.

It's huge -- even by monster truck standards -- and it promises to heat up Southern Nevada's auto performance industry like a modified V-8 running on 100-octane racing fuel.

It's the Speedway Industrial Park, and it is expected to add several hundred jobs to the local economy, said Ray Stepniak, general manager of the industrial park.

Located on a 40-acre parcel that is part of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the park -- a conglomeration of concrete tilt-up structures ranging from 2,500 to 130,000 square feet -- will house automobile research and testing facilities.

The first phase of the park, which is expected to be completed later this year, will consist of 27 buildings including warehouses, storefronts and offices, with a combined total of 1.4 million square feet of space.

The addition of latter phases could bring the total amount of square footage of industrial space to an astounding 5 million square feet. If this happens, the park would be comprised of more than 75 buildings of different dimensions and would be among the major industrial complexes in the Silver State.

The key selling point to performance automobile and automobile parts manufacturers who are being lured to the industrial park is the Speedway itself -- regarded as the world's fastest mile-and-a-half oval track.

"We're the only industrial park in the country to be located adjacent to a race track," Stepniak said. "The idea is that the manufacturer can test his product on the track, and then take it back to his shop and do whatever needs to be done to it."

It is an idea that has impressed Shelby American Inc., which plans to locate its world headquarters on the property's prime corner at Speedway Boulevard and Interstate 15 before the end of April. The company has earmarked 250,000 square feet for three two-story buildings to be completed in three phases.

"We're the anchor tenant of the industrial park, and we expect to provide about 200 jobs to the local economy," said Donald J. Rager, president and chief operating officer of the company that manufactures the Cobra, which can go from zero to 60 mph in four seconds, and is considered the ultimate American muscle car.

Besides manufacturing Cobras, the first sports car ever built in Nevada, Shelby American also manufactures the Shelby Series 1, a street sports car powered by an Oldsmobile V-I engine.

Rager agreed with Stepniak that the location of the industrial park next to the Speedway is absolutely ideal.

"Because the industrial park is located next to the most state-of-the-art racing facility in the world, that space will be filled by automotive and racing development and design companies," Rager said. "We're talking about the addition of several hundred jobs, and we're also talking about pumping many millions of dollars in the local economy."

Other factors that will help lure designers and manufacturers to the park, according to Stepniak, include the area's warm, dry climate and low taxes.

"The weather's dry most of the time and suitable for racing, but it's the business climate they'll really like," Stepniak said. "We have no corporate taxes, no franchise taxes and no taxable income on capital gains."

Jim Weeks, a Strip casino engineer who races modified Corvettes at the Speedway's 2.5-mile road course, said the development of the industrial park brings realization to the promise of area officials to diversify Southern Nevada's economy.

"In Las Vegas, diversification has been the main theme for some time," Weeks said. "The fathers of government want to diversify the economy so that gaming is not the area's only type of business. Well, this industrial park is a major removal from gaming, and this type of business has stood on its own in many other cities."