Tax break OK’d for expansion of plant near LV

David Strow

Thursday, Nov. 11, 1999 | 11:15 a.m.

Georgia Pacific Inc. received a $1.25 million tax subsidy from the Nevada Commission on Economic Development Wednesday to build a new manufacturing plant at the Apex industrial area in the desert just north of Las Vegas.

The $35 million GP plant, to be built next to the company's existing plant in Apex Industrial Park, will open in October 2000. It will employ 26 people, earning an average wage of $17.76 per hour. That would create an annual economic impact of about $1 million a year in wages.

"They're not about to have some low-wage person operating equipment of that value," said Bob Shriver, executive director of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development.

Apex beat out Long Beach, Calif., and Sigurd, Utah, for the facility. GP's 11-year-old plant in Apex currently has 64 employees, manufacturing wallboard for the construction industry.

"We have an established plant here, a good workforce, and that's why Las Vegas was chosen," said Gilbert Guericke, Apex plant manager. "The tax abatement this morning cemented the deal.

"We'll be shipping across the Western United States, but primarily Southern California. That's why the Long Beach plant was considered. But it's a little cheaper to manufacture up here."

The plant, which will manufacture industrial gypsum plaster, will span five stories, with 400,000 square feet of space and $23.9 million in equipment. It will produce about 100,000 tons a year, Guericke said.

Gypsum plaster is used for a wide variety of purposes, including oil well cement, construction, airplane parts, dinnerware, dental purposes and statues.

The fact that gypsum plaster has so many uses made the expansion particularly attractive, because it could entice other manufacturers to build in Clark County, Shriver said.

"It could help Apex, Mesquite, and the entire Las Vegas Valley area," Shriver said. "Now that (manufacturers) have a base material right here, they wouldn't have to pay shipping costs. It's right in town."

The only concern among commissioners was the potential for pollution from particulates, which can be heavy around wallboard manufacturing facilities. But those concerns were eased by GP's assurances that the manufacturing process for plaster is contained, and doesn't give off a lot of dust.

"There's every indication this will be well within compliance (with air quality regulations)," Shriver said.

Other GP plaster manufacturing plants are in Blue Rapids, Kan., and Sigurd, Utah. It's possible the Sigurd plant could be consolidated with the Apex plant, but Guericke said that decision has yet to be made.

"The market will determine that," he said.