Henderson’s desert setting attractive to DirecTV

Kevin Ferguson

Friday, June 22, 2001 | 11:07 a.m.

Henderson's terrain, dry climate and good access to fiber optic cables are reasons the desert city is being studied by DirecTV owner Hughes Electronics as a possible site to launch a major satellite operation, a company official said.

The soon-to-be launched project is called Spaceway, a division of Hughes Network Systems. It will include a mammoth network that would beam signals from its headquarters to satellites, which would send them back down to North American Internet users at speeds 1,000 times faster than conventional phone wires.

Henderson Economic Development Manager Bob Cooper, who has been trying to sell Hughes executives on the city for the past six months, said he's been told Henderson is one of four possible locations for the Spaceway program.

Mike Cook, vice president and general manager of Hughes Network Systems, today was to address the possibility of launching the project in Henderson at the Nevada Governor's Industry Appreciation Luncheon in Las Vegas.

"We have established that Henderson... is a truly attractive location in our search process, and while no final decision has been made, we are very excited about the possibility of locating our facility... (in) a city that has so many links with the man who founded our company," Cook said in remarks prepared for delivery at the luncheon.

Hughes Electronics was founded by Howard Hughes, the billionaire who invested in Nevada real estate and casinos in the 1960s. Howard Hughes Corp., the largest developer in Nevada, is named for Hughes.

Bob Shriver, executive director of Nevada's Commission on Economic Development, said Hughes executives have yet to apply for possible tax breaks for the Spaceway program.

The commission's role is to provide tax incentives to companies that bring high-paying non-gaming jobs to the state. Beginning July 1, the new rate for eligibility for the tax break will be an average employee pay rate of $15.09 per hour.

Shriver said the company would qualify for tax breaks based on conversations he has had with Hughes executives about the Spaceway program.

"It plans to offer jobs paying $20 an hour for its low-level positions," Shriver said.

Hughes plans to invest $1.4 billion in its Spaceway program, a broadband satellite system providing high-speed Internet access using " spot beam technology."

This technology would allow customers to communicate through computers directly via satellite without having to go through a retransmission service, or hub station.

This technology is supposed to improve the capabilities of videoconferencing and allow the downloading of massive applications at high speeds in cyberspace and through Intranet systems.

The bulk of Cook's speech focuses on the future of broadband technology and Hughes Electronic's subsidiaries DirecTV, its satellite television system, and DirecPC, its high-speed Internet service.

Hughes, which is owned by General Motors Corp., is negotiating with News Corp. and EchoStar Communications to sell DirecTV, which could delay or alter the launch of the Spaceway project.

The Spaceway program is expected to offer broadband services at low cost to consumers and businesses using satellite dishes six times more powerful than today's technology, Cook said in his prepared remarks.

Spaceway plans to offer its broadband services in 2003, the speech states.

Hughes has yet to zero in on any particular plot of Henderson land if it were to locate here. But Henderson's Cooper said one of the city's most attractive locations for this project may be in the Wagonwheel Industrial Park in eastern Henderson.

"That's because all the water, sewer, natural gas, and fiber optics are all in place already," Cooper said.

The area of the Wagonwheel Industrial Park that Hughes looked at is vacant land, part of which was previously proposed for Black Mountain Studios. About 600 acres south of that land is where the Henderson State College is proposed to be built.

Shriver said the Spaceway program would likely need 40-60 acres and would be built in three phases.

Warren Hioki, associate dean of engineering technology at the Community College of Southern Nevada, has also met with Hughes. He said he was told the Spaceway program may employ about 200 people.

"I think the reason why Hughes (is considering) Henderson is because of our Cisco training program," Hioki said. "When companies like Hughes come in here looking for land, they want assurances that the talent base is here to draw from."

The CCSN program, which trains students in certification of Cisco Networking, fiber optics, telecommunications and PC-troubleshooting, has grown to about 1,200 students in the past two years.

The CCSN program has 17 regional academies where pre-college students begin taking Cisco Networking prerequisites at local high schools.