Henderson recognizes business achievements

By Dave Clark (contact)

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009 | midnight

Jim Gibson

Courtesy photo

Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh poses with some of his company's merchandise.

The city of Henderson and the Henderson Development Association hosted their 10th annual Economic Development Awards program las week, with Zappos.com earning the 2008 Private Sector Award and Henderson Mayor James B. Gibson receiving the 2008 O'Callaghan Public Sector Award.

This year, 12 companies were recognized in the New Business category, eight were recognized in the Local Business Expansions category, and eight commercial and industrial developers were recognized in the Commercial Development category.

The awards program was held Jan. 29.

"We established this award program 10 years ago to honor excellence in our local business environment," said Bob Cooper, Henderson's Economic Development Division manager. "This is our way of saying thank you to the businesses and business leaders that make Henderson a great place to live, work and play."

Cooper said Zappos received the award for its sales growth and company culture. It has gone from $1 million in sales eight years ago to $1 billion, and now employs 900 people after starting with 70. The award was supposed to go to CEO Tony Hsieh, but he declined, and the award was given instead to the entire company.

"They do everything in terms of teams," Cooper said. "They have dinner and go bowling together. The president is very accessible."

Cooper lauded Gibson for his stewardship of Henderson.

"He's one of the strongest business development advocates," he said. "He's one of our best sales people when it comes to meeting people."

The other winners were:

• Local businesses — K2 Energy, Nationwide Power Solutions, Record Readiness, Southwest Gas, Southwest Steel, Unique Communications, University of Southern Nevada and Weber Distribution.
• New businesses — Able Body Labor, Bon Tool Company, Datanamics, FDM4 International, Gripos LLC, MassMedia Corporate Communications, Ogden Benefits Administration, SEA Groups, Seven Hills Behavioral Institute, US Advanced Medical Research, Webgistix and Zimmerman Industries.
• Office/industrial — 2360 Corporate Circle VI/American Nevada Company; 2560 Anthem Village Parkway/Lee & Associates; Eastgate Plaza II/Grubb & Ellis; Henderson Commerce Center IV/Harsch; Pecos / Windmill Office/United Construction; Ridgeview Business Park (A)/Prudential; Valley Freeway Center III/Conde del Mar; and Vantage at Horizon Ridge/Joe DeSimone.
• Redevelopment — Juliet Companies and RAFI Architecture.

Dave Clark can be reached at 990-2677 or dave.clark@hbcpub.com.