NLV Chamber, government target California companies for economic growth

By Richard N. Velotta (contact)

Fri, Sep 4, 2009 (3 a.m.)

North Las Vegas plans to partner with businesses to recruit California companies.

North Las Vegas Mayor Shari Buck told the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce last week that the city’s economic development team has identified 50 companies it will court with tax and landscaping deferments as incentives to fill some of the 12,000 industrial acres that are vacant.

Buck’s presentation was a part of the chamber’s Vision 2009 program, attended by more than 200 people at Aliante Station.

The event was one of two major chamber events in the valley last week. A day earlier, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce played host to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at a lunch at the Four Seasons on the Strip.

“We’re talking about industrial, warehousing, alternative energy and manufacturing,” said Buck, who took office in June, succeeding term-limited Mike Montandon, an announced Republican candidate for governor. “We have rail spurs out there, which is great — and today, it’s rare.”

In addition to the rail spurs that link to Union Pacific’s freight line between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, North Las Vegas will emphasize its location on Interstate 15, the primary highway to Southern California shipping terminals, and U.S. 93 to Phoenix, a highway that transportation planners are trying to upgrade to interstate standards.

Buck, who also appeared before the National Association of Industrial Properties with counterparts from Las Vegas, Henderson and Clark County, said she was discouraged that three North Las Vegas Dunkin’ Donuts had been boarded up because of the recession and a gym she frequented moved out of its building. She’s encouraging chamber members to patronize each other to keep dollars in town.

“We’re going to do a campaign where we reach out to the businesses and get them involved, maybe have them offer a little discount or some incentives to the residents,” Buck said in an interview before her speech.

Buck said the city is on the verge of completing an agreement that would lead to the development of Kapex, a 3,000-acre site near Apex and Interstate 15 and U.S. 93. Preparing the site has been slowed by Nellis Air Force Base’s concerns about density.

Buck said the industrial area is being modeled after the successful Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center.

She said the details in tax and landscape deferment plans are in early stages. When North Las Vegas hits the recruitment trail, she said the economic development team plans easy access to the mayor and council in solving bureaucratic problems.

Sharon Powers, president and CEO of the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, said it has backed the development of manufacturing, distribution and warehousing for years because the city is known for its expanses of undeveloped land.

She said the chamber’s mood was more upbeat than it had been recently because some good news about the local economy is starting to emerge.

“I think everybody has been getting fairly tired of hearing how bad everything was,” Powers said. “We’re not out of the woods by a long shot, but we’re starting to see things happening. Realtors in town are starting to get busy again.”

Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst for Applied Analysis, told chamber members that the road to recovery for North Las Vegas must include increasing the population base and the job market.

He said 8 percent of the valley’s 807,000 housing units are vacant. Because a 3.5 percent vacancy rate is considered normal, the city has a surplus of about 35,000 units, so it would take a population growth of about 94,000 people to stabilize the local economy, he said. About 77,000 new jobs are needed to bring the unemployment rate down to a more manageable 5.5 percent, he added.

An improving national economy, falling home inventories, improved consumer confidence, gains in the stock market, low inflation and interest rates and the valley’s pro-business and pro-retiree environment and the pending opening of CityCenter bode well for the future, Aguero said.

At the Las Vegas chamber’s lunch, attended by about 500, Reid addressed hot-button topics of health care reform and union organizing legislation.

He also lamented that he had lost his filibuster-proof Senate majority of 60 Democrats with the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy and the poor health of Sen. Robert Byrd, who is often too ill to attend sessions.

Without indicating how he would vote or steer the debate, Reid said some form of health care reform has to occur or else “none of us will be able to afford it.” He said he would prefer a bipartisan effort, but that the Senate could move toward a Democratic solution that would address only about 65 percent of the concerns in the debate.

He steered clear of the controversy of a government option at the center of numerous protests and demonstrations. Instead, Reid focused on addressing what he called exorbitant profits by insurance companies, suggesting that their antitrust immunity be removed. He also called for limits on advertising for pharmaceutical companies as a way to cut medical costs.

Reid said Congress has too much on its plate to get into the debate whether binding arbitration should be a part of new labor legislation.

Asked about the nation’s massive deficit and whether the government would be able to afford the cost of stimulus packages, health care reform and the overburdened Social Security, Reid shot back with “I hope all of you ask that when we ask about spending $1 trillion on a war of choice.”

About 100 demonstrators stood in 100-plus-degree heat outside the Four Seasons when Reid arrived for his 45-minute presentation that included brief remarks followed a question-and-answer session to chamber members’ previously e-mailed questions.