Chicago company plans North Las Vegas distribution center

By Buck Wargo

Monday, April 4, 2011 | 1:23 p.m.

A Chicago-based manufacturer of exhibit and retail displays plans to open a distribution center in the Las Vegas Valley that will serve the West Coast.

Orbus Exhibit & Display Group will launch its operations by July at the Golden Triangle Industrial complex at 4850 Statz Ave. in North Las Vegas, said Suzette La Grange, a senior vice president with Colliers International Las Vegas who helped broker the deal.

About 50 jobs are expected to be created in distribution, computer graphics and printing.

Orbus signed a five-year lease for the 56,073-square-foot building for office and warehouse use.

The firm chose Las Vegas over Reno and other Western cities, including Southern California, La Grange said. They were referred to her by Colliers staff in Chicago, she said.

The company wanted a West Coast presence to serve its customers with its portable modular and custom modular exhibit and display products. The exhibits are used at conventions and retail stores.

La Grange said the company had been serving the West Coast from its Chicago facility, but it needed a better way to be closer to its clients in the region and deliver its product more quickly.

“They looked at Reno and Southern California, but Las Vegas made more sense because of our convention business,” La Grange said. “I think a lot of companies see Las Vegas as a great distribution location to serve the entire Southwest within a reasonable timeframe.”

Companies like that Las Vegas has an available workforce to recruit employees, and that real estate is much cheaper for them to locate here, La Grange said.

Buildings that had once leased for 45 to 48 cents a square foot are now going for the low 30 cents, she said.

Much of the interest in Las Vegas is coming from companies on the East Coast and a few from the northwest, La Grange said.

“Companies want to get close to the California line without going into the state,” La Grange said. “They won’t want to be there because of their tax structure and business climate with higher costs.”

During the boom in Las Vegas, many companies shunned coming here because the unemployment rate was too low to draw from the employee pool and real estate was too expensive, La Grange said.

“I think they realized now is the time to make the leap because real estate prices have been lower than they have been in 15 years as for as distribution space,” La Grange said. “There are some great opportunities out there.”

Colliers reported the industrial vacancy rate at the end of the first quarter was 15.8 percent. It fell 1.1 percent from the fourth quarter and 9.3 percent from the first quarter of 2010.

La Grange said 2011 should set the stage for better news in 2012 as improvement in the economy helps existing businesses grow and national companies relocate to Las Vegas, she said.

Expectations that companies will flee California for Nevada because of that state’s regulatory and tax environment isn’t happening, La Grange said. There hasn’t been a lot of interest in firms wanting to relocate from California so far, she said.

“I think a lot of people are tied too deeply to California and don’t want to uproot their family,” La Grange said. “I know a lot are looking.”

That’s why La Grange said it’s better to focus on East Coast companies who need to be on the West Coast anyway and don’t have to worry about uprooting their employees.