CEO Updates

Congratulations to the Wolf Pack Men’s Basketball Team

 as they celebrate their second straight Mountain West Conference Title Win!Watch as they celebrate a championship and net-cutting ceremony. Go here to view the celebration!

Congratulations to David Wise and Moment Skis!  

Their locally manufactured skis were prominently photographed being worn by David Wise, Gold medalist, in the ski halfpipe at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Great to know that “Biggest Little Ski Company In The World” made a great showing on the world-wide stage! In their local production facility, Moment manufactures their product by hand from start to finish.

Reno-Sparks is Attracting the next generation of Technology. 

Titan Seal, an app that puts government records on the blockchain, is relocating from Austin to Reno. Philip Dhingra, the CEO of Titan Seal, is one of a handful of tech founders in the blockchain space who are starting to see Nevada as an attractive place to relocate. Last month, Blockchains, LLC announced that they paid cash for 67,125 acres at Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC).  Blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, has been on Nevada’s radar since the Governor signed a bill, SB398 that welcomes blockchain companies and restricts localities from taxing it.  Here is the Press Release.

Reno? “What the heck is in Reno?” my friends ask… 

If you’ve never considered Reno, come visit. It’s a great place to build a business, find talented employees, and enjoy a work-life balance. Alchemy looked at four key factors in choosing Reno for its headquarters: talent, business climate, quality of life, and transportation alternatives.  Here is their story.

Nevada ranked #5 overall. Better than some of our neighboring states, Utah #8, Idaho #20, Oregon #10, Arizona #21, California #48. 

To view the full Tax Foundation 2018 State Business Tax Climate Index –  (copy and paste this to view their website: statetaxindex.org)

The EPIC Report with actual numbers updated.

Now three years into the five year projections of over 52,400 new jobs, we are ahead of projections as Tesla, Panasonic and Switch continue to ramp up their hiring efforts.  Here are the  Actual numbers graphs.

There is a housing shortage nationwide.

 According to the National Association of Realtors, “Inventory of homes for sale is still well below the 6-month supply needed for a normal market and supply will ‘fail to catch up with demand’ if a ‘sizable’ supply does not enter the market.”  Nevada has one of the hottest markets for sellers.  This month, the index showed (again) that home buying demand continued to outpace the supply of homes available in January. Here is the article.

Housing remains a concern, but we are making progress:

 The chart below shows the number of permits for new housing units (including apartments and condos) pulled in the past few years, compared to the goal of 6,000 per year  Note that 12 years ago, in 2005, we were over 6,700 permits.  The 6,000 units a year goal just meets the projected demand for housing, so anything short of that adds to the current housing shortage.

Here is the latest RGJ article: Interns our untapped Resource.

Currently, we have just over 1,000 interns working at less than 400 companies in the region.  For students and businesses alike, there are several advantages to hiring an intern. We all need to embrace internships at every level to accelerate the diversification of our economy, while preparing our students for the real world. Here is the full Article.

Prior EDAWN articles, published in the RGJ, are stored on our website.

Here is the link to the library.

Business Development

The Business Development team will represent five companies for incentives at the March GOED Board Meeting.

If approved, this will account for an addition of more than 110 new jobs.

The team hosted eight site visits this month.

14 new leads and projects were added to the activity pipeline.

Stan Thomas is travelling to the Gaming Developers Conference this month

to meet with executives from several tech companies that are interested in relocating out of CA where it is cost prohibitive to grow their business.

Chris Ault, Jr. is travelling to the Site Selectors Guild this month to meet with some of the top site consultants in the U.S.

To contact the Business Development team, please email EVP, Stan Thomas, VP, Chris Ault, Jr.or Program Manager, Norma Yamaji

Partners

The WCSD has finished the addition of a state-of-the-art manufacturing and construction facility at Sparks High School

and will begin hosting students later this spring. This upgrade will help enhance work-based learning opportunities and support efforts to meet the growing needs of employers in the region. Explore ways that you can partner with them! The Grand Opening and tour takes place March 14th from 5:30-7:00 pm at Sparks High School. Here is their flyer.

The Stat Pack is a monthly business e-report, co-authored by Mike PeQueen of HighTower Las Vegas and John Restrepo of RCG Economics, with input from Brian Bonnefant of UNR. 

It combines important metrics relevant to business decision makers and financial commentary on current issues facing the Nevada economy. The Stat Pack features data and dialogue about the Southern and Northern Nevada economies.  Here is last Friday’s Fact Pack!

Major Investor of the Week

RE/MAX Realty Affiliates – RE/MAX Realty Affiliates is a family of full-time, experienced, top-producing REALTORS®, focused on maximizing results in the Northern Nevada residential real estate market.

EDAWN Events

Please click here to view a list of EDAWN’s 2018 events. For more information, please contact Sheila Imsdahl or call 775.829.3704.

For a calendar of additional 2018 EDAWN  Entrepreneurial events, please

visit Startup Digest Reno. For more information, please contact Elise Leben or call 775.829.3703.