Spanish Springs poised for industrial growth

After a year of strong land sales at Spanish Springs Business Center, the development is poised to see construction of at least 800,000 square feet of industrial and distribution buildings during 2005.

About 97 acres of the 411-acre development along Pyramid Lake Highway were sold in 15 transactions last year, bringing total sales to 148 acres.Another 34 acres are in escrow.

And those sales will begin translating into new buildings and jobs during 2005, said Jesse Haw, president and chief operating officer of Hawco Properties, developer of the business park.

Wurth USA Inc., a distributor of fasteners and tools,will occupy a 50,000-square-foot building planned at the center,with possible expansion to 100,000 square feet.

Silver State Liquor will begin work on the 150,000-square-foot first phase of a distribution facility that ultimately is planned for 280,000 square feet.

Leviton, a producer and distributor of electrical products, is the biggest existing company in the park, operating a 408,000- square-foot facility.

Among the factors driving development of the Spanish Springs Business Center,Haw said, is the availability of workforce nearby.

Hawco estimates more than 13,000 workers live within a five-mile radius of the business center and many of them are eager to find work closer to home after commuting to employment centers elsewhere in the Truckee Meadows.

In fact, he said, some of the early sales at the center involved smaller entrepreneurial firms whose owners, living in Spanish Springs or northern Sparks,wanted to relocate their companies closer to their homes.

But because the center is about eight miles north of Interstate 80 on Pyramid Highway a thoroughfare that's increasingly busy it doesn't make sense as a location for big-box distributors who generate hundreds of truck trips a day.

Instead, the center is marketed to laborintensive distribution companies that handle smaller items, said Dave Simonsen, a senior vice president for industrial properties with Colliers International.His firm represents Hawco.

Simonsen said those companies typically rely heavily on UPS as a shipper, and they're attracted by the knowledge that the UPS western regional hub is nine miles away.

Colliers'marketing plan also focuses on the center's master plan it's envisioned as something on the lines of Reno's South Meadows industrial area as well as the fact that buyers can move quickly because many uses are pre-approved by county officials.

Land at the center also has drawn some interest from speculative buyers who see continued tight supplies of industrial land in the region, Simonsen said.

Those buyers think they can turn a profit after buying at $4 a square foot at Spanish Spring Business Center.

"Price has not been an issue," he said.