Wireless firm won't pursue plans in Reno

The on-again, off-again relationship between Brightpoint Inc. and Reno is off again.

The company, which provides logistics supports to the wireless communications and data industry, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it won't be opening a distribution center in South Meadows after all.

And that, in turns, means it won't be hiring 79 people after all.

The company headquartered in Indianapolis didn't provide details about the reasons it decided against opening a northern Nevada facility, although a spokesman noted simply that business conditions had changed since Brightpoint announced its plans 14 months ago.

In February, Brightpoint said that it is losing a contract to provide logistics services to a major customer industry sources said it was Cricket Communications Inc. that had accounted for 6.8 million wireless devices shipped by Brightpoint during 2011.

Then in March, the company said it would reduce its workforce "in response to the current economic conditions in the wireless industry."

The company contracts to provide traditional warehousing and distribution as well as operation of call centers and other back-office functions for the wireless industry.

Brightpoint said in its most recent filing with the SEC that it has a preliminary deal in place to sell a 264,000-square-foot building it purchased for $11.5 million a year ago.

The company said it expects to close the sale during the second or third quarter of this year. Brightpoint didn't identify the potential buyer, but the company said it's writing down the value of the building by $1.4 million to reflect the likely selling price.

The building at 1025 Sandhill Road originally was occupied by Pfizer, and the pharmaceuticals company had invested heavily in sophisticated racking and conveyor systems as well as air conditioning for the warehouse space a rarity in northern Nevada.

The company had started hiring distribution and assembly workers for the new facility and had been recruiting managers as well.

It had told the Nevada Commission on Economic Development that the Reno facility would create 79 jobs paying an average of $16.16 an hour.

State officials, estimating that the new facility would create about $48 million in economic benefits for the region over the next five years, approved a package of tax incentives to encourage the company to move.

Brightpoint never drew on that incentives package, and state officials in recent weeks had dropped a letter to the company wondering about its continued interest.

It's not the first time that Brightpoint has left northern Nevada

It opened a distribution center in Reno in 1999, but closed it in 2008.

About a year later, it started looking at locations in northern Nevada as well as Utah as part of a new plan to strengthen its national distribution footprint.

When Brightpoint announced its selection of Reno, it credited the costs of real estate as well as the state's tax and regulatory climate as important reasons for its decision.