Recycler’s HQ lands in Fernley

Electronics recycler Zloop Inc. is opening a processing center and moving its corporate headquarters to Fernley.

The likelihood that company will land a new major client and the availability of a state tax break for companies that specialize in recycling helped drive the decision.

The company is expected to begin hiring for about 56 positions paying an average wage of $22 per hour starting this fall and be fully operational in the first quarter of 2015, according to Danny Campos, vice president for business development at Northern Nevada Development Authority

The number of jobs could expand to 125 within the first fiscal year, according to the NNDA, which announced Zloop’s relocation last week.

Zloop, now located in Hickory, N.C., has purchased an 185,000-square-foot building at 190 Resource Drive for $6 million. Tom Miller of Miller Industrial Properties in Sparks brokered the deal.

Miller said there are few industrial properties of that size for sale, so Zloop considered only the Lyon County location.

“The property fit their needs. It was the right size and had all the attributes they were looking for, including power requirement, height, parking,” says Miller.

The company is also looking to build an additional 80,000-square-foot building to service a single, major client, says Campos.

“They have a highly anticipated contract with a client,” he says. “They came here because of the incentives, taxes and quality of life.”

One of those incentives is the state’s real property tax abatement for recycling. The Governor’s Office of Economic Development approved Zloop’s application for the abatement two weeks ago.

Zloop will be just the second company in the state to take advantage of the incentive. It allows for the abatement of half a new business’ real property tax for up to 10 years if the business recycles at least 50 percent of its product or generates electricity from recycled materials.

Zloop recycles cell phones, laptops and other electronics equipment at the end of the product’s life, ensuring secure destruction of data and reusing 100 percent of the recycled parts.

In return for the tax break, a business must make certain commitments, including staying in Nevada for at least five years and providing health insurance for its workforce.

The two-year-old company also has processing centers in Perrysburg, Ohio; Opelousas, La.; and Hickory, N.C.