Wal-Mart Facility Planned for Storey County
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has selected Storey County as the site for a new distribution center. The new distribution center will be located two miles south of I-80 on USA Parkway. Construction will begin in the summer of 2005, with planned service to stores expected in the fall of 2006. The facility will employ approximately 500 people when it first opens. Ninety percent of the jobs created are planned to be full-time, and initial hiring of area residents is expected to begin in the summer of 2006. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. currently operates nine stores, 12 supercenters, five Sam’s Clubs and two distribution centers in Nevada, where it employs more than 9,800 associates.
Rail Expansion Planned for North Las Vegas
Pan Western Corporation, a transportation and warehouse company, recently announced that it will lease its 2.66 miles of railroad off the Union Pacific main line in North Las Vegas to the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad Co. (TTRC) as part of a $1.5 million agreement. The rail line will be used to transport raw material from various points around the country, including material for water treatment plants, steel for the new bridge across the Colorado River, cement and rebar for local building trades, and manufacturing supplies such as acid, soda ash and ore. Company officials estimate the venture will support approximately 1,450 full-time personnel, including operation and maintenance managers, supervisors, engineers, mechanics, electricians, equipment operators and other technical and administrative support employees. Pan Western’s operation of the Tonopah & Tidewater rail line will increase the number of rail-served industrial parks in North Las Vegas by 50 percent.
New Campus Opened in Northwest Las Vegas
University of Phoenix recently held a grand opening for a new campus designed to make higher education more accessible to students in the fast-growing northwest area of Las Vegas. In conjunction with other Las Vegas campuses, the university’s new Northwest Learning Center will offer degree programs in business, nursing/healthcare, human services, technology, criminal justice and education. The new campus is located at 7951 Deer Springs Way, near Interstate 95 and Centennial, and offers administrative space and 20 classrooms to serve more than 3,000 students. The 29,000-square-foot, two-story building was developed by Metro Commercial Properties and built by general contractor Martin-Harris.
McCarran Launches Wireless Network
Clark County Department of Aviation officials have launched the nation’s largest free wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) airport network at McCarran International Airport. The new service will provide travelers with Wi-Fi-enabled computers and personal digital assistants unlimited free high-speed access to the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week from any public area at the nation’s seventh-busiest airport. Unlike other airports, McCarran owns and operates its own airport-wide telecommunications infrastructure. To produce McCarran’s 1.7 million square feet of coverage, access points, or connection radios, were strategically placed throughout Terminals 1 and 2 near existing power and network access. Phase 1 of the project provides complete customer coverage throughout the airport. Phase 2 will include the deployment of nine additional access points to non-public areas at McCarran, providing airport tenants remote access to proprietary programs that will facilitate passenger processing for McCarran travelers. High-speed Wi-Fi service is also provided free of charge at North Las Vegas Airport and Henderson Executive Airport, two general aviation facilities in the Clark County airport system.
Works Begins on Psychiatric Hospital
Ground was broken recently for a 150-bed psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas, aimed at easing the shortage of mental-health beds in Southern Nevada. The $32 million hospital, scheduled to open in early 2006, is being built near the campus of Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services, on the corner of Jones and Oakey Boulevards. In 2004, there was a daily average of 42 people waiting 61 hours to be admitted to the state inpatient program in Southern Nevada, and 2005 figures show even higher numbers. “The shortage in acute beds has led to the current overcrowding of persons in Las Vegas Valley emergency rooms waiting for a bed in the state psychiatric hospital in Southern Nevada,” said Dr. Carlos Brandenburg, administrator of the state’s Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services.