Rebirth and rebranding of Reno/Sparks will affect Lake Tahoe

Once considered rundown and dirty, Reno, as well as neighboring Sparks, is experiencing a staggering rebirth. Only eight percent of their economy now comes from the gaming and tourism industry, with the remainder coming from a boom of the relocation of manufacturing and distribution companies.

What is evident is that the Reno of today is not the Reno of 25 years ago. It isn't even the same Reno of four years ago.

This was the message presented by Mike Kazmierski, President and CEO of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN) on Friday to a group of South Lake Tahoe business and community leaders at a meeting hosted by the Tahoe Chamber.

In 2014, 27 new companies came to Reno and Sparks with seven others expanding, creating 4,119 new jobs. Of those, 13 companies moved their entire headquarters. Kazmierski said EDAWN is focused on bringing in companies who are focused on the external customer, and those that provide quality job creation and retention.

There are 14 companies ready to announce that have closed deals in the last few weeks in Reno and Sparks, creating 1,405 more jobs and ten others that are "hot prospects" according to Kazmierski. Those companies will provide another 6,392 jobs. These area businesses coming to Nevada from Texas, New York, Taiwan, California, Minnesota, Utah, Ohio, Japan and many other states.

An average of 11 companies are visiting Reno each month to see how the region can best serve their business needs, from a complete headquarters move to relocating their manufacturing and distribution needs. In 2011 this average was two.

Why are they coming?

Reno is now a business destination. Northern Nevada provides a business friendly climate with room to grown, a favorable housing market and a growing workforce to fill the jobs that will average $54,000 this year. In an area that recently only knew service jobs an double-digit unemployment numbers, this is a blessing. They expect $10-$12 per jobs to be at the minimum instead of the norm as robotics and jobs in technology rise.

There is an international airport with a major interstate running through it, giving distributors the capability to get items to clients in one day. Once there is more air traffic there will be more airlines servicing Reno and the surrounding communities. The addition of JetBlue Airways is perceived to be only a start.

With an increase in air travel comes an increase in the average daily rates of hotels, especially those during mid-week when business people travel. The Reno of yesterday had very low hotel rates Monday through Thursday but that may be a thing of the past.

When Tesla Motors announced the building of their gigafactory east of Reno, they were just the tip of an iceberg that had already starting moving in that direction. The new jobs numbers in 2014 and 2015 don't include the estimated 6,500 employees that Tesla will need once they are in full operation.

What might even be as big as Tesla, or even bigger, is the move of Switch from Las Vegas to Reno. They are the recognized world leader in data-center development and mission-critical operations. Switch is going to be the largest in the world when they move to Reno-Sparks with a 1.2 million square foot data center. They plan to make the region better connected to the internet world than anywhere else with 1G fiber to every home as their long range plan.

Switch isn't taking their move slow either. They are funding the half-million-dollar interior build-out of the University of Nevada, Reno's Innevation Center in downtown Reno, creating a hub of innovation and commercialization.

Kazmierski tells the national media to come to Reno before they write about it so they can see for themselves what the renaissance is all about.

"Explosive growth is coming," said Kazmierski. "When we work together, the whole region is more successful."

How does this affect South Lake Tahoe?

People are now headed to Reno to both live and play. Lake Tahoe is part of the "play" in that equation and with the "live" portion desirable to the executives moving with their headquarters.

Reno will be attracting the business travel, so as their business volume rises the tourist volume will decline. Weekend leisure travel will still happen as, like in the Silicon Valley, room rates tend to be higher during mid-week than on weekends.

One can look at just a few years ago when locals were offended at the use of the word "Tahoe" in the renaming of the Reno-Tahoe International Airport but now Reno is becoming more of a destination with Tahoe as the side benefit.

Entrepreneurs will be attracted to Lake Tahoe due to the quality of life it provides according to Kazmierski.

"By 2020," said Kazmierski, "fifty percent of the workforce will be millennials. We need to make it (Reno) SF Bay Area cool."

The proximity to Lake Tahoe will be important to the millennials, and EDAWN has plans to attract them to the area.

The main affect the rebirth of Reno will have on South Lake Tahoe will be jobs. And it won'ts be a growth in jobs. Research shows that 10,000 people travel over Spooner Summit and Kingsbury Grade on a daily basis to work. With the addition of so many jobs north of the Carson Valley it is forecast that many will go their for both an easier drive and higher wages.

All along the South Shore this summer there has been a lack of employees to fill the service and entry level jobs. Grocery stores, casinos, lodging properties, clothing stores, the City of South Lake Tahoe and many other job providers have had many job openings for months according to B Gorman, CEO of the Tahoe Chamber. For those that have lived in South Lake Tahoe for any amount of time, this has never been the case in summer months.

Once the rest of the jobs are added to the Reno-Sparks area, the exodus of many other employees is expected.