Bently Nevada moves into new place

MINDEN - Bently Nevada of Minden has begun a move to the company's new headquarters off Buckeye and Orchard roads, next to the Douglas campus of Western Nevada Community College.

When completed, the move will involve nearly 900 employees and will consolidate the entire Minden operations of Bently. Benlty Nevada is a leader in instrumentation, software and services for managing and protecting machinery.

Despite the major logistical effort involved, there are no plans for the company to shut down during the move.

The new headquarters stands in contrast to the company's simple beginnings in a garage in the mid-1950s and also the historic Minden Creamery building where the company has been located since 1971. The 283,000-square-foot building uses energy-saving and advanced communications technologies.

Concern about earthquakes and floods has strongly influenced the building's construction and its location, according to Bently spokesman Lane Swenson.

The Carson Valley is considered a Zone 3 seismic region, second only to Zone 4 regions such as the Bay area. The new building even exceeds Zone 4 requirements by 25 percent and is engineered to withstand a seismic event of 8.0 on the Richter scale.

In addition, there is sufficient backup electrical generating capacity to run the entire operation indefinitely. The building is intentionally located on properly about 30 feet higher than the surrounding land to ensure that the operation is well above the 500-year flood plain and the effects of the Carson River, Buckeye Creek and Pine Nut Creek.

"This is a very nice, well-engineered building. It is an investment in the future," Bently Nevada Corp. founder Donald E. Bently said.

An initial group of about 50 software engineering employees have moved from the 1998-renovated historic wool warehouse at the corner of Highway 395 and Buckeye Road. The vacated office space at that location will then be available for lease Feb. 15. Other phases of the move will continue into the year.

Official ceremonies and a formal open house for employees and the community will take place around mid-year.