Wal-Mart suppliers begin to scout area

The morning after Wal-Mart announced its plan to build an 800,000-square-foot distribution center at Patrick east of Sparks, the phone of developer Lance Gilman didn't stop ringing.

Among the 30 calls in three hours that morning were several from suppliers to Wal- Mart who now want to follow the giant retailer to the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center developed by Gilman.

"We are going to see many of these suppliers locating here with us,"Gilman said."It's going to dramatically effect the entire region."

The Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center won't be strapped for space to handle Wal-Mart and the companies that follow it.

The 102,000-acre project more than half the land area of Storey County is expected to include about 100 million square feet of industrial space in its first phase.

That's roughly double the amount of existing industrial space in the Reno-Sparks area.

Gilman said construction of USA Parkway, the privately built highway across the property that will link Interstate 80 to Highway 50 in the south, is under way to the site selected by Wal-Mart.

This phase of the highway work, he said, represents an investment of about $15 million.

The Wal-Mart distribution center has been predicted to generate about 1,200 truck trips a day 600 in, 600 out.

Gilman said construction of the distribution center is expected to begin in February.

He said that Wal-Mart officials have said the distribution center will incorporate state-ofthe- art technology and will be a prototype for others to be built by the company.