Changing directions

Sparks is halfway home on its historic trek to change from a bedroom community to a well-rounded city with jobs close to home for its residents.

Some of the biggest tasks still lie ahead, however, and developers have made big bets bets that are anything but guaranteed on the city's ability to invent itself anew.

After months of negotiation with major developers, the city now has big swaths of land designated for office parks and other employment centers.

The next job: Getting companies to locate offices and the like in Sparks.

Copper Canyon, perched in the foothills above Vista Boulevard,will include about 130 acres of office parks and someday might include more than 3.5 million square feet of office space.

It's a project of SunCal Companies of Irvine, Calif.

A few miles north, the Pioneer Meadows project developed by Barker-Coleman Communities west ofWingfield Springs will include 109 acres of business parks.

And northeast of the intersection of Sparks Boulevard and Pyramid Highway, Kiley Ranch North will include more than 200 acres devoted to office and commercial uses.

Sparks is halfway home on its historic trek to change from a bedroom community to a well-rounded city with jobs close to home for its residents.

Some of the biggest tasks still lie ahead, however, and developers have made big bets bets that are anything but guaranteed on the city's ability to invent itself anew.

After months of negotiation with major developers, the city now has big swaths of land designated for office parks and other employment centers.

The next job: Getting companies to locate offices and the like in Sparks.

Copper Canyon, perched in the foothills above Vista Boulevard,will include about 130 acres of office parks and someday might include more than 3.5 million square feet of office space.

It's a project of SunCal Companies of Irvine, Calif.

A few miles north, the Pioneer Meadows project developed by Barker-Coleman Communities west ofWingfield Springs will include 109 acres of business parks.

And northeast of the intersection of Sparks Boulevard and Pyramid Highway, Kiley Ranch North will include more than 200 acres devoted to office and commercial uses.