Sierra Pacific Power has muscled up a Web site that's used by companies searching for factory, warehouse and office locations in northern and rural Nevada.
Along with the listings of industrial properties that are commonly listed on Web sites for site-selection executives, the utility's upgraded Web site includes demographic data about individual sites as well as information about nearby industrial uses.
The demographic information is useful to companies that want to know about the availability of a nearby workforce, says Grant Sims, manager of economic development for Sierra Pacific Power.
Information about nearby industrial uses, meanwhile, can help a company determine if the suppliers it needs are in the neighborhood.
Economic development professionals, meanwhile, can use the site to generate business-cluster reports that match up with the industries targeted by the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada and the Northern Nevada Development Authority.
The site uses Google maps and satellite imagery to further detail plant and office locations. Users can sort properties by location, square footage, uses and sales or lease terms.
The Web site provides information about 14 of Nevada's 17 counties. The major exception is Clark County. That's a far wider reach than other sites that are limited to a single county or a group of counties.
Information, Sims says, comes from commercial real estate companies and is updated once a month. Last week, the site listed 782 properties. (Brokers who want to list properties should contact Cheree Boteler at caboteler@sppc.com or 834-3755.)
Site selectors access the site either through the economic development section of Sierra Pacific Power's Web site or through links with chambers of commerce and economic development agencies across the state.
Sierra Pacific Power added geographic information system functions to its economic development Web site about 18 months ago, and Sims says the newest upgrade is faster, provides more options for analysis, and can hold substantially more data.
Ken Pierson, director of economic development for EDAWN, said the upgraded site should prove useful as a one-stop destination to showcase available properties and buildings in the region.
Eric Bennett, a vice president and industrial broker with CB Richard Ellis in Reno, said the new site will provide greater detail that brokers can use in their presentations to prospective tenants and landlords
Just as important, he said Sierra Pacific's investment in the upgraded site makes a telling statement about the commitment of the power company to economic development in the region.
