Mayor announces new e-commerce company moving to Reno

The e-commerce company Zazzle is moving to the Biggest Little City, Mayor Hillary Schieve announced at the State of the City address on Jan. 26.

Zazzle is an online marketplace that allows designers and customers to create their own products. The company offers a number of custom products from popular brands such as Disney, Marvel, Warner Brothers, Hallmark and more.

“They are bringing 250 jobs to the Biggest Little City,” Mayor Schieve said at the event.

Zazzle is moving into one of the new industrial buildings at the South Valley Commerce Center located at Sandhill Road and Trademark Drive in South Meadows. The Commerce Center is being developed by Panattoni Development Company who acquired the 20.27-acre property back in 2015.

“It is huge,” Doug Roberts, partner with Panattoni Development Company, said when asked about Zazzle moving into the South Valley Commerce Center. “It is a great milestone for (our company).”

The development is made up of two industrial buildings. One is 209,000 square feet, where Zazzle will reside, and the other is 180,000 square feet and is currently vacant. Kidder Mathews’ Dave Simonsen served as the broker on the Zazzle side of the transaction. Additionally, Kidder Mathews’ Michael Nevis, J. Michael Hoeck and Steve Kucera represented the landlord/owner in the transaction.

Construction for the development was originally scheduled to be complete in December 2016. Roberts explained that the weather has put them behind schedule about five weeks.

Executives from Zazzle said that they choose to move their distribution and manufacturing center to northern Nevada based on Reno’s quality of life as well as the ease of doing business within the state.

“It is very hard to do business from a manufacturing perspective in California,” Bridget Smith, vice president of Zazzle, said.

Zazzle currently has three facilities in California, two in the Bay Area and one in San Diego. Approximately a year and a half ago, the company started looking for a new location for its manufacturing facility.

“We set it up so all of our leases would co-terminate,” Smith said.

After looking at many other locations across the United States, the company choose to settle into Reno. Zazzle is working closely with Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada’s Stan Thomas as well as Kylie Rowe from Dickson Realty during this relocation.

“We are just hoping for a better lifestyle for our employees,” Smith said.

Smith and chief people officer for Zazzle Peggy Beaver explained that the company liked the small town feel that Reno has, the lack of traffic as compared to the Bay Area, the many outdoor activities, as well as workforce opportunities.

“We liked the fact that it is a college town so we have the opportunity to hire directly from the university,” Smith said.

According to Beaver, the company has 550 employees in the United States as well as 160 employees in their office in Cork, Ireland.

They plan to migrate their operations from their San Diego location first in June and to be fully operational by mid-August.

For more information about Zazzle, visit www.zazzle.com.