RENO, Nev. — With busy skid loaders beeping and scooping dirt some 50 yards away, Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve announced today the impending arrival of the latest wholesale distributor to plant its flag in fast-growing Reno.
S&S Activewear, a distributor of imprintable apparel, will open an 800,000-square-foot distribution center in Panattoni’s North Valleys Commerce Center in north Reno. The company distributes products for brands like Adidas, Calvin Klein, Oakley, and many more.
With the expansion, S&S became the largest tenant ever to be signed to a speculative project — meaning, the building project was undertaken without a committed tenant — in the state of Nevada.
“Obviously, over the last four years we’ve had tremendous success in Northern Nevada and it just keeps on continuing,” Mayor Schieve said. “I’m really proud. This creates jobs. That’s really important, and that’s a significant amount of economic development happening right here at home.”
Specifically, the distribution center will create roughly 350 jobs. Construction on the project is slated to wrap by the end of 2018, and the center is slated to open on March 1, 2019, said Doug Roberts, partner with Panattoni Development Company.
“It’s great,” Roberts said in an interview with the NNBV. “It talks about the vibrancy of the economy and the distribution market within Reno itself. We’re in the middle of 11 western states, so from a distribution pattern, Reno is right in the middle of it. So companies that take this kind of space in a market like this, (it) really speaks volumes to how good of a location we’re in.”
Jim Shannon, president of S&S Activewear, said that’s exactly why the company was drawn to Reno. With the completion of its Reno warehouse, S&S will have a national footprint of over 3.5 million square feet.
“The facility is especially important to S&S in that it will allow us to add much more products and provide faster delivery times,” said Shannon, referring to the company’s ability to reach most of the West Coast with one-day ship times. “This facility will greatly improve our service level and round out our distribution strategy for our vendors.”
Moreover, the new facility is the first in the S&S Activewear network to be powered by solar panel. The initial design for the facility will include about 30,000 square feet of solar panels on the roof deck.
“This building incorporates many energy and water saving design features,” Shannon said. “We’re looking forward to the final stages of construction, staring the hiring process, and getting the business up and running in this new state-of-the-art facility.”
