SPARKS, Nev. — Like clockwork, another Bay Area-founded tech company is migrating to Reno-Sparks.
New Deantronics, a medical device manufacturer, announced Tuesday, Sept. 25, during a press conference at the Nugget Casino Resort it plans to build a 200,000-square-foot facility in the Spanish Springs Business Center, located north of Sparks off the Pyramid Highway.
The company intends to invest $40 million in constructing its Reno-Sparks facility, dubbed New Deantronics Nevada USA, which will include a research and development center, manufacturing operations, warehousing facilities and a “return for repair” center, said CEO Jane Liu.
Liu said New Deantronics, which has its manufacturing headquarters located in Taiwan, had been looking at establishing a U.S. facility for years. Previously, the medical device firm considered expanding to Texas, Colorado and Utah before setting its coordinates for Northern Nevada.
"The decision to establish an R&D and manufacturing center in the Reno-Sparks are is the result of a multi-year location search and supports our 'Go Global' vision," Liu said in a statement. "The support and assistance received from so many people and organizations here convinced us to select Reno-Sparks to be our new home in the U.S."
Specifically, New Deantronics produces medical devices used in general surgery, neurosurgery, cardiology, orthopedics, and aesthetics. In other words, “most of our products are used in the operation rooms,” Liu said. “I always tease our product line as being from head to toe — from neurosurgery to orthopedics.”
New Deantronics’ Northern Nevada facility — expected to open sometime in 2020 — will reportedly create more than 200 new jobs. These include positions in design, electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as those in technicians, facilities, maintenance, quality assurance and manufacturing assembly.
The announcement comes exactly one week after S&S Activewear, a distributor of imprintable apparel, announced it will open an 800,000-square-foot distribution center in Panattoni's North Valleys Commerce Center in north Reno.
That distribution center is expected to 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.
As for New Deantronics Nevada USA, the campus will include an incubation center for local medical device startups to “encourage, support, and expand” medical device innovation in the Reno-Sparks area.
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval was especially pleased to see New Deantronics’ dedication to partnering with the region’s startups.
“That’s what we want to be, a cradle of innovation,” Sandoval said during the Sept. 25 press conference. “And this is a really specialized area that typically you wouldn’t’ see in Northern Nevada; you would see it in Silicon Valley, you would see it in Austin, Texas. And now we’re building it here, so it really is a big win for us.”
Mike Kazmierski, CEO of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN), echoed Gov. Sandoval’s sentiment.
“A company like this is not something we would’ve seen even look at this community even three or four years ago,” Kazmierski said. “This is great jobs and opportunities for our community for decades to come, so we’re incredibly excited.”
Added Sandoval: "I have no doubt that this is another great chapter in the success story of not only Northern Nevada, but our entire state."
