Deep in the Desert, an Experiment in Economic Development

Storey County is a stretch of sparsely settled Northern Nevada landscape, 264 square miles of largely unpopulated valleys, mountains and rocky desert terrain. Herds of wild horses graze the land. At last count, the county seat had a population of 845. But on a recent weekday afternoon, there’s a major traffic backup in one corner of the county. Lines of tractor trailers and cars with out-of-state license plates trudge slowly toward the entrance to Interstate 80 — a near-daily occurrence commuters have grown accustomed to. It’s all because of the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, a massive complex of buildings that claims to be (and may well be) the largest industrial park in the world. Three years ago, the park lured Tesla’s Gigafactory, hailed as one of the biggest economic development prizes ever. Since then, the park has taken off, landing as many high-profile deals as any development in the country. Google recently purchased 1,200 acres. Down the road, the data storage company Switch opened the first building of what’s slated to become the world’s largest data center campus. Jet.com and Walmart have big distribution facilities in the park, as do their competitors eBay and Zulily. The industrial park is now home to more than 140 tenants. Already, more than three times as many people hold permanent or temporary jobs within the park as live in the entire county. Click Here to read the full story. Source: www.governing.com]]>