November 26, 2018
"The Secret of Change is to Focus All of Your Energy, Not on Fighting The Old, But on Building The New." Socrates
Community Ventures|RE
B Corporation News
Northern Nevada has already gained a reputation as a growing technology hub, and now, a cryptocurrency millionaire has unveiled plans for a massive high-tech city near Reno. Jeffrey Berns announced the creation of this utopian community at a crypto conference, saying that he plans to transform a 67,000-acre parcel of land into a bustling smart city that’s built from the ground up… on blockchain technology.
Berns is the founder of Blockchains LLC. He reportedly paid $170 million in cash for the land earlier this year. It’s inside the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center or TRIC, where Google, Tesla, and other tech companies are located, and accounts for more than half the acreage in that area. For perspective, the Blockchains property is about a hundred square miles and roughly the same size as Reno, which is just a few miles away. Read More...
Local News  
The new facility that OnTrac is building on North Virginia Street marks an important commitment by this fast-growing package delivery company to the Reno market. It’s the first time the company has built a facility from the ground up, and the new center will serve as a hub for OnTrac’s eight-state region.

The nearly $24 million that UNR expects to invest in the purchase of the Ponderosa Village graduate student housing complex appears to be a slam-dunk. (Details are on page 12 of the Board of Regents agenda next week.) After all, the complex is completely leased up this year, and occupancy never has fallen below 95 percent.

The chattering classes are focused these days on America’s growing gap between big cities and rural areas. It’s noteworthy that a new analysis from The Brookings Institution recommends many of the strategies that Reno undertook in the past decade to keep its economy competitive. 
"Kaya Bromley
General Counsel/Partner at CommunityVentures|RE"
Community Ventures/RE (CVRE) and Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN) have put together an Opportunity Zone Mastermind to make sure that the Greater Reno Sparks area captures its share of the potential development surge that is coming as a result of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This invitation only group was attended by city and county officials, developers, CPAs, attorneys, and economic development professionals. 

Even if only a fraction of that amount flows into Opportunity Zones, this program could become one of the largest federal community development initiatives in US history.   Read More...
"It plans to hire  only 100,000 workers this season   because its   investment in robotics  means less need for seasonal staff."
This year’s holiday season will be a busy one for Amazon, especially coming after a year in the headlines due to the  HQ2 race , the introduction of  cashier-less stores , and continued expansion in its hometown,  Seattle . Behind the company’s growth and expansion lies an immense, intricate logistics network that enables it to offer incredible delivery times to every corner of the country.

Here are some incredible facts—and numbers—behind Amazon’s extensive and expanding logistics network. Read More...
Facebook Opens Its First Small Biz Pop-Up Stores Inside Macy’s
"While Facebook doesn’t earn money directly from the stores, it could convince the small businesses and others like them to spend more on Facebook ads."
Facebook   is bursting out of the ones and zeros into the physical realm with  nine brick-and-mortar pop-up stores  that will show off goods from 100 small business and online brands. Facebook organized the merchants to be part of The Market @ Macy’s, which first launched earlier this year to create temporary spaces for businesses. Read More...
"Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's comments about possible drags on growth in 2019 raise questions about how many times the Fed will boost rates next year."

(Bloomberg)—Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has laid out a scenario for a pause in the central bank’s interest-rate hiking campaign sometime next year by highlighting potential headwinds to the U.S. economy. Read More...