Logistics also helped bolster other key sectors that were on the radar of Northern Nevada’s economic development proponents.
One is advanced manufacturing, with the joint Tesla-Panasonic venture, Gigafactory 1, being the most popular example. This ultimately led to a snowball effect, with operations such as the Gigafactory ultimately attracting other companies.
“What we did was we promoted the strength of our region for logistics in an effort to attract advanced manufacturing that looks for logistics to be nearby,” said Mike Kazmierski, president and CEO of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada. “The strength of that logistics piece helped us build the advanced manufacturing base significantly, which led to bringing even more companies to our region.”
The success of logistics is also causing the same surge in pricing for industrial real estate that is being seen in housing,
“The inventory we have (for logistics) is short, much like the housing sector, so it’s truly a supply and demand issue,” Kazmierski said. “We just can’t seem to build them fast enough.”
With the continued increase in demand for e-commerce combined with other trends such as onshoring as more companies look to bring back manufacturing in the United States, demand for logistics in the Reno area should only go up, Kazmierski added.