Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal Chuck Fulcher of Rice Hydro Inc. assembles a gauge for a water pressure testing pump at the Carson City warehouse Wednesday morning. The company recently expanded to include fabrication at its Carson City location.
Rice Hydro Inc.'s customers like to see the American flag on the side of the company's Dirt Dawg hydraulic post hole digger. Construction workers and contractors want to know that the equipment they use is Made in the U.S.A.
Rice Hydo General Manager Denese Doherty, who is proud to be a woman in the male-majority world of construction, said it was natural for the company to expand its Carson City warehouse to do metal fabrication, rather than contract out the service. The pieces the company needs were fabricated in Southern California and shipped to Carson City, which was often time consuming.
The new 8,805 square-foot warehouse space, which was completed last week, will be used for fabricating and coating pieces for the Dirt Dawg and the hydrostatic test pumps.
"It used to be that the pieces would come in and the workers would assemble them," she said. "Now the workers will fabricate the pieces in-house."
This expansion brings its 3500 Arrowhead Drive building to 25,205 square feet. It will also give jobs to three more Carson City-area residents. In the peak construction season Rice-Hydro employs about 15 people.
Not only will Rice Hydro fabricate pieces for its own products, but Doherty said she's already talking to other area businesses who are interested in having their pieces fabricated here.
Comstock Casino stretches out
The Comstock Casino in Carson City has 40 more slot machines open to players in its 3,000 -foot expansion. That brings the casino to 12,500 square feet. Five employees were added.
Scott Tate, casino general manager, said they removed a wall, expanded the floor space north and added a new entrance on the west side of the building.
"We did an expansion here because we felt we needed to have a better offering with our gaming facility and our gaming product," he said.
Tate credited the overall economic condition in Carson City with the expansion.
Do incentives work?
Tim Rubald, director of business development for the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, said the state's development authorities often assist companies with obtaining valuable incentives for expanding business in Nevada.
The Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada has a business retention and expansion program called Business Builders. Northern Nevada Development Authority has just started its program.
"This is a powerful tool in a number of different ways," Rubald said. "It identifies companies expanding and allows us to provide them with some assistance to keep them here in Nevada. Anytime a company is looking to expand, if we're not able to meet their needs, there are always four or five other states that are knocking on the door."
One success story he cited was Harley-Davidson Financial Services. Carson City came close to losing the company in early 2004 because of fierce competition from economic authorities in Texas. Rubald said economic incentives, such as sales- and use-tax abatement, kept 500 high-paying jobs in Carson City.
In the case of smaller business that may not be able to meet all of the requirements for economic incentives, Rubald said the commission has the ability to make the requirements more or less stringent.
- Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.
Are you eligible for a tax abatement?
Businesses can be eligible for sales- and use-tax abatement, personal property tax abatement or recycling property tax abatement if its expansion's capital investment is equal to at least 20 percent of the value of current tangible property, and new employees on the payroll increased by 10 percent, or six employees, whichever is greater. The commission also requires that new empoyees' average hourly wage be more than the statewide average hourly wage, which is now $16.49. Commissioners can negotiate on all these requirements.
Source: Nevada Commission on Economic Development
Quick Facts
• Nevada's economy added 53,700 jobs during the year, and the unemployment rate fell nearly a full percentage point from December 2003 to December 2004.
• Taxable sales increased by more than 10 percent over the year in each of the first 10 months of 2004.
Source: Nevada JobConnect's Nevada Economy In Brief for December 2004