North Sails breaks ground on new facility in Minden

MINDEN - Bill Chernock, executive director of the Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce, summed up the overriding sentiment shared among roughly 200 people gathered on a vacant lot in north Minden on Thursday.

"Obviously, any time this is a great thing for the community - an iconic company expanding their presence in Carson Valley," he said. "But given the economic situation in the state and country, this is even more important now."

Chernock was one of hundreds of business leaders, public officials and private employees celebrating the groundbreaking of North Sails' new 53,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.

Based along Heybourne Road in Minden, the renown sailmaker will increase operations by 18 percent with the expansion and bring 20 new jobs to the community during the next six months.

"They make the best sail in the world, and the fact that they do it here in the high desert is fantastic," said Gardnerville resident David Davis, who, along with wife Sharon, invested $3 million to develop the property for North Sails. "Actually, this is the best time to do it, when the economy's bad, if you have a great tenant going in."

The deal was brokered by Chad Coons, president of Gillmor Coons Real Estate Group based in Genoa, and also a member of the Northern Nevada Development Authority's Commercial Real Estate and Development committee. Coons had worked with the Davis family before on other projects within Minden's business parks.

"If anything, hopefully it will kick everyone else into gear, to start expanding," Coons said. "It's definitely a positive."

"NNDA, in conjunction with Chad Coons and David Davis, and with support from Douglas County, has made this expansion one that showcases the importance of working together to create jobs for the Sierra Nevada region," added Rob Hooper, executive director of the NNDA.

The North Sails 3DL sailmaking process was invented in a small shop in San Leandro, Calif., in 1990. The first true production facility opened in Minden in 1994. The Heybourne Road facility went through two expansions to its current approximate 80,000-square-foot size. Additional expansions over the past five years included acquiring space at three smaller locations on Airport Road in Minden for overflow production and for research and development.

The latest 3Di technology, which does away with the twisted yarn found in 3DL, is ready for worldwide distribution, company officials said, and the expansion will allow North Sails to meet the projected increase in market demand.

"North Sails was originally attracted to Nevada due to the favorable business environment and the quality of life in Carson Valley," said Dan Neri, North Sails vice president of manufacturing. "Once the foothold was established, the company partnered with an excellent core of intelligent, motivated and dependable local staff."

Lisa Granahan, Douglas County economic vitality manager, said the expansion is exactly what the county has been aiming for with the Ascent Douglas program, a marketing campaign designed to attract outdoor recreation and lifestyle manufacturers to the area.

"Douglas County has several outdoor recreation and lifestyle businesses that choose to do business here because of our quality of life and Nevada's favorable business climate," she said.

North Sails Minden manufacturing begins with the raw materials for sailmaking and ends in the exportation of approximately 80 percent of the final product. The sails shipped from Minden are used by racing boats and ocean-going, cruising sailboats on every continent. In prestigious sailing events around the world, the 3DL/3Di products enjoy more than 90 percent market share, according to company officials.

Currently, the Minden 3DL factories employ nine engineers, 20 managerial level staff, a small laboratory staff and 100-115 production and support staff, operating 24 hours a day, six days a week.

Development of the new building, however, will benefit other sectors in the local economy. Central Sierra Construction of Minden has been hired as general contractor, along with several local subcontractors, and Heritage Bank of Nevada, Gardnerville, is the lender.

For more information, visit www.northsails.com.