San Jose-based Lyten chose Northern Nevada for its planned lithium sulfur battery manufacturing gigafactory
Rendering Courtesy of Lyten
For better or worse, the Biggest Little City has arrived on the world stage.
Just as Las Vegas is a globally recognized entertainment destination, Reno has become a global destination for technology and advanced technology manufacturing. Tech’s role as a cornerstone of Reno’s new economy was just part of the message delivered to more than 1,500 business and civic leaders on Feb. 13 at the Economic Development Authority’s annual state of the economy luncheon at Tuscany Ballroom inside the Peppermill.
Taylor Adams, EDAWN president and chief executive officer, along with Brian Gordon, principal of Applied Analysis, provided a sweeping overview of the state of business and industry in Northern Nevada, highlighting the region’s explosive population growth (more than 90,000 residents added since 2013, with another 61,500 expected through 2033), employment and workforce development, housing, industrial construction, and the more than $15 billion in public and private development already planned or underway.
All signs point to a highly diversified and burgeoning economy that’s firing on all cylinders.
“Our economy is strong, and it’s growing; we are in a great place,” Adams told NNBW in an interview prior to his presentation. “We are now a global destination for tech manufacturing that’s ready to scale. It started with Silicon Valley companies looking at the cost of real estate in the Bay Area and then finding their way to us. We are now the place where technology comes to scale.”
Tesla and Panasonic drew the curtains back in 2015 with the development of the massive Gigafactory at Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. Data center operators and data center campus master-planners, lithium-ion battery recyclers, and advanced technology manufacturing companies followed.
The opening act is now complete. It’s now time for the middle act, where the region’s economic development and business leaders deliver on the many lessons they’ve learned over the past decade for both large enterprises seeking to plant a flag in Northern Nevada, and local startups bootstrapping their way up the ladder.
“We know how to do this,” Adams said, “and there are so few places in the world that do. If companies from all over the world can come here to grow, then we need to take those same lessons to local businesses. We will pull entrepreneurial development down to the ground level so that our local companies have these same benefits.”
Last year was pivotal for EDAWN, added Adams, who landed in Northern Nevada in August of 2023 after spending a decade doing similar work for the Virginia Beach Department of Economic Development. EDAWN in 2024 helped attract 22 companies to the region, accounting for just under $3 billion in total investment and creating more than 1,900 jobs with an average salary of $85,000, Adams said.
Tip of the iceberg
“The opportunity that is here is so vast,” Adams said. “I’ve tasked the team with talking to 600 companies a year over the next three years (a three-fold increase). We have got to be the group that fully understands what's going on in the business world and grow into an organization that has its finger on the pulse of the region and can provide real-time data at any given point.”
It’s not all about landing the next big name in technology, either. Northern Nevada’s robust entrepreneurial development network is as crucial to economic diversification as the billion-dollar projects underway by companies such as Lyten (lithium-sulfur batteries), Ioneer and Lithium Americas (lithium mining), EdgeCore (data center campus) and others because of how deeply a startup’s roots extend into its home community.
“Companies that start and succeed here will always be the most authentic businesses this region can create – they are for us, by us,” Adams said. “We have an obligation to ensure that part of our economy is healthy.”
Other primary areas of focus for EDAWN in 2025 and beyond, Adams added, include recruiting suppliers for the advanced manufacturing companies already here (similar to Redwood Materials supplying materials to the Gigafactory), innovative infrastructure projects that provide necessary services to new companies without taxing existing businesses and infrastructure, and workforce development.
Perhaps the biggest challenge — at least in the short term — is the fact that interest rates will continue to remain stubbornly high, Adams noted. The 10-year Treasury remains above 4 percent, he said, which can stifle economic development efforts since more investor capital is required to get projects off the ground.
“It’s really presenting challenges as it relates to affordability of mortgages, financing of large deals, and liquidity — more equity is required for deals to close, and there’s limited money to invest in deals,” he said. “We hope things continue to stabilize in D.C. and we return to the path of rate reduction we were on last year so that deals become more affordable.”