September 2001: Nevada Briefs

Manufacturing Plant Opens in Sparks

Blackhawk Molding Company has opened a 42,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 990 Deming Way in Sparks. The plant is dedicated to the manufacture of plastic bottle caps used in the water, dairy, juice and other food industries. The plant is expected to employ 75 people by the end of its first year of operation. It will supply a 12-state region in the Western United States as well as Western Canada and various countries in the Pacific Rim. The Sparks plant features injection molding presses of various sizes, in addition to secondary equipment for labeling, lining and assembling the bottle caps. Blackhawk also operates plants in Chicago, Little Rock, Ark. and Nottingham, England.

Two Las Vegas Museums to Open In September

September 16 is the projected opening date for two museums located at The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas. The Heritage Guggenheim Museum will be a 7,660-square-foot museum for the presentation of collections from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation of New York and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Guggenheim Heritage, located at the front of The Venetian, will feature four symmetrical galleries, each 1,500 square feet. Its first exhibit will be a selection of 45 works entitled, Masterpieces and Master Collectors: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings from the Hermitage and Guggenheim Museums. The Guggenheim Las Vegas will be a separate 63,700-square-foot facility where special large-scale exhibitions can be held. It has a main gallery approximately 210 feet long, 160 feet wide and 70 feet high. Its inaugural exhibition will be The Art of the Motorcycle, featuring more than 130 motorcycles from all eras in a stainless steel and chain-link industrial environment.

Starbucks Chooses Douglas County Site

Starbucks Coffee Company has selected a site in Douglas County for a new 300,000-square-foot roasting plant and distribution facility, slated to open in late 2002 or early 2003. Starbucks is purchasing 100 acres in the Carson Valley Business Park in Minden from GCBroker, Inc. (Gary Cook). The plant will initially employ 50 to 60 workers, expanding to 200 within a few years. Besides roasting raw beans, it will distribute coffee to Starbucks locations throughout the southwestern United States. CB Richard Ellis brokers from Ontario, Calif. teamed with brokers in the firm’s Reno office to assist Starbucks in its search for a new location. Close of escrow is scheduled for September, with groundbreaking to follow. A design/build team from Texas-based Haskell Company will serve as general contractor for the project, and will hire Nevada subcontractors to assist with construction of the state-of-the-art facility, which company officials said would serve as a model for future Starbucks plants.

Nevada Researchers Receive NASA Grant

Researchers in the University and Community College System of Nevada (UCCSN) recently received a $2.1 million grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to bolster Nevada’s competitiveness in aerospace science and technology research. Over the next three years, UCCSN will receive $700,000 annually to fund its Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) 2000 program. Nevada professors from the Desert Research Institute, the University of Nevada Reno, the University of Nevada Las Vegas and Western Nevada Community College will build research infrastructure in three research areas: astrobiology, computer vision technologies and environmental change in mountainous areas.