Please Vote!  Responsible citizens consider it a privilege and even a duty to vote.  Most citizens in the world do not have this right.  EDAWN has only taken one position – support of WC-1, the Save our Schools initiative at the end of the ballot. If you are unsure of some of the issues or candidates, you can refer to the Chamber’s recommendations, as the voice for business here.  (The Chamber Endorsements)

Congratulations to the City of Reno for their two distinguished American Planning Association awards; The DeBoer Award for Outstanding Public Outreach and Journalism, for the Reimagine Reno Master Plan update and Public Participation Plan; and the DeBoer Award for Distinguished Leadership recognizing Councilmember Neoma Jardon. Here is the article.

More good media for the region: TheStreet.com recognized Nevada as #3 in the Top 10 States in Which to Start A Small Business.  Article here. This is indicative of our favorable environment for start-ups and entrepreneurs. Money Magazine also recognized Reno as the “Best in the Mountains” Best Places to Retire for our “top-notch services and tax-friendly climate.”  Article here (page 13 of 18).

Help!!  Taxi-Tops are still available!  Please consider adding taxi-top advertising to your marketing plan now and in the years ahead.  We recently had 30 taxi-tops open up and if we cannot keep the taxi-tops filled with family friendly messages they will revert to those that are less reflective of the “new” Reno-Sparks.  Just $1,000 for the entire year!  Contact Tamera Pitts at 775.829.3700 or email pitts@edawn.org.

The EPIC Report with Actual Numbers updated through August. Now 20 months into the 5 year EPIC report projections of over 52,000 and we are still on track, even before Tesla, Panasonic and Switch ramp up their hiring efforts.  Here are Actual Numbers Graphs.

The latest RGJ Article – WC-1 a ‘gut check’ for Washoe CountyI believe our local election is particularly important in that it really is a “gut check” for our community, a term that is used often in the military and in sports. Gut check is defined as “a test or assessment of courage, character, or determination.” In my experience it often speaks to the real character of a person – can they do what they know is right no matter how difficult or unpopular it is? Raising taxes is never easy and is certainly unpopular, but given the current state of our schools, can we as a community pass this very important test?

In case you missed it: Prior EDAWN articles, published in the RGJ, are stored on our website. Here is the link to the library.

Business Development

The Business Development team announced 3 new companies (115 jobs) were added to the region.

  • Todson, Distribution/cycling products, 10 jobs (Reno)
  • Exxel Outdoors, Distribution/camping equipment, 70 jobs (Reno)
  • Alltrade Tools, Distribution/shop tools, 35 jobs (Reno)

The team hosted 6 site visits and met with 20 site consultants this month.  

10 new leads and projects were added to the pipeline.

Stan Thomas attended the Economix Conference in Atlanta on October 31st through November 2nd.

Investor of the Week

Switch was founded in Nevada by Rob Roy in 2000. Rob Roy holds over 218 patents and patents-pending for technologies that have revolutionized the data center industry, including power, cooling and architecture. Switch SUPERNAP data centers are the only Tier IV Gold-certified carrier-neutral colocation facilities in the world and the highest-rated in North America. Switch currently has nine data centers in Las Vegas and will invest $6 billion in Nevada as part of its statewide expansion. It anticipates an additional three facilities in Las Vegas and seven facilities in Reno.