Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

April 28, 2007

Study Pessimistic on Las Vegas' Ability To Recruit New Businesses and Diversify Economy Beyond Gaming

Posted by detroit1051

UNLV's Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies has released a report which says, "The marketing of sin that helps draws tourists to Las Vegas is an impediment in luring corporate headquarters to Southern Nevada....paints a pessimistic picture of Las Vegas' ability to recruit companies to Southern Nevada and diversify its economy beyond gaming."
The report is critical of some of the issues we've discussed here before, namely higher costs, unaffordable housing, poorly educated workforce, school system problems, lack of "cultural amenities", etc.
In Business Las Vegas summarized the report, but I've been unable to find a link to Lied's report itself. I'd like to read it in its entirety. I find the headline of the story a little over the top, using words like, "...image repels corporate relocation."

Do those here who either live in Las Vegas or frequently do business in Southern Nevada agree with the findings?

To read the article:
Report: Sin City Image Repels Corporate Relocation


Categories: Business of Gaming, CityCenter, Downtown Las Vegas, Las Vegas Strip


Comments

Read archived comments (4 so far)
April 28, 2007 3:25 PM Posted by mike_ch

I'll just say this: Citigroup has a big processing facility somewhere in the west end of town in an area nicknamed "The Lakes" by many locals, and all the credit card payments they receive in the pre-addressed envelopes are addressed to "The Lakes, NV."

Henderson has had some success with business zones but all in all I don't expect the area to really evolve too much further in that regard for many years. Outside of the climate and the vice industries, life in Vegas is a lot like a number of Southern California suburbs.

April 29, 2007 5:10 AM Posted by detroit1051

Mike, I remember when Citigroup built its processing center on Sahara, west of Durango. It's right across from Canyon Gate Country Club. The reason I remember it is Citigroup was reluctant to have Las Vegas as the mailing address for payments, so they pulled some strings to have their location's zip code become "The Lakes, NV." Talk about corporate over-sensitivity!

April 29, 2007 11:51 AM Posted by mike_ch

Well, if anything this study suggests they weren't too sensitive. The reason Henderson has a small/medium business presence around Green Valley is to get that Henderson address instead of a Las Vegas one that may turn off some people.

I remember when Westwood Studios, a computer game company, was operating here before Electronic Arts bought them. It was a weird and unusual location for that sort of business (most game studios in the US are located in California or Texas) and lots of internet rumor imagined that the people who work there have drunken gambling strip club orgys just because of the city they were headquartered in.

And while that kind of association is actually kind of awesome for a company of game programmers, it's not awesome if your company is regularly mentioned in the Wall Street Journal or something.

April 30, 2007 10:45 AM Posted by VegasMatt

The article does point out a lot of short falls about the Las Vegas area but is much too pessimistic. It ignores that fact that other industries are moving here. Most notable are furniture and jewelry trades.

As far as high tech industries go, QUALCOMM and CDW are currently also opening facilities in town.
Both are on the Forbes 500 list.

All of the problems mentioned are being addressed in some form. For instance, the article complains that there are no cultural attractions,
however 180 acre attraction of museums and gardens this June. (http://www.springspreserve.org/)
Vegas is also in the mists of putting together a performing arts center. (http://www.lvpacfoundation.org/)
There are several other projects quietly in the works as well.

Vegas is one of the newest cities in the U.S, and being so young has a lot of challenges to overcome.

It�s much too soon to count Vegas out of anything yet. For anyone wants to sit out the development of the most exciting city on earth, more power to them.

On a side note, the Westwood studio�s team is still in town, they have renamed themselves Petraglyph.