North Las Vegas’ Apex lands big industrial project
Apex Industrial Park, after seeing little development for years, has landed another big project.
NorthPoint Development broke ground last week on a two-building industrial complex in Apex. The project, North Vegas Logistics Center, is expected to span more than 2 million square feet on almost 130 acres.
The developer aims to substantially complete both buildings by late second quarter or early third quarter next year, said Joel Schrenk, regional vice president for NorthPoint’s Western U.S. operations.
Schrenk said that Southern Nevada has emerged as a regional distribution hub for a number of companies and that the shift to online shopping has fueled big demand for warehouse space.
People now expect rapid delivery when buying products online, and the amount of distribution space needed for that is “astounding,” he said.
He also noted that available land has been depleted in the Las Vegas Motor Speedway area, an especially popular spot for warehouse construction lately, and that Apex, which has plenty of open desert, is the next logical stop.
“It’s where the market’s going,” Schrenk said.
Apex, off Interstate 15 at U.S. Highway 93 in North Las Vegas, has been around for decades and offers thousands of acres for potential projects. It plodded along for years with little development amid a dearth of infrastructure.
However, utility service has been expanding to Apex, and as developers keep packing Southern Nevada with more warehouses, investors have been buying land and pushing ahead with construction plans in the remote business park some 20 miles northeast of the Strip.
French energy giant Air Liquide held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in May for a $250 million liquid hydrogen plant in Apex, and Reno developer Dermody Properties broke ground late last year on a 664,300-square-foot distribution facility nearby.
Aluminum beverage can maker Ball Corp. also unveiled plans last year to build a plant in Apex; developer VanTrust Real Estate bought roughly 350 acres last year with plans for a 4.5 million-square-foot industrial park; and grocery chain Smith’s purchased nearly 100 acres last year.
Those sites are all near each other at the southern edge of Apex.
The surge of activity follows the launch of a water-pipeline project from the city of North Las Vegas and Western States Contracting CEO Weston Adams, who has extensive land holdings in Apex.
When the city announced the 12-mile surface pipeline’s groundbreaking ceremony in summer 2018, its news release highlighted the need for basic utilities, saying: “Decades-old problem solved: Water coming to North Las Vegas’ Apex Industrial Park.”
The pipeline was designed to serve the southern area of Apex.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.