Rendering of the finished product, expected in May 2022.

The effects of the burgeoning ecommerce industry are being keenly felt in Northern Nevada.

For Dermody Properties, a development plan that started out with five modest-sized speculative industrial buildings turned into one of the single largest industrial buildings in Northern Nevada.

Motorists driving by The Park at McCarran development at the eastern end of Mill Street might be a bit awestruck by the magnitude of the massive 995,782-square foot building being erected for a still-undisclosed national tenant.
John Ramous, Nevada partner for Dermody Properties, has worked in industrial development for more than 30 years. But he’s never worked on a building of such enormity.

“It’s the largest single infill development I can recall in the last decade,” Ramous said last week during an interview at the project site. “There just aren’t too many buildings like this.”

Discussions with the tenant began early last year, Ramous added. After a short pandemic-induced pause, they quickly moved from a typical big box of 350,000 square feet to larger and larger scope as the tenant reconsidered its growing ecommerce and distribution needs.
“It got a little larger, and a couple months later it got larger (still),” Ramous said. “Here we are today at just under 1 million square feet.”Construction is expected to complete the building for Dermody by May 2022.

The lease for the current building was inked in the fourth quarter of 2020. Having a tenant changed the risk profile and planning for Dermody and its financial partner at a time when the pandemic was creating uncertainty about the economy — although the future of ecommerce was made abundantly clear during the pandemic as online sales soared.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, online sales in the U.S. accounted for $519 billion in 2018 (9.9 percent of all retail sales) and surged to $791 billion in 2020 (14 percent of all retail sales).

Northern Nevada distribution facilities are uniquely positioned to meet increased online consumer demand across the greater Western region — trucks can reach 11 western states in one-day’s drive. In addition to being one of the largest industrial facilities in the region, the new facility is well positioned in the airport submarket, Ramous noted.

“We always refer to projects as far as scalability — are there enough large sites to build projects of 1 to 2 million square feet, and it’s extremely challenging (to find them) in the valley, let alone the airport submarket,” he said. “You can’t replicate this.”
Dermody partnered with Locus Development Group (LDG) of Reno to develop the industrial building.

As co-developer of the project, LDG still retains ownership of two smaller commercial buildings at Park at McCarran that are expected to be delivered by summer 2022. Those buildings are planned for 145,000 and 206,000 square feet. While no tenants are currently signed, Ramous said he is navigating a half-dozen proposals for the facilities and could potentially announce signed leases within the next 60 to 90 days.

There also are two undeveloped parcels on either side of the proposed Mill Street extension fronting McCarran Boulevard that will likely be developed into a combination of retail and flex buildings.