Celebrating Nevada’s 144th

Nevada marked its 144th year of statehood on Oct. 31.

The Silver State achieved this milestone, and our valley achieved growth and prosperity, driven largely by businesses with local roots.

On Pages 3E and 4E we profile five Nevada companies that exemplify our business community's winning spirit.

Boyd Gaming Corp., Nevada State Bank, Cashman Equipment, McDonald Carano Wilson and Terra West Property Management all are models of success in Southern Nevada.

All have unique tales and unique places in Nevada's past, present and future.

Even in the economy's current downturn, the leaders of these companies foresee many golden moments ahead for commerce in the Silver State.

"Mom and dad used to tell me about the Depression years," Boyd Gaming Corp. Chairman Bill Boyd recalled. "Now I know what they were talking about."

In recent months, the gaming and resort industry has taken it on the chin from several angles and the near-term outlook looks bleak.

"I think we're going to have a rough couple of years," Boyd predicts.

For the company, handling the downturn has meant halting work on the $4.8 billion Echelon project in midstream.

Nevertheless, he remains confident that the core industry that has sustained Las Vegas for decades will win out over time.

"We seem to have a 'can-do' attitude here that is lacking in other cities," he said. "It is something that we started many, many years ago and it just became part of the culture."

Three decades ago, many observers predicted the decline of Las Vegas when gambling was legalized in Atlantic City, only to have the city reinvent itself and trigger a run of growth that has built it into the resort and convention behemoth it is today. He expects the cycle to repeat itself once again and ultimately bring back the area stronger than ever.

Boyd came to Las Vegas with his parents in 1941, when the population was just less than 9,000 and there was only one resort on what would later be called the Strip. Starting with his father, Sam Boyd, the business that evolved into Boyd Gaming became a pioneer in building places aimed at locals. It started with Sam's Town in 1979. It included not only a casino but also restaurants, a bowling alley, a movie theater and other amenities.

"We provided something for the residents," he said. "We see plenty of customers five or six days a week. It is practically a second home."

As a banker, Dallas Haun has been all too close to the tsunami of foreclosures that has crashed over the Las Vegas Valley.

With the inventory of homes for sale or in foreclosure still exceeding a year's supply, heavy debt loads weighing on gaming companies, and the financial system struggling nationally and internationally, Haun, the president and CEO of Nevada State Bank, suspects a recovery could be a couple of years off.

"Collectively, there are a lot of moving pieces," he said. "We had a perfect storm here."

But after that, watch out.

"We are very bullish on Nevada," he said. "This will remain a destination resort and a nice place to come to live, work and retire."

When the worst passes, he suspects Nevada will come back much more quickly and strongly than many other regions of the country.

"The basic economic engine is stronger here than a lot of other areas," he said.

Looking to that future, the bank in September assumed the insured deposits of Silver State Bank after it was seized by federal regulators. Banks with strong capital bases often use recessions to build market share.

In particular, the Las Vegas Valley has an entrepreneurial base that has formed the core clientele for Nevada State, a subsidiary of Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorp, during its 49-year existence. It is in this sector that Haun believes the bank has made its lasting mark on the community.

"Nevada is known as an entrepreneurial state and we have played our part in funding thousands of entrepreneurs," he said.

Despite an economic downturn that is threatening to be one of the worst recessions in a generation, Cashman Equipment remains strong. The supplier of heavy equipment since 1931 is moving into its new 308,000-square-foot campus in Henderson.

The location, near Eastern Avenue and St. Rose Parkway, is a far cry from the company's headquarters for almost 30 years -- on Craig Road in North Las Vegas. The city used eminent domain to take seven acres of the 23-acre Craig Road site for the planned Craig Road interchange. A rental operation will remain to serve customers on the valley's north end.

Cashman Equipment Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer MaryKaye Cashman said the new complex was planned a few years ago.

"When we started, it wasn't a tough time," she recalled. "I would imagine (today) I wouldn't have designed such a large complex."

Cashman Equipment's customers are having a tough time, and that's resulted in a 30 percent to 35 percent drop in business since "the peak years of '04, '05 and '06," she said. But sitting in what will be the new rental office on site, Cashman is confident the company she's headed since 1995 will continue at a comfortable pace during what may be lean times ahead. An inventory reduction is part of the cost-cutting for the company founded by James Cashman 77 years ago to aid in construction of Hoover Dam.

The CEO is letting attrition trim the number of employees and doesn't expect layoffs.

She credits sensible growth in the boom years as part of the reason Cashman Equipment is not struggling today.

Diversification into Northern Nevada mining also has proved a great move as construction continues to fall in Southern Nevada. Strong gold mining, she said, is still helping her Nevada company.

When Deborah Ogilvie and Katherine Matheson began managing residential properties three decades ago, the homeowners association was still a new and exotic creature.

"There were about 20 HOAs back then, so most people didn't know what they were doing," said Matheson, who was among them. When drafting their first management agreement, she and Ogilvie checked out a sample from the public library and basically followed it.

With an estimated 2,000 homeowners associations now in the area, the Terra West Property Management that they co-own has grown with the industry. And they like to think that they have helped bring some order to homeowners association management.

"We've been pretty much on the forefront of establishing policies and procedures," Matheson said. "Before, it was the Wild, Wild West."

But with the environment came the opportunity that allowed them to forge ties to the local builders that once dominated the market here. They built their presences so that they made the transition from handshake deals in the era when local builders dominated the market to the low-bid contracts sought by large national developers.

While Terra West has continued to thrive during a toxic market because of its focus on management instead of brokerage, the partners have divergent outlooks on the region's future.

"We're a service our clients have to have," Ogilvie said.

Matheson added: "This city has been through tough times before, in the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s and came back every time. It's a given that this city will overcome the current downturn and will grow again. This town's going to be fine."

But the confluence of economic problems has Ogilvie braced for a protracted slowdown. "I personally don't see this town bouncing back for another three to five years," she said.

The scenic view from the 10th floor of the U.S. Bank building on West Sahara Avenue is striking as the backdrop to McDonald Carano Wilson's managing partner's office. The traffic and buildings below demonstrate just how much the state has grown since Bob McDonald and then-Sen. Alan Bible opened the law firm in 1949.

The firm began as a Reno-based law office but in 1986 moved into Las Vegas and evolved into the McDonald Carano Wilson of today. That evolution also resulted in the additions of more long-time Nevadans such as its managing partner, George Ogilvie, who's been with the practice since 1992. He discussed the metamorphosis from a general practice into a specialized business firm.

"Back in the early 1950s, the firm wasn't as sophisticated as it is now. They did estate planning and divorces," Ogilvie said. "Divorces were a significant part. They started with two employees, including (McDonald and Bible)."

Divorces were a big part of the firm's early years in the office that also housed the Reno Gazette-Journal, co-founder Bob McDonald recalled in a 2003 interview with the Business Press.

"Reno, at that time, was a big divorce town, McDonald said.

He added that the demand for divorce declarations was so great that many lawyers would meet clients at the airport. McDonald's attorneys didn't do business that way, however.

The early 1950s brought changes. A federal law prohibited senators from practicing law privately. That measure meant Bible had to leave the firm. He was replaced by Thomas "Spike" Wilson and Don Carano. Between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s, the firm began to become what people recognize today as McDonald Carano Wilson, Ogilvie said.

Government affairs and regulatory work were complemented by gaming and contractor clients, and now employment law, while the firm maintained its general practice roots, the managing partner said. McDonald Carano's lawyers and lobbyists have been at the forefront of some hot-button issues, including the Coalition for Fairness in Construction's successful legislative push for the so-called "right to repair."

The firm also plans to add a renewable energy practice area. To that end, McDonald Carano Wilson has just hired longtime Southwest Gas Corp. general counsel Thom Sheets, Ogilvie said.

The economic turmoil gripping Southern Nevada and the nation hasn't dampened business for McDonald Carano Wilson, Ogilvie said.

Revenue is still good for the law firm, which serves clients, including Nevada State Bank, Boyd Gaming Corp. and Herbst Gaming. Ogilvie remains bullish on the valley's future.

"As soon as the national economy turns around and people feel less fearful of spending their discretionary income, they'll return to Vegas like they always have," he said.

One thing that won't change is the Nevada firm's "no mergers" stance, its managing partner said.

In spite of the changes and influx of out-of-state law firms into the state, Ogilvie vows to keep the company homegrown.

"It is our long-range plan that we will remain a Nevada-based firm," he said.