Nevada Donor Network’s $8M expansion to increase collaboration, help clients

Nevada’s organ donation organization is expanding its presence across the Las Vegas Valley.

The organization, founded in 1987, is expanding its Las Vegas campus on the corner of East Sahara and Burnham avenues. The third building on the campus had an opening ceremony in early June but will officially open later this month.

Nevada Donor Network Chief Operating Officer Simon Keith said the $8 million expansion has been in the works for two years.

Four buildings will be added during the expansion, he said. A 10,000-square-foot building — set for construction to begin later this year — comes after a 14,600-square-foot building, which cost $2.7 million, debuted in early June.

“The expansion is really for greater collaboration and, of course, to increase donors,” Keith said, adding that in the past three years, the organization’s staff has grown from about 50 to over 100.

In 2015, the nonprofit organized 350 organ transplants from 105 “hero” donors, 475 tissue donations and 1,200 cornea donations.

Keith said funding for the expansion came from the organization and financing from banking partners, with 30 percent funded by the Nevada New Markets Tax Credit Program, which was enacted under SB 357.

The program, which launched under the 2013 Nevada Legislature, helps finance investments by providing state tax credit to investors for a seven-year, below-market loan for businesses in low-income communities. It took about a year for the organization to get the funding from the program, Keith said.

Kate McCullough, the Network’s community services supervisor, wrote in an email that the largest part of the campus is currently under construction as part of the tax credit program. Hospital community, family and quality service employees of the Network will work there. The building will also include a conference room and a place for the staff to take a break.

“The overhaul of 2055 E. Sahara (Avenue) will spark a chain of renovations to all its buildings, which will bring new life to the neighborhood and provide an innovative work environment for NDN’s operation,” she said.

Keith said the expansion will help encourage collaboration, grow the staff and serve those waiting on the transplant list.

“We have to continue to find new ways to save people’s lives” through technology advancements and awareness campaigns, he said. “In order to do that, we just need more staff, more people, more places, more space, and thus the need for campus expansion.”

Visit nvdonor.org or call 855-683-6667.