State of North Las Vegas: Mayor Lee praises business and job boom

Once teetering on bankruptcy, North Las Vegas has managed to pull itself from a fiscal cliff by attracting a variety of businesses over the past several years, including six Fortune 500 companies, Mayor John Lee said Thursday during his State of the City address.

Over the past year, Lee said the city secured more than 16,000 new jobs, compared with 227 jobs that were created before he took office in 2013. And the city added more than 12.5 million square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space in 2016, with nearly $2 billion in new capital investment.

“North Las Vegas is in a buffering stage,” Lee told more than 700 people gathered at the Aliante casino-hotel.

“We have done a tremendous amount of work implementing our vision and inputting all kinds of information into the system,” said Lee, who is running for a second term this year. “Although we are starting to see some amazing results, I can tell you, we have seen nothing yet.”

A streamlined permitting process made it easier to attract a diverse range of companies including Amazon, Fanatics, Hyperloop One, Faraday Future and Bed, Bath and Beyond, Lee said. And Lioher, a furniture manufacturer, will soon move to the city, Lee said, choosing North Las Vegas over Los Angeles.

In the next few weeks, the city will launch a self-certification program that will allow the city to issue permits within four days, and a “visionary document” charting the future of the Apex Industrial Park will be released Feb. 15.

“Apex has become a hot commodity,” Lee said, adding that his long-term goal is to have 100 million square feet of new development citywide. “In fact, we are in serious discussions right now with more major companies wanting to locate there.”

Lee remained optimistic about Faraday Future, which has been plagued with lawsuits and financial setbacks that prompted a temporary halt to building a new $1 billion manufacturing plant at Apex.

With a recent $2.18 billion secured from a Chinese property investor earlier this month, Lee said, Faraday will be able to “keep the project moving ahead at its record pace.” A model of the company’s FF Nine One, unveiled during the CES convention held earlier this month in Las Vegas, was on display just outside the ballroom where the mayor spoke.

In March, developers will break ground on a $100 million mixed-use project spanning 35 acres at Cheyenne Avenue and Commerce Street, Lee said. Also, construction is underway for the first stages of the long-stalled Villages at Tule Springs master-planned housing development, with model homes expected by summer.

Lee also said that the city will use funds from the More Cops Initiative to hire 18 additional police officers this year.

During his speech, Lee paid homage to North Las Vegas Fire Capt. Yaphet Miller, who died in October after collapsing in the line of duty.

Lee also said he was touched by the death earlier this month of North Las Vegas police Detective Chad Parque, a 10-year veteran of the force who died from injuries suffered in a car crash. A blood drive will be held in Parque’s honor from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 2 at City Hall.

“In four short years, the promise and opportunity of what North Las Vegas could be is becoming reality,” Lee said. “We are not just a turnaround town. Scholars are looking at us as a model of how vision, converted into action, can transform government when you start with the end in mind.”

Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Find @AMarroquin_LV on Twitter.