Nevada OKs deals with 12 companies

The Governor’s Office of Economic Development this week approved tax abatements to bring a dozen companies to Nevada including three in western Nevada.

Those three are Axion which will bring 205 jobs to Reno, Fulcrum Sierra to add 13 jobs in Storey County and Polaris Industries to bring 64 jobs to Lyon County.

Axion provides satellite-based entertainment services. The company will launch a new entertainment network based in Reno to target markets currently underserved by video service providers. The company plans to invest $30.6 million and begin operations in November. In return, the company was granted a sales tax abatement for two years, a 50 percent cut in the Modified Business Tax for four years and a 50 percent personal property tax abatement for 10 years. Altogether, those abatements are worth just more than $2.9 million.

Fulcrum Sierra Biofuels will pump $26.2 million into a plant that converts municipal solid waste into renewable transportation fuels. This is an expansion of its existing plant at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center in Storey County. The plan is to convert 175,000 tons of household waste into 10.5 million gallons of “syncrude” fuel a year.

In return, GOED’s board headed by Gov. Brian Sandoval awarded the company a sales tax abatement for two years and 50 percent abatements on the modified business tax, personal and real property taxes worth a total of $1.9 million.

Polaris Industries will establish a distribution center — the company’s first in the west — in Lyon County. Polaris, founded in 1954 in Minnesota, manufactures and markets a wide variety of all-terrain vehicles including snowmobiles, motorcycles and off road sport-utility vehicles. In return for tax abatements, the company will build a 500,000 square foot, $47.6 million facility in Lyon County. The abatements awarded this week include sales tax for two years, half the business tax for four years and half the personal property tax for 10 years — worth a total of just more than $1 million. The project will add 64 jobs over the coming two years and nearly 80 in five years as well as provide 300 jobs during construction.

The largest project on the list, however, is the deal to bring Sephora, an international chain of cosmetics stores, to Southern Nevada where the company is considering a 715,000 square foot distribution center. The total investment is projected at $102.2 million for that project.