Industrial park that houses Tesla Gigafactory nearly sold out after Blockchains deal

The industrial park that plays host to Tesla, Google and Switch in the Reno area is almost sold out as a blockchain software company is finalizing plans to buy more than half of its land.

Blockchains LLC, is purchasing 64,000 acres at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, with the deal expected to fully close by the first week of February, said Lance Gilman, principal and director of the industrial park.

The company specializes in financial services, security, software and apps using blockchain technology — a secure digital ledger or record that is typically associated with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Blockchains LLC specifically deals with the Ethereum blockchain, which anchors the second-biggest cryptocurrency in the world. The Ethereum cryptocurrency is only trumped by Bitcoin in terms of market cap.

Ethereum’s blockchain technology also has a more flexible design than Bitcoin’s and can be used to create smart contracts that are not limited to virtual currency. Governments in Brazil and Ukraine, for example, are looking into using the technology to create more secure electoral records and platforms.

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Blockchains will use 150 of the acres it purchased at the industrial center to build a campus park that will house the company’s headquarters, Gilman said. What the company will do with the rest of the land remains to be seen.

“I believe they’re going to showcase to the world everything that the blockchain technology is capable of,” Gilman said. “Now will they do all the work themselves or work with other developers to house other users? Only time will tell.”

The deal leaves only 250 acres of the 104,000-acre industrial park unsold, Gilman said. It also makes Blockchains the biggest developer and landowner at Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. Tesla remains the biggest user with more than 3,000 acres, Gilman added. Developers typically buy land and build it to suit others while users buy a large block of land to build out their own facilities.

Gilman says the industrial park is in talks with interested parties for the remaining 250 acres and expects it to be sold within the year. Even if all the land is sold out, Gilman and the rest of the Tahoe-Reno Industrial brain trust will still be involved with the park for several years through development and infrastructure projects.

Gilman’s group first purchased the land located in Storey County east of Reno-Sparks in 1998, The industrial park then opened for business in 2000, weathering the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks as well as the Great Recession.

Since then, Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center saw the arrival of big-name technology companies in the park. Tesla, which arrived in 2014, continues to construct the largest building in the world with the Gigafactory. Switch just built the largest data center building in the world at the park and will have what’s expected to be the world’s largest data center campus as well once the whole project is built out. Silicon Valley heavyweight Google also bought land at the park last year, which likely will be used to house a data center.

The last year has been good for Reno’s two major industrial parks. Reno Technology Park, which is located across the freeway from Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center saw its remaining land purchased by Apple last year, which the company is using as part of a $1 billion expansion of its existing data center on the property.

The growth that has been driven by the incoming companies, combined with near-zero construction during the recession, is fueling a housing crunch in the region marked by skyrocketing house prices in the last couple of years as well as one of the biggest surge in rents in the nation.

Gilman expects that it will take several years for the balance between wages and housing affordability to normalize, given current conditions.

“The folks who are willing to build housing, infrastructure and roadways are here now and they just need a reasonable amount of time and a faster permitting process to get the work done,” Gilman said. “I expect it to take a minimum of five years, perhaps even 10 years.”

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