By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
Logandale resident and regional real estate developer Tony Ricco is on a mission. He loves living in the Moapa Valley but he believes that his hometown desperately needs some real economic development for a change. But Tony is not the type of person to sit back and wait for good things to happen. He is on it!
Ricco is working with David Stubbs and Tony Hama, owners of Sperry/Van Ness Commercial Real Estate to bring light industry to the community. Next Tuesday night, February 25, Ricco will be bringing a proposal to the Moapa Town Advisory Board that, he hopes, will pave the way for a small-arms ammunition manufacturing plant to be built in Moapa.
The roughly 68 empty acres of desert land that straddle the Union Pacific railroad tracks just south of the old Moapa Post Office building is currently owned by Bank of Nevada.
Ricco said it is perfect for a light manufacturing plant. It is right along the Moapa Valley spur of the railroad which would allow train cars to be stopped and loaded in that location. In addition the site is at least a mile and a half away as the crow flies from the nearest residential areas. What’s more the topography and the hills surrounding hte site creates a natural protection between the future plant and anything around it.
Ricco hopes that he can attract an industrial end-user to the property. And he believes that an ammunition factory would be a perfect fit for the area.
“I can’t think of a better place for a facility like that than here in this community,” Ricco said. “It goes along very well with the values of people here in these communities.”
Ricco says that he has been in touch with some big national names in the ammunition field already. He attended the NSSF annual SHOT Show last month in Las Vegas and spoke to several company principals and manager who expressed interest in moving their domicile to Nevada and opening up shop in Moapa.
But in order to draw them in finally, some of the county approvals need to be lined up in advance, explained Ricco’s partner Tony Hama.
“When you are trying to pitch an area that doesn’t have a ton of demand already, you have to be able to show what is possible,” Hama said. “If this was Los Angeles then there wouldn’t be as much involved. But trying to bring somebody out to an area they haven’t considered before, you have to do some of the work for them.”
Ricco said that means getting through a lot of the entitlement process with the County. The land being targeted is currently zoned as M-1 or Light Industrial zoning. A small arms manufacturing plant is considered as a Medium Industrial use. Thus a special use permit is required to operate such a facility on this property, Ricco said.
That is what he will be requesting before the MTAB next week.
“We have been working with Governor Sandoval’s Economic Development Team on bringing the businesses into the state,” Ricco said. “We feel that we need to go through the entitlement process now without the end user in the picture, so that they can then be sold on the benefits of moving to the State of Nevada.”
Ricco spoke during the public comment portion of last week’s MTAB meeting and gave a preview to board members on what he would be requesting. He said he was encouraged by the response.
“I was glad to hear the positive reception to the idea from the Town Board,” Ricco said. “We have also have the county staff recommending approval on our project. What’s more we have presented the idea to Commissioner Tom Collins and he has told us that he is 110% behind us on this project. He is a champion for this use on the property.”
For residents of the area who are still wary of the idea, Ricco points out that, even with an approval of the Special Use Permit, there would still be plenty more input the community would have in the final facility.
“They’re not just giving it away at this point,” Ricco said. “The end user will still have to come in and present their designs for review. There will be plenty of chances for the community to look closely at the details of the project.”
Ricco says that it is high time for new industry to be develped in the Moapa Valley.
“The last time we had something positive like that come in was back in 1995 when Lasco came into town,” Ricco said. “It’s really time. Moapa needs an economic win like this. We hope we can work with the community to move it forward.”
