With a new liquor store and pedicab service ready for approval next week West Wendover may be coming out of a more than decade long decline in the number of small businesses.
With less than a month before the official business license count is released there are signals that West Wendover will report a significant gain in the number of local business for the first time since 2003.
Last year city offices report a net gain of one business to 174. Local businesses are 103, non-local 71, according to city figures/
The same time the year before the number of West Wendover businesses fell to one of the lowest levels ever according to Bartlome. From 190 business licenses recorded in 2012 there were 172 at the start of the last fiscal year. Most of the then decline came from ‘non-local’ businesses which do not have a physical presence in the city. According to Bartlome there were 80 such companies at the start of the last fiscal year. As of July 30th 2013 there were just 67.
The number of local businesses also fell albeit not as steeply.
However with the resurgence of the gaming industry (see story this page) and with the prospects of the Long Canyon Mine things might be looking up for the Nevada/Utah border town.
The new liquor store will be located between the Red Garter and the Desert Discount Liquor Store on Wendover Boulevard. The pedicab service is expected to also begin operations just in time for Speed Week this August.
There could also be a new casino/hotel on the horizon with the purchase of the defunct Rusty Palms by local entrepreneur Steve Perry.
In the past five years West Wendover has seen a number of relatively large retailers also leave town such as Park Furniture, Bargain Barn, Serendipity and Blanchard’s Furniture. Two years ago it saw the closure of one of its two full service banks, Nevada Bank and Trust.
While generally depressing there are some signs of green shoots. A clothing store and a discount general goods store open where the video store once operated.
A dozen years ago that West Wendover earned the title of Nevada’s fastest growing city by more than doubling its population from over 2,000 when the city incorporated in 1991 to well over 4,000 in 2001.
The economy on both sides of town should also begin to look up with the construction of the Long Canyon Gold Mine still scheduled to begin in early 2015.
Literally a mountain of gold ore lies in the once long over looked Pequop Range now in advanced exploration.
The mine has the potential to radically alter the economy and the lives of eastern Nevada, residents of Wendover and Wells. Estimated to need 500 workers during construction and 250 miners once operations are ready, the Long Canyon mine could add at least 1,000 people to the area and that may be just the tip of a gold boom in eastern Elko County.
