The Truckee Tahoe Airport District is moving quickly to try and keep Clear Capital, one of the region’s largest employers, in the area. Although Clear Capital will move from Truckee’s Pioneer Center to a new space in Reno in March, the airport district hopes to decide by February whether it will construct a new 10,000 square foot, single story building for the company.
The airport board last week approved a special meeting on Feb. 11 at 5:30 p.m. to vote on the construction, development, and lease agreements for constructing an office building for Clear Capital on airport property.
At its Jan. 6 meeting, the airport district voted 5-0 to issue a request for a proposal to have a metal building contractor determine the potential costs of the new structure, which would be built in the current long-term parking lot across from the fire station. According to Kevin Smith, Truckee Tahoe Airport District general manager, the district estimates that the building will cost around $3.5 million, which will be paid for using reserves. (The district has a second reserve for emergency operations.) The district expects to receive $13,000 a month in lease revenue, which would pay for the building in about 20 years.
Smith said the district has to make a decision this month in order to meet construction timelines and lay a foundation in the ground by fall so Clear Capital could move in next summer. Smith says that constructing a building for Clear Capital — an idea that has been in the works for more than two years since the company first approached the airport district — is a win-win for the airport district, the real estate valuations and analytics company, and the community.
“Clear Capital is an important local employer,” Smith said. “It’s good to have a diversity of jobs in our community, and technology jobs are important. It’s good for the community, and the airport gets a good return on the lifespan of the building.”
Clear Capital has about 270 employees in Truckee. If the district board approves the deal, the company would retain 100 employees in the area. Clear Capital President Kevin Marshall said he is looking to keep a Truckee office solely for his Truckee employees.
“We are trying to maintain a presence in Truckee because we have a lot of great staff that live in Truckee,” he said. “If we maintain a smaller presence in Truckee in a cost-effective manner … it’s 100 percent for our staff.”
Clear Capital is moving to Reno in order to have more room to grow and to take advantage of more affordable lease options. The 14,000 square foot space in Reno’s Park Center Tower near the baseball field will start off with 125 desks, which the company will staff immediately with the option to expand. According to Marshall, as part of the company’s deal with the State of Nevada and its new landlords, it will bring 400 new jobs to Reno.
“I worked really hard to make it in Truckee, but in many ways we are a square peg in a round hole,” said Marshall, who started Clear Capital in his Tahoe Donner loft in 2001. “We don’t have the advantages that our competitors do in bigger cities in terms of competitively based office space.”
Clear Capital also has an office in Roseville, although the Reno office will become its headquarters. While Marshall said he would love to have all his employees under one roof in Reno, it makes sense to retain the Roseville space because of the many real estate appraisers and large technology talent pool in the Roseville/Sacramento area.
“We want locations where our great staff is located,” he said.
Clear Capital has contributed around $150 million to the local economy in the past 14 years, according to Marshall. He is acutely aware that the company’s absence, or reduced size, in Truckee will impact the area.
“It impacts restaurants, hotels, landlords, car repairs, and bars,” Marshall said. “It was not an easy decision and I don’t take it lightly.”
In December the airport district board approved a non-binding letter of intent to build the structure for Clear Capital, which the company would commit to occupying for seven to 10 years. General Manager Smith said it is not unusual for the airport to act as a landlord, and in fact it meets the Federal Aviation Administration’s calls for revenue diversification at airports. The Truckee Tahoe Airport District currently has 220 hangers, each one with an individual lease, and a warehouse with five tenants.
