The fact that North Las Vegas is getting the San Diego-based technology firm's new secure network operations center indicates the city is off to a good start in the effort to attract a diverse group of companies to Nevada, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday.

Reid, who said North Las Vegas was once "kind of an afterthought" for officials, said during a ceremonial groundbreaking for the project that the city is now poised for growth.

"It is going to have tremendous growth," Reid said. "Qualcomm is certainly a step in the right direction."

The company is expected to begin construction on the facility by the end of this year. The new facility will be located on a 32-acre parcel in the Cheyenne Technology Corridor at the corner of Cheyenne Avenue and Valley Drive.

The company expects to hire 125 people to work in high-tech jobs at the new center over a five-year period. The company opened a satellite tracking center in Las Vegas about a year ago and that operation will move to the North Las Vegas facility when it opens in spring 2007. The company has had a presence in the Las Vegas Valley since 1991, where it currently employs 16 people.

The new facility will include a corporate data center and the company's MediaFlo operation, which will develop video services for cell phones and other hand-held devices.

Reid led an effort in the Senate to earmark $4 million for the development of a national hazardous material tracking program to be housed at the facility. The $4 million appropriation is a part of this year's Homeland Security spending bill. Congress approved $2 million to start development of the program last year.

The program, called Hazmat Emergency Response Operations and Information Center (HEROIC), is a partnership between the federal government, Qualcomm and UNLV, and could be used to track the 800,000 daily truck shipments of hazardous materials on the nation's roads. The program will be designed to track the trucks and to provide information about the cargo the trucks are carrying to first responders to accidents or attacks on the trucks.

Nevada officials are touting the expected arrival of the new Qualcomm facility in North Las Vegas as the beginning of an influx of technology and other kinds of firms to the area.

"We know everybody else is going to want to be here," Michael Montandon, mayor of North Las Vegas, said. "The reason those office buildings across the street (Valley Drive) are there, is just because of the rumors of Qualcomm." Montandon was referring to an office complex across from the Qualcomm site on the corner of Valley Drive and Cheyenne Avenue.

"But knowing this is just the turning point thrills us at City Hall," Montandon said.

He said the city has worked for the past dozen years to appeal to high-tech companies, by requiring developers in the area to include high-tech infrastructure such as fiber optic networks. He said the city now has 140 miles of fiber in the ground.

"From any location in North Las Vegas, you can have fiber access to every broadband carrier in the U.S.," Montandon said.

He said the city has been able to coordinate the five land owners that hold a majority of the land in the Cheyenne Technology Corridor in order to attract businesses to it.

The city has also offered Qualcomm a $20,000 monthly discount of its electric utility franchise taxes -- equal to a 2 percentage-point reduction of the 5 percent franchise tax.

Reid said an example of the potential growth the Qualcomm facility could bring to North Las Vegas can be found in San Diego. He said that city's growth in high tech firms began with Qualcomm, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Harter said the new facility will allow UNLV to partner with Qualcomm in a number of ways. She said the center will be a place where students studying in high tech fields can gain internships and eventually get jobs. She also said the school can partner with Qualcomm to do research in the area of homeland security.

Paul Jacobs, the company's chief executive, said the company has high hopes for the North Las Vegas facility and that the location in North Las Vegas suits the firm's needs.

"We needed highly skilled workers, ready access to transportation networks," Jacobs said. "Nevada was perfect for us."

On July 1 Jacobs took over Qualcomm's chief executive position, replacing his father Irwin, who will remain as chairman.

Terri Sheridan, senior vice president of economic development for the Nevada Development Authority, said after the event the authority has been working with Qualcomm since 2003 to find a suitable location in Nevada.

Tim Rubald, interim executive director of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, said Qualcomm will help bring more high tech firms to the area because of the way high-tech companies operate.

"These kinds of high-tech companies tend to cluster," Rubald said. "We're going to see that happening. That's why Silicon Valley has been so strong."

Alana Roberts covers courts and labor relations for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at by e-mail at alanar@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-4059.