MARK WAITE / PVT Paula Elefante, executive director of EDEN Inc., at right, and Nye County Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos, at left, put some effort into shoveling dirt at the ground breaking for the new Home Depot store Wednesday while Commissioners Gary Hollis, at far left, and Roberta "Midge" Carver and Butch Borasky, in the middle, look on. Advertisement

The new Home Depot store will provide 150 jobs in Pahrump after it opens next summer, real estate manager Jeff Hardman said during ground-breaking ceremonies Wednesday morning.

"We're standing on a site which will soon be the first Home Depot store in the city of Pahrump. It will also be our 18th store in the state of Nevada," Hardman told about 50 residents and dignitaries including the Nye County Commission and Pahrump's town board.

Home Depot will pay "above living wages" and offer benefits to both full-time and part-time employees, Hardman said, drawing applause from the crowd.

Human relations specialist Betsy Miller would say only, "We pay well. We're at least 20 percent higher than other retailers for the same jobs."

Home Depot will recruit some skill specialists, Miller said, for such positions as master plumbers and master electricians. Other employees will receive training inside the store, she said.

"Home Depot's become an integral part of every community that it joins and we're very excited to be an integral part of the city of Pahrump. This store is scheduled to open in roughly the summer of next year," Hardman said in his prepared remarks.

The store, on the east side of Highway 160 just north of Basin Avenue, will have 102,000 square feet of retail space and another 35,000 square feet of garden center and nursery products. Hardman said the Home Depot will stock roughly 35,000 different products including a paint color design center, interior design products, as well as bath, kitchen and appliance showrooms.

"Installation services will also be available for everything from carpet to appliances and vinyl siding," Hardman said. "Some of the products that we will stock will be produced by local vendors and most of the plants and items in the nursery garden center will be provided by local growers."

Paula Elefante, executive director of EDEN Inc., an economic development authority, said residents won't have to travel 70 miles any more to Las Vegas to buy all the home improvement products offered at Home Depot.

"We'll be shopping right here in Pahrump, keep the dollars here in Pahrump, people will be getting jobs here in Pahrump -- it's just a wonderful aspect for our community," Elefante said.

Officials chanted "Home Depot! Home Depot!" as they took shovels full of dirt.

Nye County School Superintendent Rob Roberts walked off with the shovels after the ceremony, calling them the first contribution by Home Depot to the Nye County School District. He's preparing for what may be the next significant groundbreaking, that of Floyd Elementary School.

Roberts said he already talked to Home Depot about setting up a work-study program for high school seniors.

It's the second major chain to open in Pahrump recently. Star Nursery celebrated its grand opening on Buol Lane Sept. 29.

Home Depot District Manager Darell Todd said 24 company employees already live in Pahrump and commute to Las Vegas.

"We don't have to answer the questions any more from all of our residents that go down there (to work in Las Vegas): When are you going to open? When are you going to open? It's 20 to 30 times a day," Todd told a group of local real estate agents.

Town board Chairwoman Laurayne Murray said she was getting phone calls up to a week ago, with rumors the store wouldn't open.

"We worked through some difficulties and worked through them one at a time. I still tell people it's coming and now it's evident. It's a long time waiting," Murray said.

Hardman said the contract hasn't yet been awarded to build the store, but he expects it to be awarded soon and construction to begin within weeks. The Pahrump Building and Safety Department reported company officials took out the building permit for the store Tuesday.

Many Pahrump residents feel a sense of skepticism, dating back to the string of false hopes for the local hospital, which eventually opened in spring 2006, or the sign advertising the Brendan Theatre eight-plex at Terrible's Town Casino which has been postponed repeatedly.

(Bruce Coleman, executive vice-president of Brendan Theatres, based in Concord, Calif., told the Pahrump Valley Times last week his company just approved designs for the theater complex with the Herbst family. He said construction documents will be submitted to the county planning department for review next month. Coleman predicted a ground breaking on that project in December or January.)

Hardman said while construction activity is busy in communities where Home Depot locates, the company located in Pahrump because there's enough population here today. Many residents want to improve light fixtures, bath fixtures, construct home improvements or do some garden and lawn work, he said.

Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley said, "it will be a wonderful addition to the community. It can really act as an anchor for other businesses like this to come in. I'm very excited about it."

That's an accurate statement. Austin Bettar, vice-president of leasing for the Merrill Group, said his company will be building a shopping center on the south side of the 19.7-acre property that will likely house retail and office tenants. They also expect to construct four buildings in front of the Home Depot on Highway 160.

Architectural plans submitted along with the $24,972 check for plan review back in January, showed a phase II suggesting three restaurants in front of the store on Highway 160 along with a bank. Phase III would include retail stores of 20,000 square feet and 7,500 square feet to the south.

That would be similar to what happened after the Wal-Mart opened in 2003, when Panda Express and Sonic Burger opened in front of the store soon afterward.