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Cashman Center To Become Drone, Robotic Testing Center

Drone
"Drone Flying Eye" by Flying Eye - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Cashman Center might soon be home to drones

The city of Las Vegas has wondered what do to with Cashman Center for a while now.

The building offers nearly 100,000 square feet of space for use.

The city held a competition to decide how best to use Cashman Center.

The winner is a team that wants to use it as an incubator for technology companies specializing in drones, unmanned aerial vehicles and commercial robotics.

Zach Conine, principal at Joseph Beare & Company, worked on the project with a five member team. He said Cashman Center is perfectly placed.

"Cashman Center is perfect because its very close to downtown and all the tech development that is happening downtown," Conine said.

He also pointed out that it is close to the highway, UNLV and Rancho High School, which is a magnet school for aviation. It is also relatively close to Cimarron-Memorial High School, which has one of the best robotics programs in the state.

"Our focus is small startup robotics companies," Conine explained, "What we look to do is bring down the barriers to entry for small robotics companies and bring them to Southern Nevada."

There are still negotiations to be done with the current tenant of the building, which is the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and the Las Vegas 51's Baseball team. 

But architect Curt Carlson, principal at SH Architecture, said the building itself doesn't need much work to be ready for drone and robotic startups. 

The wide open space of the convention center allows for testing, the conference area is set up for offices and the auditorium is ready for product launches, Carlson said.

Sallie Doebler business development for the Korte Company was also part of the team. 

She said the incubator will be the starting point for growth in the new industry.

"This is really an eco-system for the industry," she said, "This will be the nucleus and we think this will benefit the entire region of Southern Nevada. This is going to benefit the entire state of Nevada."

Doebler believes the project will spark more opportunities in the area between downtown Las Vegas and Cashman Center that will create, "an exciting healthy hub that really creates an urban atmosphere."

There is no timeline on when the project will get underway. 

Zachary Conine, Principal, Joseph Beare & Company;  Curt Carlson, Principal, SH Architecture;  Sallie Doebler, Business Development, The Korte Company

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