Churchill County Commissioners broke ground Monday on what will become the new CC Communications customer service center, office building, operations facility, and training room at 899 South Maine Street. When the new facility is completed, the entire operations of the last, county owned phone, internet, and business communications company in the country will be under one roof for the first time in over one-hundred years.
Established in 1889, CC Communications maintains a fiber network that spans from Fallon to Reno, Carson City, Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, all the way to Las Vegas and provides fiber to nearly 90% of the homes in Churchill County. The Federal Communications Commission estimates that nationally, only 30% of the homes in the U.S. have access to fiber service at their homes.
Commissioners Pete Olsen, Bus Scharmann, and Carl Erquiaga joined General Manager Mark Feest, and Operations Field Supervisor Jay Lingenfelter in the snow, on Monday morning at the groundbreaking ceremony. The project is anticipated to take 300 days to complete, with an estimated opening in late fall of 2021. The new 14,000 square foot building will house all administrative, network operations, and customer service activities, while the existing 1,800 square foot building at the site will be remodeled to accommodate the business development group and a training room.
The total cost of the project, including demolition and construction is $5.4 million. Hiskett and Sons completed the demolition, and the construction will be done by K7, the same company that is just completing the new Fallon Youth Club building.
“This is a step on the path to continuing to build out an amazing home-grown company inside Churchill County, it is an incredible story, we are so lucky to have this business here in our community,” said Commissioner Olsen. “With the fiber build out we have done for 85% of the homes and businesses we are the best-connected rural community in the U.S. and we did it, we are home-grown.”
Feest says the consolidation allows CC Communication to be customer focused and meet the goals of the company to work as a team to bring the best service to the community. “By bringing us all together in one location that facilitates our ability to do that,” he said.
The CC Communication investment in the South Maine property builds on and anchors the downtown corridor including the improvements made at the Museum, the Pennington Life Center, and what the City of Fallon has done with the beautification of South Maine Street.
“Hopefully we’ll see in the near future the Food Hub going in with a new building down the street and hopefully it will encourage others to upgrade their properties and make a better use of property in this corridor for everyone,” said Feest.
In 2015 CC Communication became one of the first 20 communities in the United States to become a “Gig City,” offering 1-gigabit internet service to local homes and businesses. Employees worked together in 2018 to adopt the Core Values to communicate, be accountable, show respect, cooperate, and be passionate about providing employees and customers with innovative technology solutions.
When completed, the new facility will consolidate all operations and CC Communications with vacate the 1750 W. Williams, and 50 W. Williams offices. Feest thanked Ed Louie for the many years of a great working relationship with the rental of the 1750 W. Williams property, and also the City of Fallon for their efforts and coordination to facilitate the new project.
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