Expedia renews Summerlin lease for five years

Expedia, the Bellevue, Wash.-based travel company, has renewed its lease at its customer-service call center in Summerlin for five years, according to the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development. Expedia has more than 500 employees at the call center.

Expedia, which has been in Summerlin since 2001, had been considering leaving when its lease expired at the 60,000square-foot space at 10190 Covington Cross Drive this year. But economic development officials for the state and the city of Las Vegas met with Expedia and offered work force training incentives to Expedia in the form of Train Employees Now and Silver State Works programs.

Expedia has not yet used these work force program incentives, but the company can do so at any time, according to the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. The job programs are available to businesses that comply with wage and new job creation thresholds. These programs can be reapplied for as companies grow through new job creation.

Gov. Brian Sandoval mentioned the move to keep Expedia in Nevada during his luncheon speech Friday at an economic development event in Las Vegas.

David Scherer, executive managing director of the national commercial real estate company Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, represented the building’s landlord, Chicago-based General Growth Properties, which specializes in regional malls such as Fashion Show mall on the Strip. Scherer said he feared Expedia could have potentially left Nevada, citing an example of Expedia relocating from Texas for a site in Missouri.

“Typically, two-thirds of job growth in the state occurs organically within existing companies and it’s imperative to do every effort to retain these companies within our state,” Scherer said. “And unlike any other time in the past 10 years, the state and local municipalities have worked together to directly meet with companies to use their best efforts to keep them.”

Scherer said he could not reveal the new financial terms of the lease.

Expedia did not return calls for comment.