Opportunity Village forms `win-win' relationship with American Nevada

In 1999, Opportunity Village approached American Nevada Corp. about contracting for services such as common-area maintenance for the company's commercial properties. A contract was agreed upon, and it has been a "win-win situation from day one," said Michael Carey, vice president of property management for American Nevada.

"When you hire any new vendor, you never really know what the results will be," Carey said. "We have never had an issue, they are very thorough, they take a great deal of pride in their work -- and it shows. Drive through any of our retail or office properties and you'll sense a level of neatness and cleanliness that any owner or tenant would be proud of. First impressions are important in our business, and we can always rely on the Opportunity Village crews to keep our commercial properties in excellent shape."

Opportunity Village is a nonprofit agency that serves mentally and physically disabled people in Southern Nevada.

"Our business relationship with Opportunity Village continues to grow, because they provide us with an extremely valuable service from both aesthetic and safety standpoints," Carey said. "They are now essentially handling all of our commercial properties, and we intend to contract with them for our future commercial developments as well. It's a great situation for both of our organizations."

George McCabe, director of sales and marketing for Opportunity Village, agreed.

"... Our ongoing work for American Nevada is one of our best off-site employment contracts, providing great work for about 10 intellectually disabled workers every day," McCabe said. "We look forward to doing even more work for American Nevada, and wish more companies would work with us on similar projects. It means so much to Opportunity Village and the hundreds of disabled people we serve each day."

Opportunity Village provides job training, placement and work opportunities for its clients, who have varying degrees of disabilities.

"Each of our clients' capabilities are evaluated and monitored, ensuring they are employed to the best of their abilities and given the opportunity to succeed," McCabe said, noting that all clients are supervised by agency staff members as they perform janitorial, food service, bus cleaning, housekeeping and other services.

"Seeing them succeed in such jobs is our greatest source of satisfaction. The endorsement of companies like American Nevada makes it all possible."

Opportunity Village also has service contracts with ATC-Vancom, which handles custodial services for the CAT bus system; the city of Las Vegas at the downtown former post office building; the Bureau of Reclamation at its Lower Colorado Regional Offices in Boulder City; the Department of Energy at its office on Hillshire Drive in Las Vegas; and the Department of Veterans Affairs at its ambulatory care clinic in North Las Vegas. In addition, the agency has contracted with the Air Force to serve thousands of meals each week and operate the postal service center at Nellis Air Force Base.

Opportunity Village operates two campuses, two work centers and four Thrift Stores in Las Vegas and Henderson. It also operates a vehicle donation program and hosts the annual Magical Forest event in Las Vegas. The agency is the largest private provider of vocational training, employment, advocacy and recreation for people with disabilities in Nevada. For more information call 259-3700 or visit www.opportunityvillage.org.

American Nevada Corp. is a developer of commercial and residential properties. Its commercial portfolio exceeds 2.1 million square feet with more than 5 million additional square feet planned for development. In addition to being the primary developer of Green Valley and Green Valley Ranch, the company is also the managing partner of Silver Canyon Partnership, developer of the Seven Hills community in Henderson; and the managing partner of North Valley Enterprises, developer of the Aliante master-planned community in North Las Vegas.

Real Estate home