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Game lovers will get a fast break By DAVID PRESZLER Jul 08, 1999 12:00 AM A A Game lovers will get a fast break Computer firm moves to Ashland — — Ashland's high-tech neighborhood has a new resident temporarily living in a high-profile building: the former Pacific Northwest Museum of Natural History. Falcon Northwest, a mail-order firm that specializes in high-speed computers for video game lovers, has moved from Coos Bay to Ashland and leased space in the former museum on East Main Street. The company, which opened Monday, employs 13 people and plans to build an office off Hersey Street near Williamson Way. Kelt Reeves, 28, who founded the company in Florida in 1992 and moved it to Coos Bay a year later, says Falcon Northwest targets video game players who insist on the fastest, slickest systems around. Our market is the kind of person that camps outside Software, Etc. when a new game comes out, he says. We sell some very, very high-end systems. We're kind of like a custom car maker that makes Ferraris, if you will. The company plans to launch a series of more affordable systems that will appeal to more casual game players and computer users. Right now, we have kind of a BMW image, where people don't think they can afford a BMW, Reeves says. These days, the company's systems generally come with 550-megahertz processors and up to 768 megabytes of RAM, or random access memory. Reeves says the systems, which are custom built to suit each user, run from $2,000 to $10,000 with the average one costing around $4,500. The company did about $3 million in sales last year but Reeves hopes the move to Ashland will allow Falcon Northwest to grow rapidly. He says the move was essential to the company being able to handle growth. Ashland, he says, offers much better access to air freight service (a must for a mail-order company), greater Internet capacity and a more skilled labor force than Coos Bay did. The biggest thing is skilled employees, he says. When the company set out to replace two employees that opted not to make the move to Ashland, it got 100 applications, and Reeves says the quality of applicants was so high that the company hired three people instead of two. Wading through Ashland's planning process hasn't gone as smoothly. The company began discussions a year ago and, after a number of modifications, is hoping for approval July 13. The new office, off Hersey between Vitaline Corp. and a new housing development, would be about 12,000 square feet. Until the office is completed, the company is leasing the office portion of the former museum building. The museum closed in September 1997. Southern Oregon University owns the museum land, but the building reverted to private bondholders represented by the Bank of New York after the museum folded. The university wants to purchase the building, and the budget being debated by the state Legislature includes $2.8 million in revenue bonds that SOU would use to buy it. SOU President Stephen Reno says the school was consulted before the building was leased and wanted to be sure no long-term lease was signed. Falcon Northwest's lease is for six to nine months. Reno says that will give the school time to work out the details of buying the building.