Author Archive
Now this is Dedication…
- Fire Station #1 Demo - Right before the presentation of the West Street Market, a couple of firefighters addressed the council during the public comment phase of the RDA meeting. The first firefighter that got up and spoke was very visibly upset about relocating Fire Station #1’s fire trucks to multiple fire stations until the temporary stations are built. See, one problem is that the firefighters have to vacate the current building before the temporary fire stations are completed in August. So, during that time frame, downtown Reno’s response times would be 6+ minutes until the Valley Road and GSR temp stations are completed. Hem mentioned that Fire Station #1 had over 10,000 calls last year, 75% of them being medically oriented.
Then the second firefighter got up to speak, his name was Richard and he was the President of Reno Firefighters. He mentioned how downtown Reno was kind of blocked in, and that if a natural or large disaster like an earthquake ever happened, there is a high chance access to downtown Reno would be blocked. They were even willing to sleep in tents if necessary just to stay downtown. Something really has to be said about firefighters who feel that passionately about this, yeah? Kudos to them for dedication and protection of their district.
In a rare move, the City Council began to ask questions directly of the firefighters during Public Comment phase and began discussing this issue. City Council is going to look at possibly leasing a property downtown to keep some firefighters and a truck or two, until the temporary stations are completed. Sharon Zadra mentioned she would like to see a REMSA station downtown. Call me dramatic, but what the firefighters said was pretty moving, it got the council’s attention for sure, and I just can’t thank them enough for being so dedicated to the downtown area. Fire Station #1 you rock!
More Info on Market Coming In
3 outdoor Markets will start in July, changing weekly -
Every Wednesday night at the market will feature an “Eco Market” produced by Nevada EcoNet. Topics include: Bike & Air; Trails & Land; Babies & Education; Beauty, Health, Clothes; Green Buildings; Pets & Wildlife; Cars, Biodiesel & Public Transportation; Art & Burning Man; Garden & Landscaping; Office; Energy & Sustainability; Waste & Recycling; Eco-Tourism; Truckee River & Water.
Friday nights will feature an “Artist Night” with the Holland Project providing programming with the following titles: “Ode to Crafternoon: Not Yer Granny’s Craft Fair; Bazaar Bazaar; Word Up & Vertigo Pre-Party!; Old School Block Party; The Anatomy of Body; Bohemian Circus; All Things Bike!; Recycled Works; Spontaneous Solutions; Spoken Views.
Saturday mornings will feature a Farmer’s & Chef’s Market in cooperation with the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market on California Street.
West Street Urban Market Tenants!
- Brickhouse bakery - Chris Tisdale will be running it, bakery in his hometown is dream come true.
La Marenda Italian Restaurant and Shop -
Wine bar - Run by Rick Martinez, has traveled the world looking for great wines, and is happy to find a place downtown to share his passion.
Great Basin Community Coop - Will handle fresh produce. Started as buying club with few volunteers in 2006. Then operated storefront in 2006. Provide local organic and whole foods to well over 900 people. Fresh local
Mikanos Greek Restaurant - was born and raised in Greece, has run a restaurant the last 9 years. Simple authentic greek food.
Se7en Teahouse and bar – Great energy with teas and stuff.
Downtown Marketplace - Pioneers in downtown. Will handle groceries and deli downtown.
Great Basin Community Basket - Really interesting. Community Supported Agriculture. Subscription service to buy a basket a week from particular farmer with premium produce.
Sundance books and music - Second store downtown.
Jada’s Jewelrry - handmade jewelry store downtown. Natural stone, sterling silver.
Silver Trends jewelry
Additional vendor booths will be available for rent by day or week. There will be outdoor stage, as well.
3 outdoor Markets will start in July, changing weekly -
Ecomarket - Includes Bike and trail market, trail and land market, Green Building market, Burning Man market, Eco-Tourism, Truckee River and Water Market.
Artisans Market - weekly markets will include Ode to Craftsman, a Morocco Style ‘Bazaar Bazaar’, A Word up and Vertigo pre party, Old School Block Party, Anatomy of Body, All Thing Bikes, Recycling Works, Spontaneous Solutions market, Spoken Views which will include urban poetry etc.
Farmer’s Chef Market - pretty traditional,
Jennifer Bushman - Market Consultant – will be charge of ‘programming.’
More to come once the meeting is over!
Downtown Walk River Festival Pics
I spent most of the day downtown on Saturday, and from the looks of it, the river festival was again a huge success. Also included in this gallery are update pics for Townhouses at Holcomb Place and the State Street Project. Click here to view the pics.
Some West Street Market Tenants leaked
A food angel whispered into food extraordinaire Jonathan Wright’s ear that a Nick’s Greek Deli is among the tenants scheduled for West Street Market downtown. The other new item not mentioned previously is Se7en Teahouse being part of the lineup. That’s surprising given they have a location less than a block away. That should play out interestingly. I would have expected Reno restaurants that don’t already have a downtown presence would be the ones interested in setting up shop at West Street Market. We’ll see when the big lineup is announced May 14! Let’s not forget that people overwhelmingly voted for ethnic-specific grocery stalls in my poll.
CAC Meeting Update
Lots of goodies packed into this meeting, including updates on 10 North Virginia, the urban market, the Truckee River Bridge Envisioning Project, Baseball Stadium, Entertainment District, and more.
Downtown Walk
Vertical construction begins on Townhomes at Holcomb Place, downtown shots, Montage construction.
Nevada Discovery Museum Construction Tour
This is one of the most exciting projects downtown that isn’t residential or retail-based. It’s an excellent example of re-use of an existing building and central to the revitalization of south downtown. So here’s a tour! If you are unfamiliar with the Nevada Discovery Museum, it’s a children’s museum being constructed in the former Reno City Hall building located at the corner Center Street and Stewart Street downtown, directly across from the Federal Courthouse. It’s hard to tell anything has been done to the building looking from the outside in, but nothing is further from the truth. Click here to take a tour of the demo work completed thus far.
Wingfield Towers?
I’ve received some odd emails regarding Wingfield Towers lately. One was from a person who ‘would be happy to finance the project’, another was from a person nearly scolding me for labeling the project as ’scrapped’ on this site, and then from the people directly involved with the project itself, telling me that the project is still alive. Hmmmm, could it be one of the most talked about, anticipated project that emerged from the slew of proposed projects in 2004-2005 might see the light of day after all?
Juicy Juice Rumors and Speculation
So let’s talk rumors and speculation! Remember, these are RUMORS so treat them as such.
1. One of my tipsters had a conversation with someone involved with the Masons, and he talked about pending sales of the Masonic buildings. They plan to sell both buildings - the 1960’s era annex housing Bruka as well as the older building to the west of it - and are very close to a sale, but apparently want a sizeable closing delay - til mid 2009 - in order to give them time to make relocation arrangements.
2. Could Legends at Sparks Marina be getting some competition across the pond? They don’t affect downtown, but consider these two transactions…On March 18, the Mayor’s Cashell Enterprises sold its Alamo Truck Stop / Casino to the entity that owns the TravelCenters of America string of truck stops. The 42 Acre facility sold for $42.5 million. It is located on Gregg St in Sparks, south of I-80 between the Sparks and Vista offramps. On March 31, Peppermill Casinos took full ownership of a couple of old motel structures that are part of the its Western Village Casino - located next to the Sparks Marina on the McCarran offramp from I-80. The transaction was for $10.5 million to buy out a partnership (of which Peppermill was a part) that formerly owned the motel structures. The motel structures and casino occupy about 9 acres. The rest of the commercial acreage on that quadrant of the offramp is occupied by a TravelCenters of America truck stop that occupies almost 16 acres. I’ve heard various rumbles over the past year that Peppermill wanted to renovate and expand its Western Village Casino, which makes a lot of sense given what RED Development is doing with the Legends project on the east side of the Marina. If they wanted to make changes, they would certainly want to get everything under the Peppermill ownership and get rid of the old partnership ownership of the motels - so that transaction makes a lot of sense. But, why did TravelCenters buy out Cashell, when they already have a truck stop on the other side of the freeway about a mile west of where Alamo is located? Could Peppermill be in the process of buying their truck stop next to the Marina - perhaps to gain additional real estate for a casino expansion? And, might TravelCenters be preparing to expand their operation by “trading up” to the much larger 42 acre Cashell operation - which has vacant and unused parts? Looks like a lot of changes ”might” happen along that stretch of I-80 over the next few years 
3. Property Acquisition - The group that purchased the Woolworths building downtown a while back is snatching up multiple properties in a very strange location of downtown. I don’t want to say where exactly, because they still have a few properties left to acquire and I don’t want to jinx them. On March 4, the Atherton-based group that have been buying properties in this area bought one more property; an old house - price $230K. In Oct 2007 the Atherton group made three separate purchases and then backed off. This time, with the ballpark and other stuff commencing, they may be preparing to buy the rest of the privately held properties.
4. To the readers that have been emailing me about RGJ’s recent story on downtown, YES I am well aware of the activity going on there, I’ve been covering it for the past year. However at the request of one of the parties involved, I am not casting any extra attention on the project yet as land acquisition is not complete yet, and the developers don’t even know what they are going to build there yet. Can you say ‘premature story’? To me, it’s important a project of this magnitude has every opportunity to happen, and far outweighs the satisfaction of getting ‘the scoop.’
New Palladio Restaurant?
This one slipped by me as I am not super into food and check Mr. Wright’s blog on a weekly instead of daily basis, but it looks like Starbucks on the bottom floor on the Palladio may finally have a neighbor. Canadian based Firkin & Fox might be moving in. They already have a restaurant in Carson. This has not been confirmed by the Palladio yet, and thus far at least as of last week, ‘Available’ signs were still on all the retail spaces at the Palladio.
New Palladio Restaurant?
This one slipped by me as I am not super into food and check Mr. Wright’s blog on a weekly instead of daily basis, but it looks like Starbucks on the bottom floor on the Palladio may finally have a neighbor. Canadian based Firkin & Fox might be moving in. They already have a restaurant in Carson. This has not been confirmed by the Palladio yet, and thus far at least as of last week, ‘Available’ signs were still on all the retail spaces at the Palladio.
Wells Avenue Walk
Usually I take my dogs for a walk downtown, however this time I cruised around my own neighborhood, the Wells Avenue area. It’s a beautiful neighborhood, and you will be hard pressed in Reno to find a higher concentration of old 1920’s and 1930’s homes in such a concentrated area. Click here to view the pics!
New Bars opening tonight downtown
Two new clubs/lounges open downtown tonight. The first is the Red Martini, dubbed as a ’super lounge’, located on the 200 block of West Commercial Row across the street from the Montage project on Sierra St., and the second is a dance club (I think) called Club Carnival, located where Vino’s Italian Restaurant and Lounge used to be at 240 N Sierra Street just north of 210 North.
New Post Office Plaza Concepts and Pick a Name!
City officials, CH2MHILL, and the reno-ites via a few public meetings have narrowed the new post office plaza design to two main concepts. The thought process on this project has come a long way, when comparing the first concepts with these. It’s gone from a basic West Street-type plaza river access to 2 final concepts which involve some really cool design elements and landscaping. Many of the new features incorporated were a direct result of public input. I described these in great detail in my CAC Meeting Update. Here are brief descriptions of the two again:
Design 1: Geometric Classic Option - inspired by geometric patterns of the building.
Design 2: River Terrace Option: The distinction of this one than previous one is center portion of the design is more curvilinear, providing more flowing forms to the river.
So, check out the two concepts and tell me which you like better. I prefer the Classic Geometric option as it seems to break up the terraces more. CH2MHill prefers the River Terrace design. Folks in the 4/1 CAC Meeting where it was presented tended to lean toward the Geometric Concept.
ALSO, the post office plaza has yet to be named, so check out my new poll and pick what you like the best
