Reno: Redevelopment Agency Board Meeting, 5/14/08 2:00 PM Reno City Hall

From the staff report attachment to the 5/14/2008 Reno Redevelopment Meeting:

Summary: At the April 23, 2008 Joint meeting, staff was directed to negotiate agreements with Northern Nevada Urban Development Co., LLC, Urban Development & Management, Inc. and other parties as necessary to develop a mixed-use project anchored by retail for the area between the Reno Events Center/Ballroom, the University of Nevada, North Virginia Street and Evans Avenue. Staff was also directed to work with the developer on possible uses and/or demolition of the old Dairy Queen, located at 606 North Virginia Street and report back on the progress at the next meeting.

This is a big project, seeming to come out of nowhere, but not to those who have had their ears to the ground.  This area of town has long been looked at.  Almost 10 years ago The Cordish Company looked at developing a megaproject similar to what they had done in Baltimore's Inner Harbor area.  Murmurs have been going around for a year that an entity was acquiring parcels in the area mentioned above.  It just probably never occurred to anyone that they could be looking to transform such a large area of town.

There is some interesting potential in this area.  This blog would recommend reclaiming I-80 air rights between Virginia and Evans and also for the block west of Virginia.  The entire area between downtown and the university is in need of new life.  The University Master Plan which was completed in 2004 under the previous administration, calls for the development of a gateway lawn at the south end of the university - this seems like a drastic move which would do more harm than good in this area. 

What is truly missing from UNR is an identifiable college business & residential district.  A good college town features such a thing:  it is a developed, well traveled area with coffee shops, bookstores, restaurants, and other types of specialty retail, usually plenty of residential development as well, that serves as an anchor point for the university's connection to the city in which it is located.

The area between the northern edge of downtown and the southern edge of UNR could well make a good location for a new college business district.  We'll be following this issue and reporting as it develops.

Comments

[MIke Van H]

hi Ken!

I have been tracking these guys a looooooong time. In fact so long that they actually called me when this first appeared on the agenda, asking me to not draw too much public attention to it at this time because they have not finished getting all of the land they need yet.
They have invested over $26,000,000 in property acquisition in the past 3 years or so in this small area of Northeast downtown. http://www.downtownmakeover.com/North-east-downtown.asp here's a little map, although a little outdated. The swath of property is HUGE, extending all the way over to Evans and over to Virginia, between 5 and 7th streets.
So at the last council meeting, the Council said in not quite these exact words 'Prove to us you are serious by demolishing Dairy Queen' (which is one of the acquired parcels.) So, the entity envolved is putting out bids to demo Dairy Queen. This is a good first step in proving to the Council they are serious, because you have to admit, a lot of flaky developers have appeared before the Council in the past 3 or 4 years.
So we'll see what happens yeah? I agree, this part of downtown sorely needs help.

[Ken]

Hey Mike, thanks for providing that little nugget of information. I watched the meeting today (streaming worked this time, hooray!) and wondered what the heck happened at the end there... it all went by so fast! Was the item pulled or did they approve the motion without so much as a peep as to what they were voting on? If the latter, it's kind of disappointing. Glad the Dairy Queen is going to come down though, that thing looks like hell.

[Mike Van H]

well everything else on the agenda was postponed until the next meeting. At least I think so.

They changed their streaming...it's in a much smaller bandwidth-managable format now....before they attempted a huge stream, something like 768kbps, now they have a 256 kbps stream, much more realistic for a larger audience. I like it much better!

[Ken]

Glad the live stream works a lot better now. That's encouraging.

Now if they'll only figure out how to get a workable, searchable, browsable archive or start working with SNCAT again...

[Tres]

NOOOO! That DQ is a landmark! SRSLY! Just like the Ballard IHOP up here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004193091_dennys21m.html

Hehe, J/K. Good freakin riddance.

[Ken]

That Ballard "landmark" was a Denny's actually. A clever developer could have built a project around it, but these days profit trumps clever any day of the week.

Luckily when it finally comes down, it's not going to be much of a loss. It's not even googie like the preservation board thought.

[Tres]

Oh that's right, it was a Denny's. Anyway, I think the Ballardites are really just sick of new developments in the area and this was a stick-in-the-eye to 'the man'. Damn thing is an eyesore though.

[John Reed]

Thanks! Really amazing. I wish i could spend my time on writing articles...just have no time for it.