Bits and pieces of downtown news, and some pretty cool “what ifs” I found while researching the River Inn story:
Tessera – The recent demolition of the Shamrock Inn at 5th and Center got gossip flying that the 4 city block Tessera project might be moving again. Nah, the Shamrock was damaged in a fire last summer, though it is part of the Tessera project area. All of the other Tessera parcels are still seriously delinquent on their property taxes.
Siena – Could be nothing, or a sign of changes in the partnership. Reno City Council yesterday approved the transfer of the Siena cabaret license to Davin Colvin, the lead investor in “Grand Siena LLC”. I can’t find what names appeared on the current license.
Mapes Plaza – AKA the downtown skateboard park. Van Woert Bigatti architects has some renderings of the proposed restaurant on the east end of the plaza. Actually, very cool! Won’t ever happen, but cool. And no word about the proposed sale of the Cal Neva Garage to the city for $10,000 – that one got buried quickly.
CommRow – Hang Hotel is now going to be the CommRow Hotel. The slogan “No Smoking. No Gaming. No Whining.” has disappeared, leading me to believe that smoking, gaming and whining are going to be allowed (maybe not smoking). The listings for all of the food venues have disappeared from their web site. A $40,000 renovation permit was pulled, but I saw almost no sign of work when I was in there last weekend other than that Twisted is gone. Let’s hold off totally bagging on the project until the “grand reopening” this weekend.
5th and Keystone – Originally assembled to be a casino project, Van Woert Bigatti did some “envisioning” for a mixed use project on the site. Don’t hold your breath on this one, as the old strip center has been released and the tenants seem to be doing quite well. Check out the VWB web site – they have really done some fine work including my favorite, the Nevada Jobs Corp campus in Stead.
8 on Center – 894 Center Street just sold as an REO for $189,900, full listing price. That’s $10,000 less than the latest resale at the Holcomb Townhouses, and about $105 psf. The unit originally “sold” for $495,000.
Credits – photo stolen from Downtown Dude’s site.
Grand Wazoo said:
With the change in the CommRow hotel name, could the infamous (and usually empty) climbing wall be headed for the scrap heap? Seems crazy I know, but …
Grand Wazoo said:
Now that the CommRow “Grand Re-Opening” is history, from what I can gather via online comments (I did not attend this most festive occasion myself) it appears that CommRow V2.0 is not exactly a hit in the eyes of the locals. Apparently most/all of the food operations have been closed to be replaced by a burger/hot dog stand. I’m not kidding. The floors are now a “cow vomit brown” to quote one astute poster. Some of the Fitzgeralds signage has come down. There are supposedly new hours for the operation, but no one seems to know what they are.
My prediction is that CommRow gains national prominence as the biggest collective dive bar in the nation. “Come – Drink – Barf – Stay”.
Once again the fearsome legendary vision of Nando is delivering his own clever brand of magic. What an ace in the hole for downtown Reno to have this kind of action anchoring the famous arch.
Cal said:
It ought to be clear that CommRow is a bar. The place does not even open until 4pm. Weekdays it closes at midnight and weekends it stays open until 3am. They are going to bring in some bands every once in a while, which means every once in a while it will be a bar with live music.
The bar grub is burgers.
Really, people, this is not intellectually challenging. The place is a bar. Got it? A bar.
If it wasn’t for the fact that the place is associated with the guy who went tits up on the Montage, it wouldn’t be deserving of any press at all beyond the standard two column inches in the RGJ. Pretty much all of downtown Reno’s “development” over the past 3-4 years has been bars and restaurants. It’s just one more place for the downtown bar crowd to put on the crawl.
Grand Wazoo said:
I agree with you Cal. My question is this: how big is the downtown bar business really? It appears that dive bars and tattoo joints are the only growth business in downtown Reno, and I’m being serious. Exhibit #1 is the new bar in the old Port of Subs / La Bussola space across 1st Street from Jungle Java / Jungle Vino. The name of this visionary establishment? “Bar”. I’m not making this up.
How big can this market really be? How much of it can CommRow grab, even if they did it 100% top notch and first class?
Sully said:
Mike, regarding Siena – Colvin formed a gaming trust that replaced him as the manager of the Grand Siena. It appears to be just a government paperwork snafu that required him to be named on the cabaret license. This would be typical for a government form – you change one word and the whole deal falls apart.
Carney said:
Go downtown some Friday night. All those bars are full of (mostly) 20 somethings getting drunk. They wander from joint to joint checking out the scene. Not much new here under the sun, as 20 somethings have been doing that for centuries I suppose. It really does not take much of a capital investment to open a bar. Then you put all your vendors on long pay until they threaten to cut you off. You can make a few bucks at least for a while when you are the new place. The crowd always loves the new place. They will never forget you until somebody else comes along. Then go bankrupt. Stiff all your creditors, and open up as a new joint 9 months later. These places come and go, and again not much is new under the sun. It is all pretty laughable though when this wash-rinse-repeat cycle is heralded as evidence of downtown’s resurgence.
Eustace Tilley said:
Found this article about CommRow, apparently written before the remodel:
http://sustainableplay.com/?p=320
Drinker565 said:
Commrow is going downhill fast. The general manager roams around the property drunk every weekend and this week he was caught smoking a joint drunk right on his own property by his security team, one of which he got physical with. Can you say lawsuit? Just about everyone who works there is aware of it. You aren’t fooling anyone, chief! We have your number now. That might be acceptable behavior if this was some dive bar in Fernley. Oh wait….
They expect me to take my kids to CommRow? It’s a ghetto laden with gangsters, not drunk college 20′ somethings.