The River Inn west of Reno on W 4th Street is one of our great enigmas. How can this hulking remains of a hot springs resort still be sitting there vacant after more than 25 years, one of our great industrial archeology sites? I’ve had posts started about the River Inn for a couple of years, but there just wasn’t a whole lot of information available. Then an inquiry from renowriter came in with some new information that got me digging again.
The River Inn is built on the site of a natural hot spring, spewing 140 degree water into the Truckee from a granite bluff. Originally called Granite Hot Springs then later Lawton Hot Springs, there has been at least a roadhouse on the site since 1870. There is a generally accurate more detailed history HERE.
By 1925, Lawton Hot Springs was a small spa and resort attracting the Reno Elite.
From the late 1920s until the opening of Interstate 80 in the early 1970s, Lawton Hot Springs was the western gateway to Reno along US 40, the cross-country Lincoln Highway. The resort continued to grow. It was a really peaceful place to wait for your divorce to come through!
By the 1970s, the resort had been renamed the River Inn and a motel and cabins had been added to the indoor and outdoor pools and baths. The property was purchased for $2.3M in 1979 by the family that controls Westlake Development Group in San Mateo (think Westlake Shopping Center and the entire Westlake district of Daly City). Then the River Inn as you see it today began to take shape.
Now we enter a period of gossip, hear-say, and urban legends. This is what I have been told or have read, but I can’t vouch 100% for its accuracy. The owners of the River Inn entered into a development agreement with some local movers and shakers to create a “world class” casino resort spa. The development group may (or may not) have been connected with Joe Conforte of Mustang Ranch fame. The casino / spa building that dominates the site today was completed in 1983 and work began on an expansion. One small problem – someone ran off with the money, nobody paid the contractors bankrupting many of them, and the whole scheme imploded. Supposedly, one of the developers ended up doing hard time for his involvement. By the time the legal mess was sorted out, 4th street was well into its decline, and the land owners just never found a feasible plan to reopen the facility.
Today, the fenced off property is used for SWAT training by Reno police, quite a sight the first time you experience it. There is a very cool portfolio of photographs from 2006 posted on Flickr.
But development attempts continue. Van Woert Bigotti Architechts, Reno’s best architects in my opinion, did a feasibility study in 2006 or so. The idea was to renovate the current casino structure, complete the expansion building, demo all the motel units, and build a 300 unit resort spa village spanning the river. There are some comments on this annotated site plan.
On the negative side, much of the project including the main building is in FEMA Flood Zone A.
The main entrance to the River Inn is over a grade crossing over the Southern Pacific Rail Road, and they are loath to allow greater access. This will require a “fly-over” the tracks from 4th Street higher up the hill to a parking structure. The trains will still sound their horns 4 times at the grade crossing and one 1/3 mile to the west of the project.
On the positive side, the Lawton Verdi sewer extension is complete, and the River Inn can connect to the city sewer system instead of septic. Reno has adopted the West 4th Street Transit Oriented Development Plan, mandating a greater level of development on the site (see the Western Gateway Post). Reno is counting on the River Inn becoming a major hub to allow the plan to be successful.
25 year old rebar
Target Practice.
Suspended animation. Compare this shot to the Flickr photos from 6 years ago. The cone hasn’t moved an inch, but it has faded a bit.
Can this foundation be saved? Not likely.
In the end? I can see the site being deed to the City / County as open space. Maybe a small roadhouse and hot springs spa would remain, sort of 1870 all over again. And that wouldn’t be at all bad.
Steve Herschbach said:
Great post. Love the history. Thanks
Reno Ignoramus said:
It has been almost 50 years since any financially successful business has been operated at that location. Back in the days of Lawtons, (the 50s and 60s) it was a small local swimming pool with water from the hot springs that had a steady clientele. (There was a similar pool out at the corner of the Mt. Rose Highway and Va. St. at the same time.) From the middle 60s to the end of the 70s it was at various times, a small casino, a coffee shop, a motel, an RV park, and a mineral spa. It did not thrive as any of those endeavors, but it did modestly endure. As you note, the beginning of the end started in the 80s, and you are correct that one of the “developers” did go to prison after a conviction for bank fraud (it was BoA) in obtaining the financing for the “improvements.”
It has actually been closer to 30 years that the place has been a “great enigma”. Right up there with the Kings Inn in tems of enigmahood.
Phil said:
The name of the man who went to prison was George Benny, who was the developer who set out to renovate the property. If I recall correctly, Mr. Benny was convicted of bank fraud, but it was not for the River Inn property, it was for a project at Double Diamond that never got unfolded. I think the bank was Wells Fargo, but I could be wrong about that. Mr. Benny did go bankrupt with the River Inn, the project was never completed, and has been decaying on 4th street for about 30 years.
Ralston said:
I can remember as a kid going to eat at the River Inn one day with my parents in the mid 70s. It had a coffee shop with an outdoor area right on the river. I remember all the bugs and insects from the river flying around. They obviously had no insect abatement program. My mother wasn’t too happy having to fight off the buzzing insects while she ate, but I thought it was pretty cool. We never went back.
renowriter said:
Phil- George Benny’s name sure opened google up. Thanks.
Pecans said:
Maybe Fernando Leal could buy the place and build $400 a sq. ft. condos. Maybe put in a climbing wall and a zip line across the river. The place need somebody with the midas touch.
BanteringBear said:
Is there anyone stupid enough to loan Leal another dime?
Craig A Marlar said:
Phil, you are correct about George Benny (aka George I Benikowski). Benny was actually a brilliant guy, but he didn’t play by anybody’s rules but his own. He was forced into bankruptcy by Chicago Title who (mistakenly) thought Benny had defrauded them of over $5.0 million through an escrow scam, which turned out to be completely erroneous. It was true that Benny had scammed hundreds of trust deed investors in San Francisco, but he was on the verge (within 48 hours) of getting a $500 million loan from a Canadian bank, which would have paid everyone in full, plus left plenty of money to develop the River Inn and the Double Diamond, when Chicago Title’s obnoxious bankruptcy attorney (Ed Weiner) forced Benny into BK. It later turned out that Chicago Title’s Vice President, James Fagerhough, was on Benny’s payroll and was instrumental in facilitating the loan fraud, and was ultimately forced to pay ALL of Benny’s creditors in full (companies are responsible for their employees actions), even after it turned out that they really hadn’t lost a dime. Ironic, isn’t it? George served 20 years in Federal prison and just got out a few years ago. As for the River Inn, the Westlake investors (from China) foreclosed on the property after getting released from Benny BK proceedings. FYI, Benny had completed a sewage treatment plant at the RI before everything came crashing down.
Butch de Playa said:
In the 70’s, I worked at Alpine Meadows. Every other Friday we would get paid and dozens of us would head down the hill for the seafood buffet at Boomtown capped off by naked revelry at the River Inn’s Hot Springs. Great times. Today, as an Architect, I see the River Inn as a sad reminder of bad decisions. The re-routing of US Hwy 40 (I-80) has made it obscure and the omnipotence of the Railroad, which will never relocate nor stop there, makes it irrelevant for future development. I have always wondered if could be re-invented as a geothermal plant.
calia386 said:
As Paranormal Investigators, does anyone know of any way to get onto the Property for one night? Does anyone know who to speak with about this Property or the contact info?
REreno said:
Westlake Development Company, Inc.
520 S El Camino
San Mateo, CA 94402
650.579.1010
geopower said:
Butch,
It would be next to impossible to build a commercial geothermal plant on the site. First, the water under the site would need to be much hotter than the spring- a minimum of 270F, preferably over 300F. That’s possible, but not particularly likely. An analysis of water chemistry could give some indication of deeper temperature.
If the deeper water were that deep, the flow rates needed to run even a small 20MW gross plant would be in the neighborhood of 10,000 gallons per minute. Even though the water would need to be injected back in the ground, it’s not likely pumping that hard next to the Truckee River would pass environmental review.
The area needed to provide a heat reservoir that would last for the duration of a commercial Power Purchase Agreement is several square miles. You wouldn’t need to own all of it, but you would need lease agreements and permission to build pipelines around that area- all of which promise to be nearly impossible to obtain from current owners.
We have the good fortune to have one commercial geothermal area in south Reno, but that was permitted and built before the area around it filled in with development. They have a number of costly measures in place to ensure they are not harming their neighbors, but you can bet that those plants couldn’t be built today if there had never been commercial power there before.
The resource and land use constraints at the River Inn are best suited to some sort of direct use- hotspring resort, commercial greenhouse heating, public pool, or the type of direct heating that the Peppermill now uses its geothermal wells for.
Don Bachman said:
George I. Benny continues to be immortalized by the UPRR grade crossing marker
at the entrance
indy said:
If You are Planning an investigation i’m in!!!Contact me at franmelino@gmail.com!!!!
Jim Manning said:
George Benny was convicted of 21 counts of mail fraud and one count of racketeering (RICO). BofA and Wells Fargo were involved but so was Imperial Savings, Cal Fed, Crocker Bank, Security Pacific and most of the others at the time. I ought to know…I was an expert witness in the case and I reviewed hundreds of appraisals performed by them all. The development in question with respect to the fraud was Diamond Heights in San Francisco. He also owner (for a time) the Carolands Mansion (Hillsborough) and the San Francisco Armory. His other developments were in Las Vegas and the one you speak of near Reno.
Ronald King said:
The photo at the top is of the Riverside on Virginia Street, some time before the federal building and post office was built across the street.
Suzanne Kessler said:
Reblogged this on santafemous and commented:
The River Inn on the Truckee River has laid idle for decades. It was a popular hot springs once, serving the Reno community. I hope it makes a resurgence one day…soon!
Kimmie Anne JunkyardJohn Larsen-Crisp said:
I VOTE FOR A PUBLIC POOL! our river parks have already proven our kids need something to do! and how about us baby boomers? We do too!
I J Larivers said:
I remember the large indoor pool and then the smaller rooms – my Dad used to take us there as kids – before River Inn.
Victoria Smith said:
I miss going to the River inn.. When my husband and I were young (early 70’s) and Boomtown was just a whistle stop.. We’d go to boomtown on Friday nights then to River inn.. The private rooms and springs were so fun and romantic for young lovers..
To the ” paranormal” thrill seekers .. We had some weird unexplained experiences there on more than one occasion … It’s been a lifetime ( literally) but we need the River Inn again.. The “hay day” of the 50s with the public pool and dinning and just good ol’ fashioned relaxation and spooky thrills.. Reno isn’t fun anymore.. It’s dirty and fast…I wish someone with real money and can cut thru the politacal bullshit, would make “the River Inn” come back to life … Just dreamin
nostatic8 said:
I agree what seems to be the hold up on development of the river inn
geopower said:
If you read the article above, you’ll see that redevelopment of the site is going to be an expensive permitting nightmare. I’d assume the owners don’t see enough upside to justify that effort.
AMALIA BEECK said:
Does anyone know who owns the site now? I would like to reach out to them.
geopower said:
Hasn’t changed. You can look up ownership yourself at the county assessor website.