The tea leaves were right – the Standard@Reno student/housing (they never confirmed their intent) project is dead, and the site is on the market. At $80/SF raw land cost! That’s a cool $9.6M for a 2.75 acre blighted city block. The Tessera properties must be worth DOUBLE that.
The W 2nd Street District has picked up their permit for their initial 28 unit condo project at 235 Ralston, and admitted that they are pursuing 2 avenues of funding when they addresses the RAAB (Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board) yesterday. You don’t pick up a permit unless you are pretty close to funding, but it is generally a requirement by the lender. This one is a little lest costly because the sewer connection fees are being deferred until Certificate of Occupancy. In a blow to the District, 3 more parcels seem out of the developer’s hands. The 7-11 Motel sold, and The Siegel Group is marketing their 2 vacant lots on 2nd Street as Build To Suit (“Great Location for Franchise” – they really don’t get Reno yet, do they?). I have no indication that Reno is warming to selling their parking lot or abandoning Stevenson and Church Streets for this project (maintaining the Urban Grid is a core value), and I’ll believe the purchase of the UNR Nelson property for $7M when it records. In blue, the properties owned. In red, the properties that seem out of play now.
Casket Truck stuck at Sierra Canyon in the last storms. No comment – it would be shooting fish in a barrel.
REreno 
griffen3 said:
Student housing land is yesterday’s casino (land) pricing as they can generate more income per SF than virtually any other use in this market. That said the construction costs brought in by the City of Reno’s Labor Ordinance makes the project and anything else over 3 level economically i feasible
2nd Street District is a cartoon. But that photo of the coffin truck is a perfect image when talking about new significant development in downtown Remo.
David said:
If they truly buy the Nelson building then they have a pretty good start as far as land for the district. It does seem insane that they announced the plans for everything before they had acquired the land.
I also heard they were negotiating with Greyhound on relocating the station. It would make a lot more sense over by the central bus station. Maybe they could even take over the unused Amtrak waiting room?
geopower said:
The Greyhound station has been ready to move for a year, as soon as someone coughs up $4.5M for their acre and a quarter of land with knockdown buildings and unknown remediation issues from decades of fuel tanks. Available is not the same thing as economic. Downtown landowners have preposterous valuations in mind, occasionally validated by idiocy like the published $100+/sf land price of the proposed Nelson building purchase. And that’s why we can’t have nice things. Better to just go develop in places where people aren’t camping on land waiting for offers of CA prices, and quit trying to make downtown happen.