Reno is a hot bed of start-ups and entrepreneurs right now. Unfortunately, most are uncreditworthy, have limited funding, and business plans that only state that they are going to become the Next BIG Thing. So convincing a landlord to believe in your business and sign the lease rates an ovation. Here are a couple new tenants downtown:
- Cafe Jefe has a bricks and mortal location in the “burbs” on Lakeside, but is probably better known for their bicycle based cold brewed coffee mobile facility. The are reportedly moments away from signing up at the El Cortez for a 24/7 coffee shop with in-house small batch roastery.
- RhinoHub is a growing local digital marketing and branding venture. They are new tenants at Dark Horse Property’s 1139 S Virginia Street project. It is truly great to see a mix of uses entering in to this MU district. We need the business/office component to support the commercial/retail component in MidTown.
- 22 W Taylor Street Salon and Boutique is a new addition at you guessed it, 22 W Taylor Street. This is a conversion from residential to commercial project, very in keeping with the changing Midtown landscape.
- Finbomb Sushi Burrito and Poke Bar is coming to the old Aces Tattoo space at 681 (677) SVA.
- Need to book a room after your bocce binge? RRenaissance Reno Hotel is accepting reservations for 10 April. Rates look about 20% above the Marriott Courtyard by the ball park, which doesn’t have trout painted on the ceiling.
REreno 
Steve Jobs said:
“Reno is a hot bed of start-ups and entrepreneurs right now”
Not to be the resident asshole here, but every city our size-ish with a university close by are doing the exact same thing. Portland, Boise, Sac, SLC, you name it. Our struggle will always be the shoddy state of downtown and the lack of VC and IP infrastructure.
We are not as hot as you might think if you cast a view at our peers.
Sara Lee said:
Not to pile on, but having ventured outside of Reno before I’m pretty floored by the statement that “Reno is a hot bed of start-ups and entrepreneurs right now.”
The bullet points that follow that statement are even more baffling. A coffee roaster, a design studio, a salon, and a fish/burrito shop? Say what?
Sara Lee said:
Congrats on the shoutout in the RGJ: “… according REreno, a fine hard-hitting local real estate blog (in other words, no developer puff pieces).”
Wonder what other local blog about Downtown Reno and Midtown Life the RGJ could have been throwing shade at for their propensity to post puff pieces & press releases.
David Pritchett said:
Well, Steve Jobs, I will now go ahead and risk similar obnoxiousness and ask what this means from your comment: “…the lack of VC and IP infrastructure.” ??
We are all cool in our own way and have other meanings for the initials VC and IP, such as Viet-Cong and Improvement Plan…
Steve Jobs said:
VC= “Venture Capital” – as in frequently where the money comes from in the startup community.
IP = “Intellectual Property” – as in accountants and lawyers experienced in all the business and legal requirements of the startup community.
We have a little of both here, but not on the scale of other “startup hot beds”.
andypandy said:
Reno is definitely not a “startup hot bed”. Real startup hot beds have focused on increasing quality of life rather than being “business friendly”. This is what attracts the talent required to build these companies. They’ve done things like: bike lanes, density, good schools, progressive taxation, illegal gambling/prostitution. Not sure if NV will ever understand this.
Bay Area VC is plentiful if your biz idea has any semblance of traction. The people building these businesses, however, are opting for places with better quality of life.
robertostein said:
Great comments!
Davidson said:
Are you serious AndyPandy? The last thing Nevada should want to do is emulate the clusterfuck that is the California’s business climate. Sure, they have bike lanes, the OCEAN and other cool Shi Tpa Town amenities but a $300,000 salary can barely afford a 2nd/2ba home in a decent school district, and good luck building a nest egg or paying down that $80K in student debt! No thank you. Reno is grimy, libertarian and unique, it doesn’t need to duplicate the progressive utopia that is the sanctuary city haven known as the Bay Area.
Steve Jobs said:
Hey Davidson – he agreed with you before you even posted “clusterfuck”:
“The people building these businesses, however, are opting for places with better quality of life.”
This applies to the bay area as well as Reno. Boise is really coming into its own as an example. Been there lately? Spotless and extremely lively downtown, no homeless pushing shopping carts full of their worldly belongings and scrap metal, and Boise State has even opened an office downtown for their Department of Computer Science just to be close to all the tech action. No asinine articles in the NY Times about a “startup row” either. They under promise and seem to be over delivering.
California’s business climate is so bad it is something like the seventh largest economy on the planet. How could a “clusterfuck” be such a thing?
robertostein said:
Let me understand…
The California business climate is a, ‘”clusterf**k,” yet we have the 7th largest economy in the world?
Where does Reno fit in?
Seems like there’s something in California that Nevada lacks.
Sara Lee said:
Duhhhh, “Reno is grimy, libertarian and unique.” Whatever the eff that’s supposed to mean. All I see around here are a bunch of big interests getting perks up the wazoo.
Davidson said:
All you see, Sara, is defined by your tunnel vision.
Davidson said:
Boise is a nice city. It’s relatively clean, prosperous, although I find it’s overall aesthetic boring. It’s fair to say Renoites are desirous to have a downtown like Boise. It doesn’t have to contend with casinos which brings a seedy element along with it. But this is part of the appeal for many who love it here. Reno was founded by pioneering casino men, miners and other sorts not tolerated by “polite society”. That’s it’s brand! it’s not like other cities and who says copying some blueprint will work for this community? Boise has it’s own challenges. It is geographically isolated and the University is a glorified community college who’s claim to fame is the football program, not it’s med, engineering or business schools. It’s not all roses up in Idaho.
geopower said:
1) While I’m no fan of casino’s lack out outward facing storefronts and the impact on downtown street life, they aren’t the ones sitting on blocks of vacant and decrepit property waiting for a real developer to hand them a big profit. It’s pretty clear to me which is a greater blight on downtown.
2) Bloomberg just reported on what innovative VC money is doing here in Reno. The question is whether it’s a good thing: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-01/i-m-renting-a-dog
Reno Investor said:
“Also this cat is ruining my credit score.” I’m going to steal that line. Also, who puts their shoes/boots on a desk?
Steve Jobs said:
The Bloomberg article is about local lending firm Bristlecone, who just moved into the big space in the same building where Morgan’s Lobster Shack is in Midtown. Besides leasing pets, they also do wedding dresses, furniture, car repairs, and hearing aids – all structured as leases so they do not run afoul of any state’s usuary laws. They say they are part of the “Fintech” revolution, but it seems to me they are just a retail version of a payday lender who preys on poor people. The terms on their “leases” are often beyond egregious. The youngish CEO portrays himself as a forward thinking libertarian – he does op-eds in the RGJ once in a while. I don’t know how the employees of that company sleep at night.
REreno said:
Maybe they go to Morgan’s for Happy Hour first?
So I’ve obviously worked with BC and know these guys. If their financial model holds water, it should be most applicable to the prime market and not just puppy leasing. Why “lease” pets when you could be leasing mortgages?
HT said:
Sounds like “sub-prime”/ predatory lending to me…Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock in the last decade, we all know all too well how that worked out for the residential mortgage industry.
Davidson said:
Bloomberg:
“It was Monday morning at the company’s offices, across the Truckee River from Reno’s seedy downtown”
I wonder if the authors would describe downtown New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago or any other variety of big-cities as seedy? All those cities are downright scary at night and have murder rates that would make Or does little old Reno get the treatment because it’s easy to bully a city Hollywierdos have given the rest of the country permission to denigrate unfairly??
geopower said:
Yes they would probably describe Detroit as seedy. No to Chicago, because downtown isn’t. And NOLA would depend on the downtown neighborhood, some areas are nicely kept.
We have whole blocks of poorly maintained rental houses next to parking lots, next to weekly motels, next to strip clubs. If you’re going to get offended every time someone calls downtown Reno seedy, you should watch out for tendonitis in your pearl-clutching hand.
Paul said:
Wags lending a/k/a Bristlecone files for bankruptcy.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-19/subprime-pet-rental-company-files-bankruptcy
Steve Jobs said:
Good catch Paul, and perhaps that sheds on light on why Wunderlich left Bristlecone suddenly at the end of last month. The whole thing is just misery lending buffed up to look like something new and tech-ish. At the end of the day they are just screwing unsophisticated people with no credit.