Almost everything but casinos is happening in the Reno-Sparks neck of the desert. Waterparks, condos, outdoor stores, event and convention centers, a Discovery Museum, even a dinosaur-themed restaurant -- all these are either under construction or about to break ground. A couple of casinos are planned, meanwhile, but it’s anyone’s guess when they might be built, if at all. As Las Vegas continues down the Yellow Chip Road, northern Nevada is looking in every other direction for its economic future.
Two big developments are under way, one in Reno, the other in Sparks.
The Reno Hilton became the Grand Sierra Resort last year and its transformation is on schedule. Plans for the 145-acre property are dramatic. Eight of the top floors have already been converted into 600 hotel-condo units and are being sold for between $250,000 and $1.9 million. The development of a 150,000-square-foot indoor waterpark is expected to begin in the fall; when completed in 2009, it will be the largest waterpark of its kind in the country.
The rest of the Grand Sierra’s grand renovation project consists of a 200-room boutique hotel, two high-rise luxury condo towers, and an outdoor-waterfront development (along the shore of a major manmade lake on the property) complete with a retail concourse and a water show. Nikki Beach, the Miami-based hotel, nightclub, and lifestyle company, also has plans for a beach club and nightclubs on the waterfront; they’re working on a 165-room hotel-within-a-hotel on the top three floors of the existing tower. Two new restaurants have already opened in the main building, and two more are planned so far, both from Charlie Palmer.
Next door in Reno’s sister city Sparks, another major development has just broken ground at the Sparks Marina, a 77-acre quarry-turned-lake (during the extreme flooding in early 1997). The Marina already has swimming, boating, fishing, volleyball, a trail system, and a playground; Legends at Sparks Marina is the 100-acre 1.35-million-square-foot casino-hotel-retail-entertainment development. It will have three anchors. The two-story Scheels outdoor store, at 248,000 square feet, is like two Wal-Marts stacked on top of each other; slated to open in fall 2008, it’ll be the largest such store in the world, complete with two 16,000-gallon aquariums, a 35-foot-tall taxidermy mountain, and a 65-foot 16-car Ferris wheel. T-Rex: A Prehistoric Adventure, is a dinosaur-themed restaurant from the creator of the Rainforest Café. And Olympia Gaming, which is developing Southern Highlands Casino-Resort, a $1 billion 70-acre mixed-use resort project on the south Las Vegas Strip, is planning a 1,000-room resort-casino, though no timetable has been announced.
Condo projects galore are symbolized by crane after crane in downtown Reno. Two shuttered casinos are being transformed: The old Golden Phoenix on North Sierra Street is turning into the 380-unit Montage, slated for a March 2008 grand opening; and the old Sundowner Casino on Arlington Avenue is turning into the 370-unit Belvedere, with an early 2009 completion date. Palladio is 12-story 92-unit condo going up at First and Sierra right on the river, and a half-dozen more condos are on the drawing board for downtown.
Construction has begun on the Downtown Reno Ballroom, a $25 million 35,000-square-foot convention center to open early next year right next door to the Reno Events Center, a 7,000-seat concert arena that opened a couple of years ago. In addition, a Nevada Discovery Museum should open this time next year in the old Reno City Hall at Center and Liberty streets.
The Truckee River itself, located in the heart of downtown, is now a whitewater park that stretches for a half-mile with 11 drop pools for swimming, river running, and kayaking. Plans are afoot to extend the park another couple of miles downriver.
A second outdoor superstore, Cabela’s, will open this fall at Boomtown, 10 miles west of Reno on I-80 at the California state line.
And Station Casinos is planning a hotel-casino at the intersection of Mt. Rose Highway, across from the Sierra Summit shopping center, which opened in March 2006 with 76 stores. Station hasn’t announced anything but its intention to open a locals casino here, so though all the other projects mentioned above are either under way or close to starting, between the Olympia casino and Mt. Rose Station, we’re not holding our breath for any new gambling establishments to open anytime soon.
