Is Anything Happening with the Cal Neva at Lake Tahoe?

Is anything happening with the Cal Neva at Lake Tahoe? It seems like after a lot of big announcements, a lot of nothing has been going on for a long time.

We get this question a couple of times a year. The Cal Neva is of interest to plenty of people, including ourselves, so we're happy to answer it when some activity has been reported.

To review, the Cal Neva Lodge is a historic property on the north shore of Lake Tahoe that straddles the Nevada-California state line at Crystal Bay. It was purchased by Larry Ellison, executive chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle Corp., who owns a nearby property and acquired the Cal Neva through bankruptcy proceedings in 2016 for $36 million. Ellison announced big plans, as the question indicates, including in 2019 a partnership with Japanese hotel-restaurant chain Nobu to rebrand and revitalize the aging property. None of that came to pass and he sold Cal-Neva to McWhinney, a Denver-based real-estate and development company, in 2023 for a reported $51 million, a $15 million or so profit for Ellison. The rich get richer.

McWhinney initially announced its intention to build "a luxury hotel" on the site, then maintained radio silence until last week. That was when the company held an open house to display their plans to do a complete makeover of Cal-Neva and garner community feedback.

The redevelopment will start with up to $6 million invested in "structural repairs." Following those, McWhinney will undertake a "top-to-bottom" overhaul, from the penthouse suites to the Celebrity Room.

The company, apparently, is especially sensitive to the "community's emotional connection" to the property, which at least partially explains "80 one-on-one meetings, 20 tours of the property, and four open-house sessions with more than 170 attendees," according to a recent story on SFGate, the main San Francisco online-news source.

As a result of all the community outreach, McWhinney is pledging to preserve the history of Cal Neva, allow public access to the grounds, and bring hotel rooms back to north Lake Tahoe. There are also plans for new restaurants, renovating and reopening the theater, and adding 216 hotel rooms to the local inventory as a Proper Hotel.

The timeline, at least according to McWhinney, is a grand opening to celebrate the Cal-Neva's 100-year anniversary in 2026.

We hope to see it. We really do. It would be a great day for Crystal Bay, north Lake Tahoe, and Nevada history. But we're not holding our breath. So many owners, bankruptcies, buyers, and developers have come and gone over the years, including several since the joint closed in 2010, that wait-and-see is as good as we'll go.

That said, McWhinney has a strong track record, as far as we can tell, having completed numerous large-scale development projects since it was founded in 1991 by fifth-generation Coloradans availing themselves of a family fortune. SFGate reports, "These families have been investing for generations. McWhinney’s capital is family money that’s invested for long-range horizons. Having that stability has allowed [the company] to be successful."

So we're optimistic, as always, but will believe it when we see it.

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Comments

Kevin Lewis Jun-05-2024

Kind of puzzling...

It's in an absolutely beautiful location--North Tahoe is even prettier, and far less frenetic, than South Tahoe/Stateline. There's not much casino competition--only a couple of dust joints right on the Cal border (not the "Stateline" referred to above) and the Hyatt Regency nearby, which pretty much operates 90% as a swank hotel and 10% as a casino (if that).

People's memories include when it was operational, it was a celebrity hangout, and I think Sinatra owned a piece of it at one time...? Anyway, long-time North Tahoe residents remember both the excitement and the glamor, and since the chances of that property ever being bought, razed to the ground, and used for something else entirely are kind of remote, they'd like it to be resurrected as it was. Besides, North Tahoe is kind of short on lodging options.

Another consideration in that resurrection is the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, or TRPA, which has big pointy teeth and won't let you cut down a tree without permission.

jay Jun-05-2024

Criswell-Radovan

Criswell-Radovan had bought the property in 2012/2013 and had plans to open in in 2014. Given the history I had reached out to the developers Criswell-Radovan to inquire about the opening. One of the senior partners surprisingly and most generously offered to send me an invitation to their "invite only" event for their planned grand opening for December of that year. They went bankrupt and sold off to Larry Elliston who owns Oracle. I work in the IT world and Oracle is a nasty corporation that is happy to exploit their customers and eat their young. I am glad to see that it changed hands. No doubt that Larry made a profit as he bought it at a steep discount with more than 80% of the work done. 

I stayed at the Hyatt and while the property is top notch I agree with Kevin that the casino was nothing to write home about. The area is short on restaurants (and almost everything else) so you are pretty much held hostage to the Hyatt dining room.

Jimmy Cat Jun-05-2024

Don't forget the underground love tunnel

It was long rumored that Frank Sinatra had built a secret passage way to a love shack at the Cal-Neva where he and Marilyn could do the nasty and no one would be the wiser.  Question for the QOD experts:  truth or fiction?

Llew Jun-12-2024

Mural

When I visited the CalNeva several years ago, one of the things that impressed me most was the amazing mural in the “Cal” section (which was in California, so no gambling was allowed there). It basically laid out the history of the area, beginning with the Native tribes. I *really* hope that the mural will be preserved, either on the property or elsewhere.
BTW, Kevin, one thing I learned from the mural is that the area was practically denuded of trees by the logging industry. It took *decades* to restore it. That’s why you need a permit to cut down any tree, even in your own backyard.

Question of the Day - 05 June 2024

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