Question of the Day - 12 January 2023

So far, there's not much definitive to say about it. Also, it's hard to predict what will happen in Reno's sluggish new-casino market. However, we'll give it a shot.

Behind the plan for the proposed 201-room 48-suite hotel-casino, plus the usual restaurants, food court, and bars, and a beer garden, is Southern California-based Elevation Entertainment. Elevation describes itself as "a close-knit team of real estate entrepreneurs that takes well-located gaming establishments with strong customer bases and turns them into vibrant, exciting, and elaborate entertainment destinations." The company owns and operates Stones Gambling Hall near Sacramento and Seven Mile Casino near San Diego. 

So first off, it has some experience in the casino business. Second, it seems to have its head on its shoulders about this particular site, which has, as you mention in the question, been controversial in the past.

Tentatively dubbed Firecreek Crossing Resort-Casino, the vacant lot on which it would be built is right on one of Reno's busiest intersections (S. Virginia and Kietzke near I-580); it's been owned by Station Casinos for decades. It's only eight acres, however, so it proved too small for Station to develop. Not that the company didn't try; they proposed to build a huge casino, but with no hotel attached, a plan to which the Atlantis, almost directly across S. Virginia Street, and the Peppermill, less than a mile north, vociferously objected and was, ultimately, rejected by county officials.

Firecreek Crossing is a little different. Elevation, by all reports, studied the situation -- market, politics, real estate, etc. -- for two solid years before making Station an offer on the eight acres. The company has also made an offer on an adjacent 12-acre vacant lot, in order to combine the two for a project that, though it will compete head on with Atlantis and Peppermill, will do so on a level playing field (a hotel to go with the casino), something that Station wasn't willing or able to do.  

As far as we know, Elevation hasn't closed on either of the real estate deals, though they do have all the land under contract. In addition, when we say that the Reno new-casino market is "sluggish," that's putting it mildly: Firecreek Crossing would be the first hotel-casino to be built from scratch in Reno since Silver Legacy opened in 1995, nearly 30 years ago. And Legends Bay Casino, next door in Sparks, took 15 full years from inception to completion.

So yes, Firecreek faces some hurdles and it's way too early in the game for any budget (with the attendant financing) or timetable to be announced. But if we had to bet on it happening, we'd call it a pick 'em. Reno has been developing rapidly of late, minus the pandemic pause. Elevation seems to know what it's doing and that particular lot, right in the heart of the city, has been an eyesore for as long as we can remember, and that's a very long time.

But if you held our feet to the fire, we'd go out on a limb (to mix a metaphor) and predict that it will be a long slow fraught process, but in the end, yes, it'll be built.