Development to blend residential, commercial

How confident are John Masquelier

and Kelly Pratt about their Redfield

Suites, a south-Reno complex that will

combine apartments, retail space and

offices?

Confident enough that they're undertaking

the project without much numbercrunching

market analysis.

Instead, they're relying on centuries of

European history in which many shop

owners traditionally have lived upstairs

from their ground-floor businesses as

well as the apparent hunger of Reno entrepreneurs

for affordable space for tiny businesses.

Construction will be under way before

the end of the year on the first two units at

Redfield Suites. The project is on Redfield

Parkway, just west of the Reno-Sparks

Convention Center.

When it's finished, the project will

include at least seven and perhaps eight

two-story buildings.

Each building will include space for

500-square-foot offices or stores on the

ground floor along with a 500-square-foot

garage. The upper floors will be developed

into 1,000-square-foot apartments.

Each of the buildings will have space

for four live-work units.

(The decision whether the project will

include seven or eight buildings depends

on the mix of office and retail uses desired

by tenants, Pratt said last week. More retail

use demands that more space be devoted

to parking.)

Pratt said she and Masquelier expect

that demand for the units will come from

entrepreneurs who don't want to open

their homes for businesses yet desire to live

close to their work.

They hope, too, that the project's location

within easy walking distance of the

busy commercial district around South

Virginia Street and McCarran Boulevard

will draw residential tenants who want

something of the feel of big-city living.

Pratt said the developers known corporately

as Redfield Suites also expect

that lease rates around $1 a square foot

will prove attractive to small firms who

have struggled to find affordable space in

retail developments.

While Masquelier and Pratt are pitching

the project as a place where tenants

can work close to their home, Redfield

Suites will be built as shells that can be

finished to meet tenant specifications. It's

not impossible, for instance, that one of

the units could be finished as an 8,000-

square-foot office building leased by a single

tenant.

The neighborhood commercial zoning

on the 2.5-acre parcel requires that the

street level be developed as commercial or

office space; the developer has greater flexibility

on the second floor.

Pratt said the first two units will be

ready for leasing and tenant finish by late

February or early March. The development

firm plans to build in phases of two units

each.

The site work will involve removal of

parking lots finished when the property

once was proposed for retail development.