Corporate Pointe owner files for Ch. 11 protection

The owner of the vacant lot known as

Corporate Pointe on the corner of

McCarran Blvd. and South Virginia in

Reno last week filed for bankruptcy.

McCarran Properties LLC owns

Corporate Pointe, which currently consists

of an 80,000-square-foot building

that houses Anthem, AT&T and New

York Life, among others, and seven acres

of undeveloped land.

McCarran Properties, in turn, is solely

owned by James Lagerquist, a Seattlebased

developer.

Commercial real estate broker Grubb

& Ellis/Nevada Commercial Group manages

the property. According to John

Pinjuv, president of the firm, Corporate

Pointe's owner is negotiating with another

local developer of retail and office space

to purchase the property. The pair has

reached terms of the agreement, said

Pinjuv, but the deal has not been finalized.

"Bankruptcy is a vehicle for reorganization,"

said Pinjuv. "They're currently

negotiating to sell and to refinance the

existing building."

The new developer, if it does take over

Corporate Pointe, plans to put in office

buildings with restaurants fronting the

property on McCarran and South

Virginia.

McCarran Properties ran into problems

almost as soon as it bought the property

in 1999. The company purchased it

from Blue Cross of Colorado, which had

owned the property since 1988 and had

developed the existing building.

McCarran drew up plans to add two,

four-story office buildings on the lot and

began excavating the property in November

2000. That work stopped during the first

quarter of 2001.

"They stopped paying us," said Pat

Kelly, operations manager of Granite

Construction in Sparks, the company that

did the excavation work. So Granite

stopped work on the site.

Granite has since sued McCarran

Properties for approximately $300,000

that it still owes the construction company

for work done.

"We'll see what happens next," said Kelly.

Granite isn't the only one waiting to see

what's next. The company's bankruptcy filing

listed almost two dozen creditors, including

the Internal Revenue Service, Blue

Mountain Steel, U.S. Bank National

Association and Sasco Electric.

The filing also said both McCarran's

assets and debts equaled between $10

million and $50 million.