Restore and reposition

If the costs of Truckee Meadows land, construction materials and labor are through the roof and they are the owners of a midsized office building in Reno think redevelopment projects are the way to go.

The owners of The Atrium, a 23,000- square-foot office building at 255 W.Moana Lane, are finishing an $800,000 renovation of the building.

Now that they've spent the money, the test is coming for the owners entities controlled by Todd and Corrine Blonsley and Richard Guelich.

They need to get the multitenant property leased up at higher rental rates than they were collecting before they undertook the work.

Atrium Partners LLC purchased the building in early 2004 and immediately began planning a major renovation.

The fa ade of the building constructed in 1978 was dominated by a mansard roof, creating the impression that the two-story building was in fact only a single story high.

Because of the mansard roof, corner suites didn't have windows.

And Todd Blonsley said previous owners had invested only modestly in the building in the 15 years since they'd put a roof over what had once been an open-air interior courtyard.

In the first phase of the redevelopment, crews from Shaver Construction of Sparks updated the building's exterior, removing the mansard roof and stone finish.

That work was designed by Bartlett Architecture of Reno.

The second phase, which is nearing completion, involves extensive renovation of the building's interior, particularly the second floor that had been broken up over the years into spaces that didn't necessarily create efficient office work areas.

The interior work designed by Dolven Architectural Associates of Reno is being built by K7 Construction of Reno.

Most of the tenants in the building's second floor moved out before the renovation began, and Blonsley now is leasing spaces as small as 174 square feet.

The largest available spaces are about 1,600 square feet.

The building currently is about half leased.

Full-service rents in the renovated space range from about $1.65 a square foot for a tenant signing a four-year lease to $2.05 for first-floor space on a one-year lease.

Those rates position the building outside the range of newly constructed top-tier space, where rates start at $2.25 and go up from there.

Blonsley said the building's owners believe the building now is positioned to attract smaller office users who want attractive space but don't want to pay the rents of high-profile new construction.

The leasing effort, he said, emphasizes the building's location on high-traffic Moana Lane as well as its proximity to restaurants and the southwest Reno neighborhoods that are home to many office managers.

Now, Blonsley said, the partners are looking for other tired office properties in Reno and Sparks that can be revitalized and repositioned.