Pre-opening details fill days for manager of new center

The office isn't much two folding tables in an L-shape in the back room of a construction trailer.

But the briefcase on top of the tables, the one with the medallion from Northwest Airlines that recognizes business travelers who've flown more than a million miles, is staying put.

And that's what matters to Larry Hunt, who's settling in as manager of The Summit Sierra, the 650,000-square-foot center in south Reno that will be opened by Bayer Properties in mid-March.

After a career on the road as an executive of The Taubman Co., a major shopping center operator,Hunt and his wife a decade ago set their sights on Reno.

The chance to open a new center for the developer based in Birmingham, Ala., iced the deal.

Working from a laptop computer,Hunt spends his days nailing down innumerable details that need to be addressed before the center at Mount Rose Highway and Highway 395 opens.

Even when the center opens,Hunt says, it will run with a small staff of Bayer Properties employees maybe five or so while everything else is contracted out.

"We've been talking with a lot of people,"he says.

People like security contractors.

Operators of cleaning services.

Landscaping firms.

He's talking, too,with tenants who come to the construction site to make sure that their spaces meet their needs.

A Dillard's store and a Century Theatres complex anchor the center with specialty retailers such as Pottery Barn, Jos.

A.

Bank and Williams Sonoma occupying the rest.

"We have tenants identified for most spaces, and we're finishing those negotiations,"Hunt says.

Still to be addressed, he says, are questions about how stores will hire their staffs a challenging issue because continued construction limits access to the center.

One possibility: Job fairs elsewhere in the region.

Other parts of Hunt's day are spent updating the tenant manual the document that spells out everything from employee parking to emergency contact information and fielding questions from Q&D Construction, the general contractor on the project.

A craftsman sticks his head in the office: The location of the fire-control panel in the center's management office needs to be changed.

Where does Hunt want it? Five minutes from his workday evaporate.

Next up is increasing Hunt's community involvement and participation in business related organizations.His message is this: The new center will boost retail activity, keeping shoppers' from hauling bags of money to California centers.

He faces weeks of long days until the center opens.

"It's certainly more than 40 hours a week, but that's because I'm learning every day,"Hunt says."I'm having a terrific time.

I'm thrilled to be here."