New luxury condos for dogs

Lisa Jaramillo, owner of Pet Play House Inc. at 2401 E. Fourth St., is building an 8,324-square-foot facility next door that promises to be the Biltmore of dog boarding.

Jaramillo's current facilities, which she's owned since 2000, measure just over 1,000 square feet, with another 1,000 outdoors. The new $1.2 million facility will include private condos with yards, as well as private suites to house unfriendly dogs or those not spayed or neutered. Suites will include televisions and piped-in music, and skylights and windows will be placed throughout the facility, which Jaramillo says helps counter canine aggression and depression.

Indoor areas also will include artificial turf on raised grids to keep pets off concrete floors and improve waste drainage.

"We learned a lot in the eight years we have been in business and found out what works and what doesn't," she says. "We have been educated a lot on doggie behavior and stress factors, and we incorporated a lot of state-of-the-art stuff into that facility."

Jaramillo says growth brought the need for a major expansion, but re-zoning by the City of Reno and

stringent requirements for its redevelopment district played havoc with her original business plan.

"When we first started planning the project we were zoned industrial, and indoor-outdoor kennels were acceptable," she says. "But they rezoned us to mixed-use industrial, and they did not want us to have any outdoor areas."

In addition to applying for a special-use permit to include outdoor play areas, Jaramillo says the city required a two-story building to meet density requirements. She also had to change the layout of the building so pets still could access the outdoor area of her current site. And the city required a minimum of 12 parking spaces, as well as pedestrian amenities such as street lighting.

Prestige Investments, owned by Jaramillo and her husband, Frank, secured financing for the project. Joseph Pace Construction Inc. is the general contractor, Pavers Plus is constructing the masonry-block building designed by architect Al Salzano, and Encon-Nevada Consulting Engineers will install the complicated HVAC systems required to keep fresh air constantly circulating throughout the building.