Development around new ballpark still on schedule

Despite the economic slowdown, it's still

full steam ahead for construction of a ballpark

and ticket sales for Reno's new Triple-A

team and developer Stuart Katzoff has no

plans to curtail or scale back extensive retail

development near the ballpark.

Katzoff, the 35-year-old president of SK

Baseball, says the $50 million Triple-A stadium

is on track for April 21 completion a 10-

month buildout. Steel erection was completed

late last month.

Katzoff says season ticket sales have held

up well,with approximately 2,000 of 3,000

available seats sold. Season ticket packages

range from $576 for right-field reserved to

$1,800 for premium seating behind home

plate, placing per-game prices at $8 to $25.

"We are filling up all of our real high-end

seats and are slowly filling up the rest of the

park,"Katzoff says."It is a tough economy, but

we feel we priced the product right. They are

going fast, and the most desirable seats are

moving quickly."

SK Baseball hired 20 front-office people to

support marketing efforts, ticket sales and

team development. Katzoff expects that number

to grow to 35 to 50 employees once the

Reno Aces take to the field.

"Obviously in this economy we want to be sensible about overstaffing, but we are building

the right organization and the right front

office to execute a first-class

operation, and we will hire as

many people as that takes," he

says.

The team took another step

in recent days with the opening

of a retail kiosk at

Meadowood Mall to sell hats,

shirts and other team apparel

and collectibles.

The downtown development project is

being tackled in three phases.

The first is to get the stadium up and running,

while the second will add 50,000 square

feet of ballpark restaurants, bars and some

retail, as well as a 60,000-square-foot entertainment

venue. Development of the restaurants,

retail and entertainment venue will

begin following the 2009 season.

A third phase calls for aggressive retail

development on company-owned land on the

west side of Evans Avenue, but construction

most likely won't get under way until 2010.

Katzoff hopes that allows enough time for

the retail economy to rebound.

"We have always had a three- to five-year

plan on the retail, with the exception of the

ballpark and Phase II. Hopefully by the time

Phase II is built and active, the world will

have changed and retail will be back in favor."

"We are in the city for 10 or 20 years to

build this stuff," he adds."We plan on redeveloping

downtown Reno and making it a

vibrant, thriving place that people want to

come to. It is not an overnight plan, it is a 10-

to 15-year plan to hold it and have it be successful.

We are not people who sell things, we

like to keep them and own them."

Katzoff says the bulk of financing for the

project, $31 million, came from a rental car

tax enacted by Washoe County, and SK

Baseball footed the rest of the $50 million

price tag.

In the off-season, Katzoff hopes to use the

facility for entertainment events such as concerts

or boxing matches."It would be a shame

not to use this facility as much as we can," he

says.