Salon-suite concept opens in Midtown

Brothers Kyle and Justin Ryckebosch last week opened their second salon suite concept at 1091 Haskell St. in Midtown Reno.

The Ryckeboschs opened their first Sierra Salon Suites at 3891 Warren Way in 2013 and have since leased out the property. Casting their eye for a Midtown location, they settled on the 1970s-era site on Haskell Street for their latest redevelopment project. The brothers also build homes in Montreux and Arrowcreek and were seeking a hedge against the up-and-down nature of custom home construction.

“People loved the original location, and we were just looking for buildings that might fit that we did not need to do too much construction on,” Kyle Ryckebosch says. “The other building filled up super quick and we had a waiting list, so we decided we would try another location.

“We have been tracking the revitalization of the Midtown District, and once we found a second location we really wanted to help revive the area; it has really grown the last couple of years,” he adds.

The duo closed on the Haskell Street site around the first of the year and spent months gutting the interior of the building and renovating the exterior with corrugated metal and reclaimed wood siding with a brick façade to match the look of existing properties in the Midtown area.

The building’s flat roof provided little attic access to install new systems, and additional plumbing had to be installed to accommodate 16 sinks installed in the suites, which range in size from roughly 60 to 110 square feet. The brothers tapped a private investor for construction funding.

“We pretty much gutted the inside and rebuilt it all,” Kyle Ryckebosch says. “We really tried to make the outside fit within that Midtown look and vibe.”

The brothers queried stylists and tenants at the Warren Way location for input on the second suites site. Lessons learned helped them tweak the layout of lighting, electrical plugs and storage cabinetry for more efficient workflow and access.

“The good thing about this concept is that we don’t have any employees; we are basically landlords and they run each suite as if it were their own salon,” Ryckebosch says. “Once they are up and running it basically runs itself. “