Reno Land Inc. unveiled plans for Park Lane

Reno Land Inc. recently presented their plans to redevelop the former site of Park Lane Mall. The 46-acre in-fill development is the largest infill site in the City of Reno.

“Our plan includes housing, retail, restaurants, professional office,” Chip Bowlby, managing partner of Reno Land Inc. said at the City Council meeting held Wednesday, Oct. 12. “We plan to create a neighborhood that becomes a place where families and young professionals can joyfully live, work and play.”

The plan unveiled to the Reno City Council shows development will be completed in phases. After putting in the backbone infrastructure, construction will start on two of the three multifamily complexes. These complexes will include a three-story urban garden apartment complex and a five-story wrap complex. The two distinct neighborhoods will total 725 residential units. The residences will range from studios to three-bedroom units.

The second phase of the project will included the construction of 110,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 100,000 square feet of offices and another 510 five-story wrap units. All the buildings will be framed within extensive landscaping and green spaces.

MVE+Partners, an architecture and planning firm based in Irvine, Calif. will serve as the land planning and architecture firm and Wood Rodgers will serve as the engineer for the Park Lane project.

Rick Emsiek, president and chief operating officer of MVE+Partners, explained that they plan to make the buildings a verity of heights and scales so the community does not have an institutional look. The first floor of the buildings will include space for not only retail but also for services for the residences such as co-working spaces, mailboxes and more. These spaces will only be accessible by entrances off of the sidewalk to create more of a sense of community.

They estimate that the total construction cost for the project will be $500 million with $11 million of that cost to put in the backbone infrastructure.

The developer plans to start construction on the project for the infrastructure in spring 2017. Andy Durling, a principal of Wood Rodgers, explained during the presentation that they will need to relocate the sanitary sewer and storm drain utilities.

The developer requested that council work with them on opportunities to offset up to $3.5 million of the $11 million costs that are associated with relocation of the utilities. The city council members agreed to this at the meeting.

The developer estimates that the project will create 3,200 construction jobs and 700 permanent jobs. The project is also estimated to generate more than $25 million in sales tax revenues for the City and Washoe County School District over the next 20 years.

Durling said that another $77 million in property tax would be generated by the property. That includes more than $63 million that would be generated for one of Reno’s two redevelopment districts. That money would be available for improvements that would encourage other redevelopment and beautification projects in the city.

Total development fees associated with the project are estimated at $16.2 million.

Rick Casazza, owner of Shopper’s Square, spoke in favor of the Park Lane Project at the Wednesday meeting. Casazza also announced a $15 million remodel for Shopper’s Square. He said that he plans to come before the city council within the next three months for the remodel.

Bowbly purchased the property from the previous owner Merlone Geier Partners, a Bay Area real estate company, on Sept, 22.

“I am a long-time resident of Reno and if you haven’t figured it out by now, I believe in Reno,” Bowlby said.

Bowlby has been an active supporter of the SOS Washoe and is currently working on several other projects in northern Nevada including the Summit Club multi-family project in South Reno, which is scheduled to break ground within the next few weeks, the 141-acre master-planned Rancharrah project, the Meridian 120 project near Boomtown, as well as projects in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center and Fernley.