Lance Gilman, developer of Tahoe-Reno Industrial Park and Storey County commissioner, recently announced a massive land sale deal with Blockchains LLC.
UPDATED: 4:45 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25
Lance Gilman's busy week continued Thursday, as he announced he closed on a sale of roughly 171.5 acres of land at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. While terms of the deal with Emerald City Empire, LLC, to build a "master planned retail and destination park center" were not disclosed, it's "believed to be in eight figures," according to a press release submitted to Nevada media on behalf of Gilman. The project, dubbed Emerald City Business Center, is the brainchild of Randel W. Aleman of Encore Commercial, Inc., who will continue with design and development of the project, according to the release. Aleman has reportedly been involved in development projects and transactions with TRIC and in Reno for more than 20 years. “Retail and amenities have been a real need for TRI, and this fills that need wonderfully,” Gilman said in a statement. “We have known this particular developer for many, many years and they are very talented in the retail arena. We’ve seen some preliminary plans and renderings, which are just amazing.” The Emerald City Business Center will be designed by Ron Krater, an architect and land planner based in Newport Beach, Calif. The original story from Jan. 24 is below.The Storey County commissioner and marketing manager of the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) on Jan. 19 announced a series of deals to sell off the majority of available property in the vast 104,000-square-foot industrial park that’s most notably home to Tesla, Google and Switch.
The centerpiece is the purchase of roughly 64,000 acres — which amounts to 62 percent of space at the industrial park — Blockchains, LLC, a tech company currently headquartered in Canoga Park, Calif. Blockchains reportedly plans to relocate its operations to TRIC as soon as possible.
“Information about the company and future plans will be forthcoming,” Elaina Duffy, marketing director and spokesperson for Blockchains, said in an email to the NNBW.
Further details about the deal were not made public.
“It was a growth pattern more or less for Blockchains,” Gilman told the NNBW this week. “What it came down to is they wanted ultimately to showcase their blockchain technology format in the largest industrial park in the world.”
Blockchains is a financial services, security and software firm that specializes in “blockchain” technology. According to its website, the company puts itself “at the forefront of one of the most revolutionary innovations since the advent of the internet, blockchain distributed ledger technology,” adding that it chiefly, “conceptualizes and incubates blockchain-powered ideas, ventures and businesses.”
The technology reportedly allows market participants to keep track of digital currency transactions (such as Bitcoin) without central recordkeeping.
Per the company’s website, during development of its TRIC campus, “a newly renovated facility just outside of (TRIC) will act as our temporary headquarters until the campus is complete.”
“We’re excited to see this announcement and eager to see what Blockchains has in mind with the property,” said Pat Whitten, Storey County manager. “The companies that have purchased land out there usually have had some kind of forward thinking look at the future.”
Gilman also disclosed that, among other smaller land sale deals that recently closed at the industrial park, Chip Bowlby with Reno Land Development is purchasing 800 acres at the industrial park to develop what will be known as the Tahoe Reno Tech Center.
Gilman and business partner Roger Norman Sr. purchased the future TRIC property in 2001. The latter said he figured it would at least three generations before it was fully developed, but now all but roughly 275 acres of land have been sold, Gilman said.
Gilman indicated he and his partners will remain involved in the TRIC development in various capacities. He also said they are not done looking for land deals, and sees rural Nevada communities such as Fernley, Fallon and Silver Springs as the next steps for development.
“We truly believe Northern Nevada has become the center of the universe,” Gilman said.
Sierra Nevada Media Group editor Kevin MacMillan contributed to this report.
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