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City Has An Opportunity to Buy Cal Neva Garage, But Should They?

by Mike Van Houten / Oct 26, 2011

Cal Neva Parking Garage

On Wednesday, the city council will discuss purchasing the Cal Neva Parking Garage for a reported $10,000. However before they spend even $10,000 on it, I'd like to know projected maintenance costs over time, their plans for usage etc. Will it remain a free garage? Or will it be converted to paid parking like their other garage? Would a private company run it like their other downtown garage? How do they intend to fix what is quite possibly the ugliest facade and color scheme downtown? It looks like the 1980's vomited on it.
It's not really a secret that the garage is located adjacent to city hall...and I would be pretty pissed if the city removed this free parking downtown excluding people who work at City Hall. The garage is seriously run down, though probably structurally sound.

$10,000 is a good deal but not if it costs $100,000+ to bring the garage up to a decent state, and especially if it only serves the interests of those working at City Hall. I would rather put flower baskets downtown that actually serve everybody's interests.
What are your thoughts? Should the council buy this garage and if so, what purpose should it serve?

Tagged under: downtown Reno | Cal Neva parking garage |
Post your comments
  • David
    October 25, 2011 - 10:18:30 AM

    I'll purchase it for $10,000 haha. Is the CalNeva really selling it for that cheap? There has to be more to this story.

  • Reno Fan
    October 25, 2011 - 7:47:54 PM

    How about no Taxes for the Cal-Neva for the next 10 years, don't you think?

  • Brian
    October 25, 2011 - 9:47:08 PM

    "It looked like the 80s vomited on it" is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Kudos, sir.

  • doofus
    October 26, 2011 - 8:47:01 AM

    Does Reno lease their parking spaces from Cal Neva now, or is it a result of some clause in the City Hall Purchase Agreement? Cal Neva currently pays $25,519.66 in property taxes on the garage, which would go away if the city bought it (is it their stated goal to remove all of downtown from the tax roll?). Do you know what Nando spent painting the Fitz garage? Cal Neva will need about the same amount of remedial work. I wouldn't take the garage if they gave it to me. ..... unless this is a rare case of future vision going on here (not likely). City buys the garage, abandons that block of 1st Street and combines it with the plaza, opens some retail on the 1st floor and gets those nasty temp structures for the skating rink out of there. I am skeptical that anyone in Reno government has the insight to look beyond tomorrow or the next election, whichever comes first.

  • gorillaman
    November 1, 2011 - 2:29:02 PM

    IMpLODE IT vEGAS STYLE BABY!!!! RENO NEEDS TO LEARN HOW TO MOVE ONITS USELESS, UGLY, AND WILL MOST LIKELY COST MORE IN THE LONG RUN TO GET UPGRADES ON IT...BUILD SOMETHING MORE EYE CATCHING AND FASCINATING IN ITS PLACE...

  • DJ
    November 1, 2011 - 6:59:55 PM

    Gorillaman, I can come over and fix your caps lock key if you'd like. You seem to have broken it. Otherwise I agree, it's sitting on some prime real-estate that could be better utilized or at the very least less horrifying to look at.

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