Did you watch the council meeting today on CommRow? It was quite the discussion!
If everything goes as planned, CommRow will be open by Labor Day, with the rock wall opening soon after. Also, at least 3 floors of the garage would be open by 9/1 in conjunction with CommRow for parking. CommRow is shooting for an estimated completion date of mid to late August with a soft opening at the end of August. Installation of the balcony should occur around mid-June. Entre Prises will begin constructing the wall in Oregon in June and construction of the wall would hopefully commence in July, with completion to be determined. They are hoping the wall will be completed by Labor Day as well, but that's up to Entre Prises. The hotel portion would open after the slower winter season, next March.
CommRow will feature:
- 60,000 square feet of mixed-use space spanning the first three floors of the building
- The world’s tallest competition climbing wall, built to International Federation of Sport Climbing professional specifications, to be built on the east face of the building, looking over the Reno arch
- 163’ tall, 197’ at the top, accessed from the second floor
- Designed and built by Entre-Prises Climbing Walls out of Bend, OR; industry leaders since 1985, they’ve
- built more than 4000 walls around the globe
- Beginner, intermediate & advanced climbs
- A state-of-the-art , 7,000 sq. foot bouldering facility on the second floor
- Two small music venues, 300- & 500-person capacity
- F & B: Eleven micro eateries and beverage stations, each with a very limited array of diverse offerings
- Hotel: 136 rooms will initially be opened, with the capability of adding the remaining 211 when needed. Rooms will feature clean, new, high-quality bedding and linens but no frills
- First Floor, Second Floor and Third Floor PDFs of floor plans
Additionally, Leal outlined planned for an adventure park on top of the Fitz garage, including a bmx park, zip lines crossing Virginia Street down to the trench covers, and a skate park and additional outdoor bouldering park with restaurant as phase 2.
In what was sometimes a tense discussion between council members, the city council agreed to sell the Fitz the land under the garage with a stipulation that CommRow has to open before it has an option to buy the land under the garage. Jessica Sferrazza had a hard time with the decision, before eventually voting yes. She brought up that going through with this deal would leave a bond shortfall of $3.5 million, however city attorney John Shipman pointed out that after accounting for a reserve fund, possibly combining the two ReTRAC bonds and a few other adjustments, the shortfall is only about $1.5 million. Councilman Dave Aiazzi pointed out that by doing nothing with the garage, the shortfall is $6 million.
In this same discussion it was revealed there is a lawsuit between the Fitz and the owner of the T-Shirt shop on the first floor of the garage, dating back to before L3 Development acquired the garage. When Leal acquired the garage in 2008 he essentially 'inherited' this lawsuit. He mentioned the lawsuit had to do with whether the T-shirt tenant had a right to be a tenant at all, and that the Fitz wanted the T-Shirt Shop out of that space to put something in that would better utilize the space. The council rejected the T-Shop owner's proposal to buy the land under the garage instead and lease back to CommRow, mentioning that 'only Leal can re-open the Fitz and bring property tax and sales tax revenue to downtown.' It was kind of the city council's way of acknowledging the CommRow needs this garage to open.
In the end the council voted to approve the deal. In short, the CommRow has the option to purchase the garage for $2.5 million after CommRow opens. See here for more details on the deal. Not much of that deal has changed except the stipulation added that CommRow must open before they get the right to exercise the option to buy it.
For some reason the trench cover deal was pulled from the agenda, continued until the next council meeting.
Additional Coverage: RGJ
Factoids:
The non-profit Outdoor Foundation recently performed a 2010 Topline Participation Report which showed numbers and details of climbing participants. Below is a snapshot:
Climbing (sport, bouldering, or indoor) participation by people ages 6 years and up in the U.S. rose by 10.6% from 2009
Upwards of 4.7 million people tried climbing in 2010, from the enthusiast to the novice:
6,148,000 total people participated in either outdoor rock or sport climbing in 2010
24.4% were first time participants
49.9% are between ages 6-24
Average number of climbing outings 11.5 per year
Stupid. Only good thing about this is the construction dollars. Climbers are not into this, they're very thrifty. There is lots of existing mixed-use in town and those properties don't appear to be filling up.