August CAC Meeting Update - Downtown Priority Projects

by Mike Van Houten / Aug 6, 2008

8/6/2008 - CAC MEETING REPORT - Lots of goodies were unveiled in this CAC meeting, including solid timelines for many of these projects. Let's go through them.

Baseball Park - Concrete is now being poured for the walls. RGJ has a great overhead pic of the site construction.

Entertainment Core:  Mark commented on the closing of the purchase of the RTC parcel (by the city) and mentioned the property should close today, which means it's in RDA's hands now, but made no comment about the status of the Mizpah blocks and whether or not the baseball folks have completed their "required" purchase of that block. I was a little discouraged to learn the baseball developers have 5 years to develop the RTC property, I hope that 5 year countdown starts as of now, and not as of when the developers get their hands on the property. It will take 2 years for RTC to finish the 4th Street Transit Station and move to that location. No retailers have been announced yet for the baseball retail district.


Beautification:  Mark Lewis seemed to focus his beautification comments on the UNR / Downtown "connection".  He spoke of the Savoy Motel purchase and future gateway art going there, and seemed to suggest that the RDA was considering additional "gateway" type land acquisitions NORTH of the freeway along Virginia.  He also mentioned the possible expansion of RDA 2 "to UNR." He then went into a discussion about UNR wanting to build some competition-class sports facilities, possibly a tennis complex - presumably in the existing RDA 2 area.  He gave two clues to the possibly location of this, and it seems to be the 9th Street-to UNR area, north of I-80 but south of the University. He also mentioned a possible addition to RDA 2 along South Virginia . A little birdie told me that staff is seriously looking at the corner of Moran and Center Street for the new permanent Fire Station 1 (there is a huge swath of vacant land here where some old homes once stood). I wondered if he was considering the area around this property to be included in RDA2.

10 N Virginia:  Encouraging that this seems to be progressing. The developer John Pappas has come back with refined renderings of the 10 North Virginia building, and Mark Lewis seemed to be impressed by them. Your first chance to see them will be August 18, with the 10 North Virginia Design Sub-Committee meets to go over the renderings before it goes to City Council. He commented the new design was iconic and fun. John Pappas still has a major Lake Tahoe restaurant (I am predicting Garwoods) in tow for this project. Personally, I think the council was a bit hard on him in the last go around, and I am glad he is still on board.

Downtown Parking - Not much new here. Lewis mentioned the deal is still solid and moving forward with a private partner downtown. Would like to get first parking structure under construction next year.

Post Office:  Exciting that this deal seems to be done and will be in the August 27 council meeting. All the loose ends are wrapped up.  The deal should close by end of September and the post office will become RDA property, and the Post Office will begin construction on their new property. 2 years to build and occupy new facility. Plaza construction should start next summer. I wonder why he is so secretive about where the new post office will be located (since he indicated that the new location is also a done deal).  The only reason that I can see for continued secrecy, is that the PO relocation must be part of some larger redevelopment deal that is not done yet.  There are lots of possibilities, but his continued silence sure makes me curious.


West Street Market: Right on target. October 24 target date…The market is now 100% leased. He mentioned a few tenants previously unnamed; Burger and Me (a restaurant that just opened in Truckee to great reviews) is on board. Earthly Delights from Northstar is signed on. There'll be Greek, Mexican, Italian, and a wine bar. They might consider folding the ecomarket into Friday's artisan market…so that would make a year-round Friday and Saturday market. Some of you might be wondering why our urban market has so many restaurant options included. This is actually a standard with most permanent farmers markets. The L.A.'s Farmer's Market on Third and Fairfax (of which if you have never gone, you MUST go) has 35 restaurants, compared to 14 actual 'grocery' stands which would include vegetables, fruits and the other standard farmer stuff and 21 shops selling soaps, jewelry etc.


White Water Park Extension - Lots of new details emerged here. RDA has interviewed 3 great engineering and consulting firms who submitted proposals, and on August 27 should announce the final firm. This project was previously a low-flow eco-channel but has since morphed into an extension of the current whitewater park. Lewis mentioned this whitewater park extension is THREE TIMES THE SIZE OF THE CURRENT WHITEWATER PARK. Yeah baby now that's what I am talkin about! However, before we get too excited, this the one major priority project that doesn't have funding secured. Mark Lewis presented the opportunity to use a loan from RDA2 to RDA1 to pay for the whitewater park extension, but that wasn't well received by the council (to say the least). Also, construction materials and costs for projects of this type have risen dramatically. The first whitewater park downtown cost a little under 2 million (best 2 million investment EVER). This time around, I 'think' they are looking in the 4 to 5 million range. If all goes well, construction would begin in 2009/2010. So, if any of you happen to have 4 million laying around, just look at what the first whitewater park did to downtown. Imagine it extended all the way to Lake Street and what that would do to revitalize east downtown.


Community Assistance Center - All assistance center facilities will be open and running October 1st.

Retrac Cover – PHASE I - Now under construction - girders should start going across retrac at end of the month. There will be some kind of Girder Laying Ceremony. Phase 1 should be done by end of December.  RFP for phase 2 (the retail) is drafted and should be released shortly.

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