CAC Project Update 2-7-08

by Mike Van Houten / Feb 7, 2008

2/7/2008 - CAC MEETING UPDATE - These CAC meetings are filling up with more and more people each month. Pretty soon they will need to graduate from the Caucus Room. Anyway let's cut to the chase! How about a series of good news, especially after the last post!

VI. PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF THE INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT WITH WASHOE COUNTY FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE PIONEER SITE WITH POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION TO THE AGENCY BOARD:
This was interesting. James Graham gave the presentation, and a lot of what he was talking about was substantially different than the previous plan. This is basically an agreement to work together. The two entities involved are the County and the City. The details were kind of sketchy, but it was mentioned several times in one form or another that the City felt the land was much too valuable from a redevelopment standpoint to just let it be a parking lot. So the County and City want to work together on something. While it was mentioned there was still a parking component involved with the new plans, it wasn't the main emphasis. Parking may or may not be a component now, and parking  'could' go elsewhere. A definitive agreement will be announced shortly.

VII. VIDEO PRESENTATION FEATURING LOCAL CITIZENS “RENO IN OUR WORDS” (Terri Hendry)
This was a cool little video. It basically was to emphasize that the City does have plans and guides as they develop downtown. It's not just haphazard. It was kind of to show the CAC Board that what they do is not in vain. I thought that was nice. Then a downtown resident brought up the idea of promoting the video to Reno-ites who haven't been downtown. He brought up the really good point that there are Reno residents who haven't been downtown in 5 years and have no idea how much it has changed. Another resident brought up the frustrating fact that downtown in real estate terms is broken up into 4 or 5 different areas. There is Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, Northeast, and different condo projects show up in different districts, when really all of downtown should show up in one area called metro. I agree wholeheartedly, and in fact was complaining about that to my real estate agent 4 years ago when I was looking for places downtown. I get quite a few complaints from readers looking for places as well, that Arlington Towers shows up in a different district than the Palladio. So one of my new missions is to make this happen. I've aready put in calls. :)

VIII. PRIORITY PROJECT UPDATE
- The Community assistance center on Record St. is coming along nicely. Walls are starting to be put in.
- Baseball Stadium - Groundbreaking in February 20. Working on environmental insurance, land deal with Sierra Pacific, fire station relocation loan, rscva sublease in process.Temp fire station structures will have 20 year life…they won't just be haphazard tents or trailers.
- Entertainment Core Retail - Not much news here, other than Herb Simon continues to line up some big names for downtown.
- Parking Garage(s) - No new news here, the RDA is still working on partnering with a major downtown vendor (I am guessing the El Dorado, just a guess) for a parking garage on the West side of Virginia, and significant progress has been made on an additional parking structure 'somewhere East of Virginia, a bock or two up from the river.'
- Beautification - Mark Lewis is very happy the Savoy Motel downtown is gone. Another motel bites the dust! The Façade improvement program for the block of Virginia St between roughly 2nd and Commercial Row received initial drawings back from architect. I saw them during the presentation, but trying to get a hold of them for all of you. It looks good! All of the buildings match, both in paint and texture, and it looks like a quaint little downtown street. It was tough to tell but I think the majority of the buildings have brick facades added to them or restored. Gone on that block is everything that makes Virginia St. annoying (i.e. Horseshoe club sign etc).
10 North Virginia St - This project is still alive, and the developer is still interested in building there, canopy or no canopy. The developer has requested a 90-day extension to further refine the design and speak to individual council members etc. If you remember, the Council wasn't entirely happy with the new blocky design of the retail component. Mark Lewis said the developer STILL has a very recognizable restaurant in tow with him (I think Gardwoods from up in Tahoe but that's pure speculation based on previous discussions).
Post Office Plaza - This is becoming interesting as well. They showed refined renderings of the plaza, and it's very cool. The way it steps down to the river really accentuates the post office building itself...it almost makes it an icon; a very prominent building, much like the steps up to the Supreme Court; kind of props it up. It makes the post office building look very important, especially when viewing it from across the river or Virginia or Lake Streets. Construction is slated to begin on this in April/May.
Eco-Channel - This project has taken a slight turn as well. An eco-channel was originally proposed to go from the end of the whitewater park down to about Lake St. However, Mark mentioned the River/Eco Channel Sub Committee had a change of heart after conversing with each other and the public. NOW, they really want to extend the whitewater park itself, making more drop pools etc. It would look much more like the concepts on this page. I remember Jim Litchfield or someone equally relevant saying that part of the river didn't have a steep enough flow pattern for additional drop pools,so we'll see what happens. I would be happy with either solution. Not sure when construction on this begins.
Urban Market - Mark is happy with the progress here, with over half the tenants already reserved they haven't even broke ground on it yet. While he didn't name specific tenants, he did say there would be 'a bakery, local farmers, some arts and crafts, a market, and more.' A soft opening is slated for June, with an announced opening in July corresponding with Art Town.

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