Check out what's going on in east downtown Reno, including the Courtyard Marriott, a major clean-up on High Street, and Haberae's Urbanito project.
Courtyard Marriott
The Courtyard Marriott is coming along nicely, and is now topped off at four stories. On the first level, the openings for each room are flush with the floor. That could either be for A/C units or maybe small walk-out balconies. In the center of the building on the river side is a larger break in the rooms which could be the lobby.
Police Station Paint Job
The police station was painted.
High Street's Changing and Cleaning Up
On my way to check out the Courtyard Marriott, I decided to walk down High Street, as it's the quickest way to get to 2nd Street from Mill Street. Though these projects are not new, I wanted to highlight this street because as of recently, this street has really cleaned up, and used to be one of the most frightening blocks to walk downtown.
I'm not sure if the city's behind it, or if it's been a more organic process, but nearly every property on this block has cleaned up. With seven weekly-style properties on one block between 2nd and Mill, this area has historically been a street to avoid walking down at night. The first thing to change for this block was becoming a primary walking route for those attending Aces games who park on Mill and Holcomb on big-game nights.
Also right around that time, two sets of properties were purchased and renovated inside and out. Rather than take the Siegel approach, they are marketing their two High Street properties heavily to University of Nevada Reno students, going as far as putting Wolfpack art on the building, and using wording such as '1 Mile from UNR' and 'plenty of room for your car, bike, skateboard or scooter' and 'affordable living for students while attending school.'
While 'The Habitat' still has the shell of a weekly motel, it's not run like one. Instead of weeklies, they offer 3, 6 or 9 month leases. Rooms either have full kitchenettes with hot plates, refrigerator and microwave, or they connect to a full kitchen commons area, with a full-size oven, stove and fridge and dining/chill area. Other amenities include gated parking.
The other project, dubbed 'Truckee Flats', also reaches out to UNR's student population by sporting Wolfpack memorabilia and labeling one of the 1920's homes in the project 'The Pack.' There's a recreation area in the center of the project, and offers living options ranging from studios with full kitchens to a 4 bedroom, two-story house.
While it might seem like a futile effort to market to UNR students given some of the neighboring properties, those neighboring properties are also cleaning up. Siegel Group, whom doesn't mention UNR or student housing once on this page or any of their property pages offering all their downtown Reno and Sparks properties, could take some serious lessons from Rylexa Properties.
A Peek At Urbanito
Urbanito is a block-size project on the corner of Holcomb, Mill Street, and High Street. When complete it will consist of a distillery, a converted two-story loft building, and five renovated bungalow homes from the 1920s. You can read more details about this project here.
Great drought-tolerant landscaping.
A peek in the distillery through the windows.
I lived in the River House years back on a three month lease right after I graduated from UNR while waiting for a job application to bite. At the time they were also advertising to students and that's how I found it. It was a good efficiency studio that got the job done. While the student to non-student ratio was greater for the nons it was still a good place. In my opinion they're miles above of Siegel, and I'd hesitate to mention the two in the same breath.