Reno has a long and tumultuous history with mega-projects promising to redefine downtown, filled with ambitious visions from charismatic developers. Unfortunately, these grandiose ventures rarely fulfill their lofty promises, often leaving taxpayers burdened and the cityscape dotted with unfinished dreams. The Neon District, the latest in a long line of these projects, is no different.

Consider the West 2nd Street District. It was pitched as a transformative development that would double the size of Reno’s downtown, complete with artistic renderings of beautiful tall buildings. The proposal promised vibrant public spaces, and innovative infrastructures including for residential and business. Yet despite its grand vision, the project never got off the ground.

Who could forget the Reno Expo Center? Proposed as a colossal mall, convention center, and hotel complex at the CitiCenter bus station site, also known as Partnership Plaza, that never materialized. The CitiCenter location has been the subject of numerous pie-in-the-sky redevelopment schemes, none of which have succeeded.

While RED Development eventually succeeded in transforming the site of the old Park Lane Mall, that project fell far short of its original scale. They didn’t build all of the apartments and people complain that rents are too high. RED serves as a reminder that initial promises often become heavily scaled-down realities, as they don’t match the economic situation.

The latest development is Jacobs Entertainment and its Neon Line vision. They started acquiring properties in Reno west of downtown in 2015 starting with the Gold Dust West. They promised redevelopment including apartments. They got permits to knock down many weekly rental motels and displaced hundreds of low-income residents. After acquiring 100 properties Jacobs has only built one property and renovated one property and has not delivered on promises to develop the area. 

Jacobs has cited the high cost of construction and some people say that Jacobs overpaid for the properties. This process of relying on one developer to come in with a mega-project has not worked out. There has to be a better way to redevelop the area. If developers can’t afford to build low-income housing maybe we need to focus on job growth and higher-paying jobs.

Office Space and Job Growth

Recently an article on NNBW talked about the low vacancy and strong state of the office space market in Reno after two small office buildings were sold. The article states that downtown Reno has 1.4 million sq. ft. of office space.

Let’s put that in perspective. The Sales Force Tower in San Francisco has 1.4 million sq. ft. One building equals all of the office space in downtown Reno. Reno has low vacancy because we have low inventory, not because of a strong market.

People talk about the need for affordable housing and the problem doesn’t get solved. Rentals in Reno are about 40% lower than in the Bay Area. I see hundreds of ads for apartment rentals but no one can afford them. Maybe the problem is a lack of good-paying jobs due to the lack of office space. Maybe we can fix wages.

Recently I attended Reno Startup Week. It was an inspiring event. There are a lot of people that want to start businesses that would have good-paying jobs but there is no office space for them. There are smaller Bay Area tech companies that might move to Reno given the lower cost of doing business and the short commutes if there was more office space.

The campus in Palo Alto where I worked is about 120 acres and has over 1 million sq. ft. of office space. It was beautiful, park-like. A pleasure to visit. The Jacobs Neon Line zone is also about 120 acres. There are many empty lots in this area that combined are enough to build over 500,000 sq. ft. of office space even with smaller buildings, and could add over 50% to the downtown office space.

Reno Needs a Plan

The problem seems to be that the City Council gave Jacobs incentives to buy over 100 lots, knock down motels and build parking lots without a committed development plan for much else and without a good look at Jacob’s financials.

What if the City could motivate Jacobs to sell some of the empty lots and Reno could develop a plan to attract office space developers and Bay Area startup companies and bring higher-paying jobs to Reno?

It would take a coordinated effort. Jacobs could provide land at a discount or provide lease subsidies for startups and growing tech firms and deliver on their promise to redevelop the area.

Reno could incentivize the development of office space & tech hubs by offering reduced business license fees for developers who build office space and to companies that relocate.

Reno could fast-track permitting by implementing expedited approval processes for commercial developments that align with economic growth objectives.

Reno could collaborate with developers and permit mixed-use development through zoning that allows for tech parks, co-working spaces, and residential areas near commercial hubs.

Reno can promote the lack of state income tax, and opportunity zone benefits, and promote Reno as an Emerging Tech Hub with a good quality of life, lower costs, and business-friendly policies.

Maybe this is just another case of wishful thinking but as I go through the area on my way from home to downtown and see the disaster that the neighborhood has become I see that something needs to get done.

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