Reno Real Estate Blog

West Street Market is set to open for business this October, tenants include an italian restaurant, wine bar, grocery store and a bakery. It will occupy 8500 square feet on West Street between First and Second street and beginning in July there will be 50 outdoor vendors selling their goods 3 days a week. Ralph Merenda went to Italy to attend cooking school and will be cooking in the Green Room Bar as well as Nikos Theologitis who will feature home style Greek food. The concept behind the market is to feature local products (up to 150 miles away) including produce that will change with the season and be picked that morning and sold that day in a farmers market style setting. There will be lots of California fruits and vegetables from the Sierra foothills.

All of the tenants will have some sort of local connection and plenty of experience that will give visitors and locals another reason to head downtown. This will be one block from the river and the world class kayak park. The market will be located in 3 brick buildings with some dating back to the 1920’s with open beam ceilings and to really make sure it  has a local connection some of the trusses are stamped with Verdi Lumber Co. which was a lumber mill almost a 100 years ago.

The Reno Redevelopment agency is investing $600,000 in Federal money to renovate the buildings and the project should create 140 jobs. There will be weekly themes including eco tourism, burning man and pet’s and gardens. There will also be craft fairs and even a bohemian circus and in the fall there will be a harvest festival and a Christmas theme from days of yester year.

I remember as little as 10 years ago downtown Reno had no direction and was constantly struggling to try and rehab the tired gaming market which included prostitution, the homeless and a huge eye sore known as downtown Reno. Do we still have some of those problems, absolutely but the Reno City council and the redevelopment agency have done a great job in the direction we are going, including the 5 new upscale condo projects, new triple A baseball stadium under construction, Wingfield park, outdoor markets, art district and all within one block of the Truckee River and the white water park. This all will contribute to a thriving Real Estate Market in Reno which will continue to move forward as we get through this tough market which is offering some great deals for buyers.

Did I mention that we have a river running through the middle of town?  The Reno Sparks Convention Authority has set its focus on the downtown corridor and the mighty Truckee River. This years Reno River Festival is expected to attract over 40,000 people, up from 14,000 just a couple of years ago. This is the 5th year and is America’s premier whitewater event in the heart of Reno at the Truckee River white water park. In addition to attracting the top white water athletes in the country there is a also a Run Amuck fun run that is a down and dirty obstacle course through the streets of downtown Reno. The event runs from May 9-11 and after enjoying the water events you can stroll to Wingfield park and view the outdoor expo and lots of great music and brews. There is plenty of after hours hot spots including night clubs, food for every taste, art district, 24 hour gaming, a beer garden all within walking distance of the water park.

Wingfield Park amphitheater is the perfect back drop right on the river to enjoy the variety of bands that will be performing at the festival. If you have not been to Reno to see why we are America’s Adventure Place check out my calendar of events for this summers activities. When buying Real Estate in Reno this is just another reason why We Love this Place.

Galena 3 will be dedicated next Monday, it is the newest geothermal plant at the Steamboat complex on the Mt. Rose highway. This is one of Ormat Technologies 7 geothermal plants that could power the needs of all of Reno’s residential needs.  Nevada has a vast amount of geothermal fields and the hot springs at Steamboat was tapped decades ago by competing interest but has been acquired in the last 5 years by Ormat technologies, a publicly traded independent power producer.

Galena 3 can produce 100 megawatts of power with one megawatt being able to supply 800 homes. The steam is sitting 1000 to 2000 ft. below the surface with the water currently at 300 degrees. Right now there is a good balance of using the water and returning it to the steam fields at 200 degrees which will ensure long term viability for the lucrative Sierra Pacific power contracts. Sierra Pacific power is the main customer for power generated by the geothermal fields which is mandated by the state to have at least 20% of its power by renewable sources by 2015. This is great news for the Reno Real estate market and the future power needs of the residents here in Reno and Sparks.

As a Realtor In Reno I applaud the efforts of the state to get away from fossil based sources of energy and move toward clean renewable steam as a viable alternative.

Last Thursday the Fed dropped its key overnight lending rate to 2% in a move to curb recession. What that means for Reno homeowners is a 30 year fixed mortgage currently at 5.72% down from 5.86% last week. The prime lending rate fell to a corresponding 5% which applies to a lot of home equity lines of credit, credit cards and other loans. This will help the Reno Real Estate market and any buyers who are sitting on the fence.

If you want to see what you qualify for you can go to my website at www.homes-reno.com and get started.

With over 300 earth quakes in the last 60 days, you can see why the residents of Reno and Sparks are a little on edge. The swarm of quakes has been centered on the west end of town in the Mogul - Somersett area. So far the biggest one was a 4.7 last Friday night, wreaking havoc on the shelf items in grocery stores. One of the biggest hit was Whispering Vine wine shop in Somersett.  They lost over 300 bottles of wine.

Most residents did experience some varying degree of damage from pictures falling to a lot of cracks in sheet rock. The concern with the pattern of these quakes is that they are steadily getting larger, whereas most large quakes will be followed by smaller after shocks.

Residents have been warned to be prepared for a larger one, while stressing it is impossible to predict these events. The last time Reno had anything this big was a couple of shakers over 6 in magnitude back in 1948 and 1953.

The timing could not have been worse for the struggling Reno Real Estate market. Not only have prices been going down but these quakes are making the buyers that are out there to second guess themselves.

Reno is the third most active state in the lower 48 states for earth quakes, falling behind California and Alaska.

Can you say the largest public works project in the history of the City of Sparks? The cost of this park is $30 million dollars and is on 140 acres.  Sparks again is proving itself not to be riding on the coat tails of its big brother Reno. As the old saying goes “Reno is so close to Hell you can see Sparks”. Well my friend, Sparks is a force to be reckoned with, and this new park is another notch in little brothers belt.

It has 1.4 million square feet of synthetic turf, the largest amount in the world, and is located just past the gates of Wingfield Springs on Vista Blvd. This will help the lagging Sparks Real Estate market and will be a shot in the arm to the Sparks economy. The park features 6 softball fields, 2 baseball fields and 3 multi purpose football/soccer fields with over 900 trees throughout and a million square feet of grass.

It was funded mostly by the sale of Don Mello Park that was recently sold for $17.7 million dollars.

Infosearch International conducted a phone survey of 700 residents and about 80% feel traffic and congestion have increased over the last couple of years in the Reno area. The majority of this traffic is at the spaghetti bowl, 395 and Pyramid Highway. With a 5.2 billion dollar shortfall over the next 30 years, over 60% of the respondents would vote for increased registration fees for developers and an increase in sales tax. Gee, I wonder if they would pass that fee along to the consumers when they buy houses.

Somersett is being very proactive when it comes to the recent seismic activity. Last year they created their own chapter of the Nevada Fire Safe council that has already created two fire breaks in our community. Now they have created an auxiliary of the Washoe county certified emergency response team, which includes 14 residents and employees who have undergone 21 hours of training and continues to meet once a month for ongoing training. The Somersett CERT team is a huge benefit to our community. In an actual emergency they would self activate and react to an emergency. The thought behind this is that no one knows our community better than a well trained resident.

There has also been some talk about the safety of the Town Center and we have been assured that all buildings meet seismic code and should be able to withstand a 7.2 magnitude quake. The probability of this happening is a 10% chance in 500 years. For more information go to www.ReadyWashoe.com or www.ready.gov.