For more than five years, the mayor of Reno, Nevada, has supported the demolition of dozens of dilapidated motels that provided shelter for thousands of residents squeezed by the city’s housing crisis, rather than rehabilitate the buildings to provide affordable housing. Now she’s changing course.
Mayor Hillary Schieve is proposing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire and rehabilitate motels in downtown through the Reno Housing Authority. In fact, the agency has already moved quietly to buy two shuttered buildings. Last week, the agency submitted an offer to buy the Bonanza Inn, a closed 58-unit motel with a history of code violations that is now part of an estate sale. It also submitted a letter of intent to make an offer on a much larger property — the 19-story former Sundowner casino-hotel.
Details of the offers — the prices, contingencies and financing — are not public. The RHA’s board of commissioners discussed the offers last month in a series of closed-door meetings allowed under an exemption in the state’s open meeting law. An RHA spokesperson said the agency has enough funds to purchase the Bonanza Inn but would need to secure financing for the Sundowner purchase. An early estimate by the RHA indicated it would cost $22 million to buy both properties and up to $50 million to rehab the buildings.
The purchases would be the beginning of a broader effort to increase affordable housing in the region, Schieve said. She supports using part of the city’s share of federal stimulus money from the American Rescue Plan Act and would like to see the state, the county and the neighboring city of Sparks chip in money, as they do for other regional projects such as Reno’s homeless shelter. Schieve also wants to explore whether the housing authority can use its existing housing stock as collateral for bonds to help finance more affordable housing. She’d like to borrow at least $200 million. She didn’t provide details on her plans for the additional funding.
“We have a real opportunity when it comes to workforce and affordable housing,” Schieve said.
The city’s about-face follows a ProPublica investigation that found Reno did little to deter the demolition of similar motels that housed some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. Nor did the city provide any incentives for landowners to replace that housing. One developer, casino-owner Jeff Jacobs, has been responsible for most of the motel demolitions, razing nearly 600 housing units since 2017. Schieve and other council members posed for photos during some of those demolitions, celebrating the elimination of what they said were blighted properties to make way for a proposed entertainment district.
After widespread criticism of the demolitions, Jacobs recently announced he would be willing to donate up to $15 million in land for an affordable housing and public parking project. The donation would be contingent on the housing authority financing the project and the city acquiring additional land, he said.
Jacobs has been assembling more than 100 parcels in downtown Reno for what he describes as a $1.8 billion entertainment district that would include hotels, restaurants and an amphitheater. He said the motels he demolished were slums that couldn’t be remodeled and said he provided relocation assistance to most of the people who lived in them.
The property sought by the Reno Housing Authority sits within Jacobs’ proposed district, directly across from his signature casino, the Sands Regency. In fact, the agency’s letter of intent on the Sundowner includes a vacant parcel on a block primarily owned by Jacobs.
The Sundowner has been vacant since 2003. The Bonanza Inn, however, was only recently listed for sale following the death of its owner. Her son told the Reno Gazette Journal that the estate was forced to sell the motel, which had been vacant for more than a year, following aggressive code enforcement efforts by the city. His family couldn’t afford to make the required repairs, he told the newspaper. The property had been cited multiple times for code violations since 2012, according to public records.
In an interview with ProPublica, Schieve reiterated that she doesn’t think “slumlords should be landlords,” but also said she doesn’t favor wholesale demolition of the hotels.
“If you can rehab something, then that’s great, obviously, and if it makes sense to,” Schieve said. “I honestly believe in saving everything you can.”
She added, “I’m not like, ‘Let’s demolish everything.’ That’s not who I am.” Rather, she said, she doesn’t believe people should be forced to live in terrible conditions.
This is the city’s first attempt, however, at preserving such buildings. In addition to supporting Jacobs’ razing of mostly squalid motels, the city used its blight fund in 2016 to finance the demolition of two vacant motels despite pleas from the community to preserve them as housing.
Schieve said the city hasn’t had the financial resources to buy and rehab motels for housing. Federal stimulus money has now made it possible to pursue such acquisitions, she said.
“It’s tough to build it. It’s expensive,” she said. “With the ARPA funds, it really gives us a foot in the door.”
–Anjeanette Damon, ProPublica
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Timothy Patrick Welch says
Sounds crazy expensive.
Maybe a tax swap, or encourage demolition through a daily fine for a derelict building.
Maybe perspective low income renters could rehab or at least assist in rehab.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
The current Old Dixie hotel ( which you have put the exact view of a similar photo I took last week) has been ignored by Flagler County until Jerry Cameron came along and tried to get something done. He almost did: He mad new owners sign an agreement but the owners are now in violation of that agreement by posting $250,000 bond with Flagler County since August 30, 2021. County has every legal right, as well as an obligation to the welfare and safety of the nearby taxpaying residents to demolish this POS but they prefer to give them more unauthorized time extensions while suing them at the same time using our money to pay outside attorneys to file more lawsuits. My opinion, demolish hotel once and for all and fire Al Hadeed at the same time He is the one wasting YOUR money and mine. This old hotel is NOT suitable for anything other than demolition. It has NO municipal services to offer for affordable housing resident – no public transportation, no schools nearby, walking distance to a gas station, an about to be built 10 acre self storage facility ( really now.. someone who needs affordable housing I doubt has anything to store)…, no supermarket except on the other side of the antiquated 2 lane bridge on top of I-95 to the only supermarket in the area ( Volusia county – nothing in Flagler County) no nearby medical facility other than a dentist and a vet, nowhere near medical facilities nor schools, no free water, and it is zoned Commercial – the 6,000 taxpayer homeowner residents in this area need retail and medical facilities not more people on top of the already overbuilt area .
Please don’t misinform readers that this has been an eyesore to Flagler County for years My e-mails and phone calls from 2013 until 2018 were ignoredby code enforcement who even sent me e-mails that property was in foreclosure long after it was out of foreclosure… It was not until I called the Department of Health in January 2018 who ame out the next day and bingo court action began! They sued and won in court. They, not the county were mostly responsible for the trash being removed. County did nothing until Jerry Cameron came along. The paper trails proves that…..Don’t even think about this site for anything other than demolition!
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Don’t even think the decrepit Old Dixie is a possible rehab for affordable housing. For starters the location does not meet ant criteria: no local municipal services.no public transportation..no nearby schools..one Publix supermarket.. not enough water..walking distance to no places other than trailer park.gas station and oh yes an Italian restaurant. Across the street from a soon to be built 10 acre storage facility ( which surely will not be a service affordable housing residents should have a need for).. The photo is exactly the exact scenario as this POS looks like now. Thus property is zoned C2 and the best use is retail establishments for the over 6,000 current area residents who have nothing nearby other than the Publix and a few shops in Volusia County on the other side of a 2 lane dangerous out of date bridge on top of I-95. Please don’t even think about this dump having any future other than the overdue demolition it deserves!
Concerned Citizen says
We heard you the first time.
Please tell us again how Affordable housing occupants don’t need to store anything. And where you would prefer they live. Biased against affordable housing residents much?
I’ll remember your comments when you come back up for an election. And pray that you never need to find yourself in an affordable housing situation. It can and does happen to anyone.
bob says
why do you talk down to people ?
Concerned Citizen says
I wasm’t talking down to anyone.
Janes comments towards Affordable Housing residents was in poor taste. And needed to be addressed. Especially since she repeatedly tries to run for office in this county.
Gina Weiss says
A state of the art Physical Therapy rehab with therapy salt water resistant pools, underwater threadmills, lap pools, pools with underwater bike pedals would work, especially since the new medical facility which is soon to come in PC has a wonderful team of ortho MD’s, just send these folks who are rehabbing over and their health insurance will pay for it, they can also charge a membership fee for peole who want to join. We don’t have anything like this here and it is needed with the aging population, as well as accident victims and all those broken bones the younger kids get from play. Water aerobics is the best for many age groups. Usually a team of ortho MD’s get together to open something like this. We need more indoor/outdoor pools that people can join for healthy exercise.