There are a lot of exciting projects queued up for downtown Reno. If even three of them come to fruition, downtown Reno will be a strikingly different area.
The first project is the Woolworths Building. It recently changed hands, and the plan for Woolworths is to convert the first floor into a full-size grocery store, and possibly slate retail for the second and third floors as well. Marmot Properties originally took a look at Woolworth's but the numbers didn't jive with them, with a $10 million+ renovation to convert the upper floors to apartments and the bottom floor to retail. So they passed on the project and are continuing to focus on building up Midtown with several new exciting developments in that neighborhood in the pipeline, including two duplexes.
You might have heard some rumors a while back that Cal Neva was looking to gift the Nevadan Tower to UNR. The latest I heard is UNR could not produce the funds required to renovate the project, even when the building itself would be gifted. I'm hearing this project is still in play however, with company names like Microsoft being tossed around.
Also, I am hearing the Kings Inn is in escrow from a California buyer.
Rumor has it there are a couple new breweries headed downtown, and a distillery for Midtown. Under the Rose brewing company is a new brewery that recently opened downtown, featured in the latest Edible Reno Tahoe. They just started full production, plan distribution within a couple weeks, and their new tasting room opens in three weeks! They are located at 559 East 4th Street.
And finally, according to McGonagle at ReReno, the Apple project isn't dead, it just moved to a newer better location, possibly the area on Virginia and 5th Street