Ormsby House gets extension to open Winchester slot bar

Construction problems have caused major delays in plans to open a slots bar in the Ormsby House parking garage.

Owners of the Ormsby House told the Gaming Control Board on Wednesday they have encountered numerous problems during their attempt to remodel the garage area, including electric circuits and pipes that aren't where the building plans say they are.

The landmark Ormsby House in downtown Carson City has been closed since October 2000 for a renovation that its operators say will affect every square inch of the building.

The board recommended that the Gaming Commission grant owners Allan Fiegehen and Donald Lehr a six-month extension of their license to open the Ormsby Winchester Club. That gives them until next April to get the work done.

Fiegehen said the kinds of problems they have faced include a contractor trying to cut through a concrete floor.

"And all of the sudden, you're sawing pipes you didn't know were in there," he said. "What was drawn (in the building plans) and what was built are not necessarily equal."

He said walls aren't flat and even, and that there are other problems with the existing structure they didn't anticipate.

He and Lehr said they hope to have the bar and slot-machine area open for business in a couple of months but that, realistically, they needed a six- to nine-month extension of their gaming license.

"Every time you think you've found your last mystery, you find another," said Fiegehen.

Larry Tiller, who is managing the reconstruction of the Ormsby House for Fiegehen and Lehr, said once the Winchester is done, work will resume on the main Ormsby House. He said the main building has been gutted: "It's nothing but elevators and concrete."

He said the owners have put more than $7 million into the project so far.

In earlier statements to the board, he said they expected to put up to $20 million into the remodel.

The Winchester Club will be a 5,000-square-foot area on the south side of the parking garage offering customers a bar and space for 125 slot machines. When they presented the project to the Gaming Control Board in April, they said they hoped to be open for business in three months.

The space was originally designed for office space but was never finished and put to use.

The main resort they say is being redesigned into suites by combining two rooms into one. That will reduce the total number of rooms for guests at the hotel to 127.