The owner of the vacant lot known as
Corporate Pointe on the corner of
McCarran Blvd. and South Virginia in
Reno last week filed for bankruptcy.
McCarran Properties LLC owns
Corporate Pointe, which currently consists
of an 80,000-square-foot building
that houses Anthem, AT&T and New
York Life, among others, and seven acres
of undeveloped land.
McCarran Properties, in turn, is solely
owned by James Lagerquist, a Seattlebased
developer.
Commercial real estate broker Grubb
& Ellis/Nevada Commercial Group manages
the property. According to John
Pinjuv, president of the firm, Corporate
Pointe's owner is negotiating with another
local developer of retail and office space
to purchase the property. The pair has
reached terms of the agreement, said
Pinjuv, but the deal has not been finalized.
"Bankruptcy is a vehicle for reorganization,"
said Pinjuv. "They're currently
negotiating to sell and to refinance the
existing building."
The new developer, if it does take over
Corporate Pointe, plans to put in office
buildings with restaurants fronting the
property on McCarran and South
Virginia.
McCarran Properties ran into problems
almost as soon as it bought the property
in 1999. The company purchased it
from Blue Cross of Colorado, which had
owned the property since 1988 and had
developed the existing building.
McCarran drew up plans to add two,
four-story office buildings on the lot and
began excavating the property in November
2000. That work stopped during the first
quarter of 2001.
"They stopped paying us," said Pat
Kelly, operations manager of Granite
Construction in Sparks, the company that
did the excavation work. So Granite
stopped work on the site.
Granite has since sued McCarran
Properties for approximately $300,000
that it still owes the construction company
for work done.
"We'll see what happens next," said Kelly.
Granite isn't the only one waiting to see
what's next. The company's bankruptcy filing
listed almost two dozen creditors, including
the Internal Revenue Service, Blue
Mountain Steel, U.S. Bank National
Association and Sasco Electric.
The filing also said both McCarran's
assets and debts equaled between $10
million and $50 million.
