Second round of building set at south-Reno center

As south Reno grows, so does its retail market.

Construction on the second phase of the 539,000-square-foot shopping center at the corner of Damonte Ranch and Steamboat parkways, the Damonte Ranch Town Center, will begin by the year end, says Gigi Chisel, a vice president of Lewis Operating Corp., the Upland, Calif., company that's developing the center.

Home Depot, one of the center's anchors, opened in June.

Furniture retailer RC Willey, the second anchor, is scheduled to open Nov.

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Plans for the second phase include one mid-sized big-box store, which will have a single tenant.

Also included are a number of free-standing pad buildings, all but one of which will have multiple tenants.

Negotiations are currently ongoing with potential tenants, including sit-down and fast food restaurants and personal care services.

Demographics of the area upper middle income is a major draw, says Kelly Bland, senior vice president retail properties at Alliance Commercial Real Estate Services, which is the broker.

"For the most part there are going to be nationally known brands and some of these brands are not yet here in the Reno market," he says."And about 60 percent of the space has already been pre-leased."

Lease rates run from $2.25 to $3 a square foot, says Bland.

The strong level of interest among potential tenants is not surprising, Bland says.

"When this area is fully developed, there will be more than 14,000 homes which translates into close to 30,000 people that will be located immediately surrounding the building.

That's a population just east of the 395, not even including the population on the west side."

Todd Blonsley,managing broker of the Marcus and Millichap office in Reno, says the pre-leasing figures show the health of the retail market.

But he says some time is needed after the euphoria that surrounds the opening of a center to see how well it performs over the long term.

"It's all going to be OK," he says."But 'tll you have a couple of years under your belt to attract sales figures, do you really know how well the population base and the market is supporting it?"

The planned second phase of the shopping center is expected to open in mid 2006.