Dennis Banks has purchased gift baskets from the Napa-Sonoma Grocery Company for clients of Dennis Banks Construction for years. When he heard the longtime northern Nevada independent specialty store was closing, he decided to purchase the business.
Napa-Sonoma, which shuttered its Independence Square location at Moana Lane in January, will reopen in the Plumgate Shopping Center at West Plumb Lane and Arlington Avenue in mid-July.
The new 2,100-square-foot store will have a slightly different approach than past incantations of Napa-Sonoma. Banks, owner of Plumgate, doesn't want to compete with current tenants Great Harvest Bread, Plum Good and Starbucks, so the store will focus instead on a wine bar and wines, specialty foods such as olive oils, cheeses and crackers, and gift baskets.
Banks, who owns retail, office and industrial space in the region but has never owned a retail operation, partnered with Art Hinckley, retired former owner the Winner's Corner gas stations.
"We decided to buy the business mainly for the basket operation," Banks says. "We really enjoy and like the basket business."
Banks expects to employ 12 people at the new store and already has hired several former employees of Napa-Sonoma. Opening of the store has been delayed as Banks travels to the Napa, Calif. area to look at specialty shops in the region to determine how to best build out the new store at Plumgate.
"We want to do it right," he says. "We want to make sure we have unique items and still make sure it will work for Reno people. We need to determine what people in Reno will want to buy, and that will help us lay out the store."
"We are bringing in a very good use for our center and are doing this as a draw for our tenants," he says. "That's a big part of why we are doing this venture we think it will draw the type of clients our center thrives on."
