Former downtown motel adapted into office, retail space

Among the beliefs that Brian Egan holds dear are his conviction that downtown Reno is on the upswing and his certainty that adapting old buildings to new uses make all the sense in the world.

He's putting both beliefs to the test with the Sierra Vista Professional Building, an office-and-retail project at 205 S. Sierra St., just across Court Street from the courts complex that serves Washoe County.

Representing the building's owners, a group of Southern California investors operating as 205 South Sierra LLC, Egan has begun a low-key marketing campaign for retail and office spaces in the buildings.

Not long ago, the building was a weekly stay motel, The Executive Inn, that had seen far better days.

The investors, including several experienced in the Reno-area market, bought the building three years ago and were drawn by its location that's central to courts, financial offices and cultural venues.

And, says Egan, "The building has good bones."

Working within a solid structure, the building's owners cleared out the remnants of its previous incarnation as a motel, invested in new windows, installed a new heating and air conditioning system and repainted its exterior.

As leasing began, Egan's initial focus was on the ground-floor retail in the renovated building. Bumblebee Blooms Flower Boutique LLC owned by Katie Knapp will open a floral shop figuring to capture some wedding business from the nearby courthouse and wedding chapels and talks are under way with other retail tenants such as a delicatessen.

Now Egan has begun the search for tenants for five floors of office space. The second and third floors are designed as small executive suites, some leasing for as little as $300 a month.

The fourth through the sixth floors have been readied for larger offices up to 8,717 square feet. Potential tenants, Egan says, include law firms and others in the legal sector, as well as the growing number of firms that want be part of the resurgent downtown.

The top floor of the building is envisioned as penthouse apartments eight one-bedroom units of 726 square feet each and one two-bedroom suite at 1,138 square feet.

Three floors of covered parking remain from the building's days as a motel, and a fourth-floor swimming pool has been converted into a private exterior courtyard for the use of building tenants.

George K. Trowbridge of Reno is the architect on the project.