A Reno company doubled down on its big bet on the continued residential renaissance of Midtown.
In a $2 million, all-cash transaction, Marmot Companies acquired a 17-building package of 31 housing units just south of the new Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum.
The company now is investing another $1 million in renovation of the homes that it dubbed "The Assemblage," says Eric Raydon, one of three brothers who launched Marmot Companies.
"It will be a long-term project, sort of a rolling rehab," Raydon says.
The company's newest acquisitions all are in an L-shaped area straddling Sinclair Street between Stewart and Moran streets.The eastern boundary of The Assemblage is directly across Holcomb from the offices of Marmot Companies.
The properties include 12 single-family homes, two duplexes, a tri-plex, a four-plex and an eight-unit apartment building.
Raydon said the properties were acquired by two investor funds operated by Marmot Companies.
County and state records show the real estate was sold by AMR Properties Ltd., which is owned by Reno's Alonso family.
With the newest acquisition, Marmot Companies now owns more than 60 housing units in the downtown area, primarily in the West of Wells and Old Southwest neighborhoods close to Midtown.
Along with Eric Raydon, Marmot is owned by Bryan and Gary Raydon.
The company buys 50 to 100-year-old homes many of them bargain-priced because are in very poor condition for renovation into white-picket-fence rentals for professionals and young families interested in living close to jobs in downtown, nearby medical facilities or the University of Nevada, Reno.
"We want to rehab these neighborhoods to the point that we'll want our daughters to live here," says Eric Raydon.
He says the company's portfolio of homes and apartments is essentially fully leased, and the company is fielding inquiries from current tenants who want to move into some of the larger spaces that will be available in The Assemblage properties. The company handles its own management.
"We think we have reached the tipping point in Midtown," he says.
Crime rates in the West of Wells neighborhood have fallen dramatically in two years, and Raydon credits the focused work of an association of neighborhood residents.
While trendy retail, restaurants and bars have opened along South Virginia Street in the Midtown corridor, Raydon says retailers to meet day-to-day shopping needs such as a grocer and a drug store would help solidify the neighborhood.
From the public sector, he says improvements to facilities for pedestrians and bicyclists would help spur redevelopment of the neighborhood. Developers and renovation companies also have a stake in the improvement of the neighborhood's public schools as they seek to attract young families, Raydon says.
