Long-delayed racquet facility raising money to build

Developers of a long-planned project to build a racquet and courts sports facility in Reno say the venture is back in play.

JogoReno now plans to build a four-story, 68,000-square-foot sports club on the southeast side of the Grand Sierra Resort once it raises the $11 million needed for the project.

The Reno hotel/resort has agreed to a 30-year lease at “very, very favorable terms,” says Mike Neeser, managing partner of jogoReno.

“They have the confidence that we’ll do what we say we’re going to do and bring the room nights,” says Neeser. “We’ll start construction late this fall and open a year later.”

Neeser predicts the facility, which is set to be both a membership-based club and a venue for national and international tournaments, will generate 25,000 room-nights annually.

The club will be built with movable walls and LED-lighted floors and offer space for all kinds of racquet sports such as racquetball, squash and pickleball as well as court-based sports, including volleyball and wallyball, an indoor version of volleyball created by Joe Garcia, a partner in jogoReno.

The developers are working with an investment bank in Los Angeles as well as reaching out to sports industry professionals and local investors to secure financing.

Neeser says jogoReno had always wanted to locate at the Grand Sierra, but the resort’s management showed little interest until The Meruelo Group purchased it in 2011. Neeser still owns the five-acre site in south Reno where the project was originally planned. That property near Damonte Ranch is currently on the market, but Neeser says he will build a retail development there if it he is unable to sell it.

He says the original plan for the sports facility stalled in 2008, when financing dried up due to the recession.