Celebrating 10 years

This year marks The Summit’s 10th anniversary since opening the outdoor lifestyle shopping center located at Mt. Rose Highway and South Virginia Street.

The shopping center is home to more than 65 retailers including Apple, Williams Sonoma, Lucky Brand Jeans, Pottery Barn, Dillard’s and many more.

“We have maintained a unique mix of exclusive retailers,” Dan Davis, marketing manager at The Summit, said.

While employment fluctuates throughout the year due to seasonal hiring, The Summit employs more than 2,000 employees throughout the various businesses. Its South Reno location attracts many of their visitors from the Lake Tahoe area, Carson City and Gardnerville. According to Davis, 13 to 15 percent of visitors to the Summit are from the Lake Tahoe area.

These visitors travel to Reno to shop at retailers that are only found in northern Nevada at The Summit such as lululemon athletica, a high-end yoga and active wear clothing store for men and women, which opened in May 2015.

“They are off the chart,” Davis said. “It has been a huge benefit to Reno.”

According to Davis, the increase in tourism to northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe area has helped increase visitors to The Summit as well as more planned development in South Reno.

“We are seeing renewed interest in the area,” Davis said about South Meadows.

The upswing in the economy in northern Nevada is also allowing the shopping center to attract new retailers.

“We are using the opportunity to recruit a wider variety of tenants such as fitness, grocery, health and beauty, entertainment and women’s wear,” Davis said.

Last November, The Summit announced the addition of seven new retailers to the center including Dress Barn and Spavia Day Spa, which opened for business in mid-March. The shopping center also announced this year that Skipolini’s Italian, a Bay Area restaurant, would be opening in The Summit and will employ around 50 people. According to Davis, the restaurant is scheduled to open in May.

They are also planning to announce two new retailers coming to the center in the next couple of months. While Davis did not disclose the names of the two new retailers, he said that one will have an athletic concept and the other will have a medical focus.

While more retailers are opening in the shopping center, The Summit has several storefronts available for lease. Two of these spaces opened up when Banana Republic and Justice clothing stores closed this past March.

Throughout their 10 years in Reno, The Summit has also worked to create partnerships with other organizations in northern Nevada. Through the partnerships they put on events such as the Pink Pumpkin Festival and Fido Fest that benefit both their community partners and the businesses in The Summit.

The center also hosts Farmers Markets throughout the summer as well as a live concert series and Fireside Jazz series.

“Our partnership with community organizations and businesses are very important to us as good corporate citizens as well as neighbors,” Davis said.

Some of these partnerships include the Nevada Humane Society, Renown Health Institute for Cancer, Nevada Women’s Fund and Renown Children’s Hospital.

Since it’s opening in March 2006, The Summit has expanded with eight additional stores that are located East of the Old Navy. They also add more amenities like additional restrooms, a putting green and have increased their efforts to be more dog friendly. They also have the land to continue to build more stores in the future.

“We have space and we have plans,” to add additional retailers, Davis said.