Hotel, housing development eyed in Truckee

TRUCKEE, Calif. — A Maryland-based company is looking at the old Barsell Property in Truckee to potentially build a hotel and an affordable housing development.

Triumph Development presented its proposal for the vacant 10.3-acre site at the Interstate 80/Donner Pass Road interchange next to the Truckee Cemetery on June 6 in an open house.

“We believe it represents a great balance that respects the existing zoning on the parcel and adds a complementary use that fills a community need with the market rate rental units,” Steve Virostek, a partner in Triumph Development, said in a news release to the Sierra Sun, sister paper to the Northern Nevad Business Weekly

According to the company, the project would include a roughly 125-room hotel and roughly 130 “garden style apartment units,” ranging in size from studios to three bedrooms.

“We have submitted and received feedback on our pre-application with Truckee and are targeting an end of June development application submittal, with approvals in October/November,” Travis Coggin, a spokesperson with Triumph, said in an email to the Sun. “Formal reviews from all the agencies will take place once we’ve submitted our development application.”

Depending on public reviews, Coggin said the company is targeting breaking ground in the spring of 2017, with a year of construction to follow.

Due to the project’s infancy, he said it doesn’t have a name yet. A website and Facebook page are forthcoming once the company hammers out details.

The Barsell property should sound familiar with Truckee residents. Previous plans included a K-Mart shopping center, as well as the more-recent and controversial Marriot Residence Inn proposal, both of which were scrapped.

Triumph earlier this year approached the town of Truckee about its idea, Yumie Dahn, an assistant planner with the town, said, while confirming that an official project has yet to be submitted.

In related news, Dahn approached Town Council in April to seek approval to work on modifying the town’s development code in order to “allow and incentivize high-density residential uses” within certain areas of Truckee’s Downtown Visitor Lodging zoning district.

Town Council obliged, allowing Dahn to rezone the following sites: Frishman Hollow II, Gales Property East and West, Joerger Ranch-Northwest Quadrant, Upper McIver Dairy — and the Barsell Property.

According to staff, rezoning those areas would allow the town to accommodate as many as 302 units of low-income housing, a number that the town’s 2014-2019 Housing Element outlines as a shortfall.

In other words, should that rezoning be approved by both the Planning Commission and Town Council, future proposals for those properties could include low-income housing — including the Barsell Property, which has been “identified as a candidate to help meet this shortfall,” according to the town.

Dahn said she continues to work on the updated zoning language, and staff could be ready to take it to the Planning Commission by July.

Triumph Development, based in Bethesda, Md., also has an office in Vail, Colo. Visit triumphdev.com to learn more.