City of Sparks Council Member Ron Smith, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of S3 Development Blake Smith and City of Sparks Council Member Donald Abbott break ground on a new 280-unit luxury apartment complex in Sparks.
A 280-unit luxury apartment complex recently broke ground near the Sparks Marina.
S3 Development Company and officials from the City of Sparks broke ground on the new development Thursday, May 25. The apartments will be called “Lyfe at the Marina” and are located on a 10-acre lot on the corner of Marina Gateway Drive and Lincoln Way. The project is expected to be complete by May 2018.
Blake Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of S3 Development, acquired the land in November 2016. He said the location of the property has many benefits such as its proximity to I-80, The Outlets at Legends and the Sparks Marina.
“You have the wonderful Marina where people can walk, enjoy and let their dogs run, you have the movie theater, you have shopping, you have restaurants, it is really a wonderful location for that,” Smith said.
The project is a joint venture between S3 Development Company, its local investors and an affiliate of Village Properties of Belmont, Calif. The Reno-based Pacific West Companies is serving as the general contractor on the project.
The luxury apartments will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom units that will include high-end finishes, 11-foot ceilings, kitchen islands and home-style touches along with a clubhouse and a resort-style pool.
“It will be a high-tech style clubhouse with a resort feel,” Smith said.
Other amenities include bocce courts, a dog park and even a dog spa. Smith said that the market will dictate the prices of the apartments at the time of completion but the units will be priced in the mid- to high-range and of the market.
“We do want to make it reasonable but the market will dictate that,” Smith said.
Increasing construction costs are one of the factors driving the high rental rates.
“Construction costs continue to accelerate and go up,” Smith said. “One of the reasons that we wanted to get in the ground quickly is to get ahead of those costs.”
Low vacancy rates within the Reno-Sparks multifamily market are also driving rental rates up. According to the Johnson Perkins Griffin Q1 2017 Apartment Survey, the average vacancy rate in the Reno-Sparks metro area is 2.23 percent and the average rent is $1,111.
“Building more apartments will bring down the cost of rents for people because it is way up there right now,” City of Sparks Council Member Ron Smith, said.
Ron Smith said he was excited to see S3 Development adding to the needed housing in Sparks.
“(Blake) gets in and gets them done for people in the region, which we need of course because of the Teslas, the Switches and everybody out at TRIC plus the influx of jobs, we have to have places like this,” Ron Smith said.
Blake Smith is also working on several other developments in the Reno-Sparks region. S3 Development recently broke ground on a 164-unit apartment complex near the South McCarran Boulevard and Fourth Street intersection in Reno. The development replaces the former Wildflower Village property. He is also finishing a residential development called Midtown Lofts located on the corner of Sinclair and Stewart streets. The project is expected to be completed by this summer.
