Plumb Lane retail site under development by Industrial Realty Group

Los Angeles-based developer Industrial Realty Group is adding to the redevelopment of the greater Midtown area with a new 4,500 square feet retail building on East Plumb Lane.

Dirt work is underway at the site on the corner of Plumb Lane and Yori Avenue. The new building will be adjacent to Panasonic Energy North America’s divisional campus and training center and will provide convenient quick-serve food offerings for PENA workers and nearby residents, said Justin Lichter, IRG’s vice president.

“Plumb Lane is one of the busier streets in Reno,” he said. “It’s a good central location with a lot of residential around it. With everything coming up South Virginia Street and down Plumb, we always had a plan to put a small retail pad on that corner. It’s a good amenity for the office building — people can walk across the parking lot to get coffee or lunch — and it’s a good amenity for the residents around there as well.”

The footprint for the new retail development fits within the expansive parking lot of the site at 645 E. Plumb Lane, which was once a central office for AT&T. The small retail building is a very modest endeavor for Industrial Realty Group, whose portfolio of properties includes Hall of Fame Village in Canton, Ohio, and the 3.1 million square-foot IBM technology campus in Rochester, Minn. However, there was always a plan to add a retail component to the Plumb Lane site, Lichter told NNBW.

“We needed to figure out parking counts for the office building,” he said. “We wanted it to come after we figured out where the office building was going because we wanted to make sure the parking counts were good.”

Industrial Realty Group purchased the 95,000-square-foot building several years ago, but it sat dark until PENA inked a deal to lease the entire building, which was the largest office lease ever in Northern Nevada. Earlier this year, PENA announced a second phase of redevelopment at its Plumb Lane campus.

Justin Lichter

IRG already has two leases signed for about 3,000 square-feet of space in the new retail building. The final 1,500 square feet could be subdivided or leased wholly depending on a tenant’s needs, Lichter said.

Wingstop will take one space, while Chop Stop Salad Co. is taking the drive-through space, Lichter added. It will be the second Reno location for Chop Stop, which has a store at SouthTowne Crossing at South Virginia Street and Damonte Ranch Parkway. Wingstop, meanwhile, has three locations in Reno and two in Sparks.

The retail development will be yet another addition to several new ground-up properties in that section of Plumb Lane. Foothill Partners constructed some new retail space for Port of Subs, Classic Skate Shop and Cold Stone Creamery near the intersection of Plumb Lane at South Virginia Street when it turned the old Shopper’s Square into Reno Public Market. Reno Experience District across the street boasts 60,000 square feet of new retail space, with initial tenants Heyday Barber Shop and Hub Coffee Roasters leasing space, and the Human Bean coffee shop opened a drive-through location at Plumb and Kirman Avenue.

Outside of those properties, however, most of the commercial space on East Plumb Lane was constructed in the 1960s and ’70s.

“This is a great addition to the street,” Lichter said. “There are a lot of properties that are getting fixed up and gentrified with new aesthetics, which is what we have been doing on the office building. The gentrification has definitely moved from Midtown into the Plumb Lane corridor, and it’s time for some fresh life on that street.”

Pinecrest Construction is the general contractor on IRG’s retail project. Lichter said retail spaces should be ready for tenant occupancy in the first quarter of 2025.

“(Developers) are using the vacant spaces that are there to fill in holes among the older properties,” Lichter said. “It’s a highly trafficked corridor, and some of this density will help a lot between the existing offices and residential to create more services along Plumb Lane.”