The J Resort on Fourth Street near downtown Reno. Courtesy
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About 30 years ago, Cleveland, Ohio, developer Jeff Jacobs purchased his first property in Reno, the Gold Dust West casino near bustling Keystone Avenue, not far from downtown.
Then, about 10 years ago, he stepped up the pace. He gobbled up property like Pac-Man on the west side of downtown Reno, including derelict motels, empty lots, a neighborhood bar, car repair shop, even a wedding chapel.
He took some heat for razing the motels, since they were run-down homes for some impoverished people in a city with very little affordable housing. Much of his new property, like the motels, was trashed – a model of depressing urban blight.
Now, Jacobs – CEO of Jacobs Entertainment – owns about 200 acres in downtown. He estimates that's one-third of the total area of the downtown corridor.
" When (former California Gov.) Arnold Schwarzenegger brought in Native American gaming in California, this (Reno) market basically was cut in half," Jacobs said recently on Nevada Newsmakers.
"And when it hit bottom, which was maybe 10 years ago, I decided that maybe there's an opportunity to do something downtown that could be, not just gaming, but, a part of the rebirth of downtown Reno," Jacobs told host Sam Shad.
His rebirth started when he took the worn-out Sands Regency, poured money, remodeling, new restaurants and some spectacular art works into it, then re-opened in 2023 as the 700-room J Resort. About $30 million in art work -– from renown international artists – is generously sprinkled across the property, indoors and out, giving it an artistic "Wow factor" not seen in other Northern Nevada gaming properties.
Jacobs also just held the grand opening for his 245 North Arlington, a modern apartment building that will bring 60 more housing units to a sector of Reno that really needs them.
Instead of blighted motels, many of his parcels are now empty and clean, waiting for development.
"So it's a different downtown," he said. "I don't know if you've noticed that part of downtown. It's cleaner, newer, brighter and it's going to continue."
Jacobs is about to begin another phase of development. His long-term vision for his 200 acres, however, includes 2,000 residential units, a new non-gaming hotel, meeting and business space, indoor arena, outdoor concert grounds, underground parking, gaming and a roof-top pool at the "J."
His total investment in his downtown Reno properties will hit $2 billion in the next decade or so, he said. He said he's already spent $400 million on the area and estimates he'll spend another $200 million on the upcoming phase.
"It's sort of a 10- or 15-year overnight success story, you know?" Jacobs said of his Reno development.
"We're somewhere between what it was and what it will be," Jacobs said. "That is the best way to describe it."
"We just keep coming to work every day," he said. "We do little additions every year."
He's not worried about his return on investment. Patience is his virtue.
"In real estate you have to have a certain amount of patience," Jacobs said. "You know, real estate is a long-term play and this is a long-term, pivotal project that's going to re-create downtown Reno.
"So, I look at the return as part of it," Jacobs said. "I don't look at that (return on investment) as all of it. I don't think the good Lord put me on Earth just for the return."
He plans to publicly detail the plans of his next phase soon.
"In a couple of weeks, I think we're going to kind of unveil the grand vision, sort of the 10-year plan," he said.
Jacobs, however, mentioned a few nuggets of that vision during his Nevada Newsmakers interview, some of which has been reported earlier by Jason Hidalgo of the Reno Gazette Journal. Consider:
Non-gaming hotel
He wants to build a non-gaming hotel, complete with areas for business, conferences and with an underground parking facility.
"We're going to have a conference space coming, maybe a non-gaming conference hotel, like a Marriott or a Hyatt. More parking, more entertainment."
Expanded residential development
He wants to expand residential properties across his acreage, seeing it as the future "Park Avenue of Downtown Reno."
"We'd like to continue the residential component all the way down to Keystone. Then create the Park Avenue of downtown Reno," Jacobs said. "And, you've got the water there and the river and the green space...
"That's probably about three-quarters of a mile," he continued. "It's somewhere in that area.
"We're going to have some underground parking so we get more density, and, we're moving the Housing Authority project over there. We put 60 units in there for seniors, as part of the project. We're trying to keep 10 percent for affordable workforce housing, and it's an all-inclusive residential effort."
Jacobs said he will make good on an earlier promise to add 2,000 housing units to the downtown area.
"When I first started this, I mentioned would have 2,000 apartments in the area and we're well on the way to that," he said.
The festival grounds
The festival grounds near the J Resort will expand and see a lot of big-name concerts and other activities.
"We’re building as we speak," Jacobs said, adding some of the acts that will play there command a $1 million fee. I just met yesterday with the promoter that's going to be working on that with us.
"It's a green space. It's going to be a large, basically irrigated lawn," Jacobs said of the festival grounds. "And, I think, he (promoter) has got five or six, two-day festivals coming this summer in basically every genre – western, country, hip hop, the dance music that the young people like. Even the Reggae Festival from Tahoe is moving down to Reno, which will bring about 10,000 or 15,000 people over a weekend."
Jacobs has also won a political skirmish with residential neighbors near the festival grounds.
"Some folks who live in the Montage are concerned about sound," Jacobs said. "And we've purposely set the stage and pointed the speakers to the west, away from the residential downtown, which I think is a big help.
"And, you know, they came and presented their case and we came and present our case to the Planning Commission two weeks ago. And they (commissioners) voted 7-0 in favor of the project," Jacobs said.
Workforce housing
The Bonanza Inn, a property Jacobs bought for more than $3 million, is one building he didn't raze.
"The Bonanza Inn is going to become, basically, workforce housing for young people that want to work downtown and can't afford the higher rents," Jacobs said. "And so that's going to be about 50 workforce housing units."
The Bonanza building has "good bones" and is worth saving, said Jacobs.
"Structurally, it's OK," he said. "I mean, you've got a gut it completely down to the studs."
All in with 'Hot August Nights'
The J Resort and Jacobs' downtown properties will become a major participant in Reno's annual celebration of cars and 1950s & '60s rock 'n roll, called Hot August Nights.
"I'm bringing in 40 European sports cars, as a display area," he said. "And there's a lot of car aficionados here in the area, you know, with Hot August Nights and whatever.
"So in fact, this year we're going to be the registration desk for the whole city for Hot August Nights," he added. “So that'll bring about 10,000 people in to register and see the properties. So as we bring in more and more amenities, we can bring in more and more people."
Three-story expansion of J Resort
After the business and conference space is built, Jacobs will turn his attention to the three-story expansion of the J Resort.
"The conference space will come before that (J Resort expansion)," he said. "I want to get the conference space in so I can be putting a sales force in California and attracting people back here."
He spoke as if the J Resort expansion is almost shovel ready.
"We have drawings and designs for a three-story expansion on the west side of the building," he said. "The lowest level is a spa, and then the main floor is gaming and restaurants. Then the top floor is an indoor/outdoor pool. But I think we'll probably do the conference space first, or at least phase one of the conference space, and then, turn and pivot and come and do that (J Resort expansion)."
Potential for 2,000 hotel rooms: Eventually, Jacobs' properties could be home to 2,000 hotel rooms in downtown Reno. While Jacobs acknowledges the potential for that, many of those rooms won't be your typical hotel-room-tied-to-big-casino type of thing.
"So of our 2,000 room potential ... probably 500 of those will be for conference, non-gaming-related people who don't necessarily want to go to a casino, but they want to come out of market, out of California," Jacobs said. "So we think that's a separate demand and the size of that will be determined by how well we do when we try to pre-sell that, sold over the years.
"The other 1,500 rooms, 700 (at the J Resort) are already built," Jacobs added. "So maybe (we'll build) another 800 rooms. We're looking at some of those possibly being the kind of hotel rooms where people from California might want to put some money into Reno for tax reasons. So it wouldn't all be just 'Jeff (Jacobs) doing more gaming-hotel rooms, per se.' "
Indoor arena seating 3,500 to 4,000
Jacobs has long-range plans to build an indoor arena. However, he doesn't see his arena becoming competition for the new indoor arena planned at the Grand Sierra Resort.
"That's a 10,000 seat arena," Jacobs said of the proposed Grand Sierra project, which will become the new home for the University of Nevada men's basketball team. "If I do an indoor space – which I will someday for entertainment – it would probably be 3,500 to 4,000 seats."
Jacobs said he'd prefer an arena for 3,500 to 4,000 because "that's the kind of space that's in the thickest part of the market."
"There aren't that many acts where you'd fill up a 10,000-person facility, so we'd be going after different acts than what they're building (at the Grand Sierra Resort)," he said.
Under consideration
There's a large stretch of Jacobs' holdings on Fourth Street for which he has yet to finalize plans.
"I'm not sure what that's going to be, as I sit here," he said. "I just don't know what the demand will be ... probably what I'm going to do is try to do some outdoor youth sports. You know, there's a lot of folks that want to come and participate in youth sports.
"Maybe it's outdoor volleyball tournaments for people coming from California," he added. "I hear different ideas every week from people. With that much acreage, there's certainly a reason to have somebody come to you with new ideas."