The former Harrah's property in downtown Reno. Rob Sabo/NNBW
The developer of more than 3.5 million square feet of commercial real estate in Idaho’s Treasure Valley has set his sights on the former Harrah's property in downtown Reno.
Boise-based developer Tommy Ahlquist told NNBW last week that he’s been involved with the shuttered Harrah’s property since last summer. The hotel-casino was closed in March 2020 after it was sold to Las Vegas-based CAI Investments for $41.5 million. Work was underway to redevelop the property into an expansive mixed-use development named Reno City Center before the project stalled and eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2024.
“At this point, the major hurdles are over,” Ahlquist said last week during a spate of news interviews at nearby Renaissance Reno Downtown Hotel. “We have been grinding away and overcoming each of those obstacles. Now it is about living by the budgets and schedules and delivering, and what we are best at is executing.
“When you get into a project that is this big, and it has gone through so much turmoil, some things you just don’t have control over,” he added. “But we are through those uncontrollables, and now it’s on us to deliver. We had to navigate a lot of deep waters to get here, but the bankruptcy has been dismissed and together we will make this project happen.”
The aptly named Revival project will include a dual-branded hotel with 390 rooms, 282 residential apartment units, 120,456 square-feet of Class A office space and 133,691 square-feet of retail space, along with another 7,500 square feet of retail inside the historic Reno National Bank building at the corners of Second and Virginia streets.
Madison Capital Group of Charlotte, N.C., became the majority owner of the property on Feb. 1 and put up the capital necessary for the project to exit bankruptcy proceedings. Ahlquist is co-developer and minority owner of Revival and will manage the property once construction is complete. The former Harrah’s property spans three hotel towers of 17, 24 and 26 stories, as well as a seven-story parking garage.
“This project already had a lot of investors,” Ahlquist said. “What it really needed was a developer to take it over.
“A lot of really good work has gone into the last six months,” he added. “This property will be revitalized and become a vibrant place where people want to work, play and live. As that happens, it will ignite everything around it because it is so pivotal to Reno’s downtown.”
Ahlquist said that over the next several months his development company of the same name expects to make multiple announcements of major office and retail tenants, along with an official groundbreaking ceremony.
“As you go through projects that have struggled, there are always times when they (finally) come together and you are ready to move forward. We are ready to get this project going,” he said.
Rendering of the Revival project in downtown Reno. Courtesy photoAhlquist knows a bit about troubled properties. In 2012 Ahlquist led the development of an 18-story office tower in downtown Boise — still the tallest building in Idaho — at a site that had sat vacant for more than two decades before construction work began and eventually stalled out.
The recent tariff turmoil that has roiled Wall Street, combined with current high interest rates and escalating construction costs, won’t have much of an impact on development of Revival, Ahlquist added. Much of the previous investment capital for the project remains in place, which greatly helps secure any new debt, he said. All told, the Revival project is expected to cost north of $200 million, Ahlquist said.
“We always just needed to get through the bankruptcy, preserve the plan we have going forward, and we have financing settled. Costs aren’t coming down, but that’s the new normal. Over the last several years, (developers) have become used to knowing what levers to pull to make sure you can pull off a project. We are really good at scheduling and budgeting, and you have to be able to deliver on time and on budget in this environment because it’s unrelenting in many ways.”
The property will include gaming and has one of Northern Nevada’s oldest gaming entitlements, Ahlquist said. The gaming will be run under Fine Entertainment of Las Vegas, which will take 80,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
Hilton, meanwhile, has signed a letter of intent to operate dual-branded hotel flags at the property, Ahlquist added.
“They are very excited to be back in downtown Reno, and we are working through our project improvement plan. The hotel is a big part of the project,” Ahlquist said.
ESI Construction of Meridian, Idaho is the general contractor on the project. Ahlquist said he expects many of the same subcontractors that previously worked on Reno City Center to resume work on Revival.
“They know what they are doing, they’ve been on the project, and it just makes sense to get them going again,” Ahlquist told NNBW.
As part of exiting the bankruptcy process, Ahlquist said payments to subcontractors with secured and unsecured liens on the property will be wrapped up by the end of April. Ahlquist admits he’s long had his eye on Northern Nevada. Three years ago his team came to Reno to look at developing new Class A office space.
“We have a hard time getting away from the Treasure Valley because there is so much opportunity there, but Reno has been on our radar for a long time,” Ahlquist said.
The company will open an office in Reno, which will be headed by local development partner Brianna Bullentini. Certain parts of the Revival project, such as restaurant space, are significantly advanced and could open to the public before the end of the year, noted Ahlquist, adding that public confidence in the project has waned since it went dark nearly five years ago.
“We are incredibly grateful to be here,” he said. “There are a lot of expectations, and we realize the bar is low on public trust right now. We will build that up by delivering. That’s what we do, and we want to build a long-term relationship with this city and its people.”