Downtown Reno's oldest building, too unsafe to save, to be razed for Whitney Peak expansion

Downtown Reno's oldest building, the 1872 Reno Mercantile and Masonic Lodge, has been found too unstable to save and will be demolished along with the former Old Reno casino and Vino's to make way for a Whitney Peak Hotel expansion.

The hotel's owner and developers plan to begin the $13 million construction on a new 90- to 100-room extended-stay hotel in their place.

The Whitney Peak hotel, which opened in 2014 on Commercial Row and Virginia Street in front of the Reno Arch, caters largely to area employees of Apple, Google, Tesla and Panasonic. Buses shuttle Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center employees to and from the hotel every day. Those employees increase demand for a corporate hotel, according to Whitney Peak Hotel.

Four years ago, Whitney Peak owners began working with Paul Ferrari, a local engineer with experiencing retrofitting historic buildings, in order to reuse them. The plan at the time was to update them to modern codes and convert them to retail or other uses.

The Reno Mercantile building, 98 W. Commercial Row, is the oldest commercial structure in downtown Reno, according to RenoHistorical.org. It began construction in 1872, and has been vacant since the mid-1970s. 

In early 2017, the city of Reno required Whitney Peak owners to build fencing around the building due to safety concerns. City engineers worried that the external wall could peel away from the internal wall and injure people.

"Decades of neglect and water seepage have made the building structurally unsound, and a complete interior framing structure currently prevents the building from collapsing," according to Preserve Nevada's list of the 11 most endangered historic structures in Nevada.

Whitney Peak owners said it spent more than $250,000 installing internal bracing to stabilize the Mercantile building. But even that could not save the Reno Mercantile.

More:Downtown Reno's Mercantile building not on the chopping block

“We evaluated every option and leveraged considerable resources on the owners’ part to find a solution that would allow us to preserve the Reno Mercantile, but we determined that the safest – and only – course of action is to raze the building,” Ferrari said in a news release. “However, the owners absolutely recognize the legacy of this building and its importance to the Reno community, so they will salvage and re-use as much existing material as possible, bringing historic integrity to the new building.” 

The city agreed that this might be the correct course of action back in 2017.

"If (a building is) unsafe and can’t be saved, we take it down," Alex Woodley, city of Reno's code enforcement manager told the RGJ in 2017. "We have to be objective about whether the building is sound."

Whitney Peak owners said it set aside a "substantial demolition budget" and will work with contractors to salvage interior wood beams and exterior bricks to incorporate into the new property. The new hotel will also include an interpretive display that chronicles the long history of the Masonic Lodge and Reno Mercantile, including photos of the building in its various incarnations. 

More:Whitney Peak climbing wall officially named tallest in the world

Demolition of the long-vacant Old Reno Casino and Vino's restaurant surrounding the Mercantile behind the Whitney Peak are expected to begin in the next month, with construction of the new hotel planned to complete in mid-2020.

The new hotel plans incorporate many of the same elements and amenities of the main hotel. Each room in the new non-smoking property would also have an in-unit washer and dryer and a kitchenette. 

While final designs were not available, Whitney Peak Hotel plans to include some meeting space and a mini-convenience shop. Guests will also have full access Whitney Peak Hotel and its amenities, including the full-service restaurant, Roundabout Grill; BaseCamp climbing gym and fitness center; The Third Floor meeting and event space; and Cargo Concert Hall. 

Mike Higdon is the city life reporter at the RGJ and can be found on Instagram @MillennialMike, on Facebook at Mike Higdon, Reno Life and on Twitter @MikeHigdon.