By Doug Puppel
Construction is expected to start in the next few weeks on an extended-stay hotel at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, bringing the first amenities to the sprawling industrial park.
The 231-room hotel would be adjacent to Emerald Lake Town Center, a master-planned development surrounding a 75-acre, 650-million-gallon reservoir being built to provide water for evaporative cooling at the park’s data centers.
Longtime Las Vegas developer Jaimee Yoshizawa and her partners from Hawaii are building the hotel, with plans calling for a 13,600-square-foot Small Strides 2 preschool and doggie daycare to be built later.
“This is great news for the 10,000 people who work at the park and its visitors from all around the world,” Yoshizawa said. “They currently need to drive nearly 20 miles to find a place to stay or daycare for their children or pets.”
Small Strides founder Ryan Nicole Putzer, whose original campus is in Reno, said having a child-care facility onsite will make working at the industrial center more attractive to mothers.
“Women handle a lot of the child-care responsibilities, and this will give them more convenience, more peace of mind — and more time with their children,” said Putzer, who added she is considering other Small Strides locations outside the Reno-Sparks core.
Yoshizawa declined to provide a price tag for the extended-stay hotel project, saying “costs in this market are a moving target.”
Industrial park founder and Storey County Commissioner Lance Gillman has spoken of the Emerald Lake Town Center development as “a beautification project, and there’ll be fountains and streams and waterfalls.”
Randy Aleman Sr., a Las Vegas developer master planning the area around the reservoir, said that along with Yoshizawa’s hotel, another hotel in development and hospitality establishments, Emerald Lake Town Center would be “a mixed-use project of industrial and offices” with “a heavily landscaped trail around the lake.”
In an email, park executive Kris Thompson said the waterfront development would include “170 acres of lakefront property around the reclaimed water reservoir with frontage on both the lake and USA Parkway.”
The 16-mile, $32 million under-construction pipeline that will fill the reservoir is expected to be completed late this year and “moving 10,000 gallons a minute” shortly after, the project’s engineer recently told Engineering News-Record. The industrial park and data center tenant Switch are funding the project.
Under a multi-jurisdictional agreement, the pipeline will take treated water from the Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Project in Sparks and deliver it to the park. This will help keep the water treatment plant under its pollution caps because the treated effluent, rich in the nutrient pollution nitrogen, will stay out of the Truckee River.
Doug Puppel is a Las Vegas-based writer, consultant, and model represented by the TNG Agency. He and his wife, Pamela, are proud parents of two grown daughters.
Thousands graduate from higher ed. institutions
Both the University of Nevada, Reno and Truckee Meadows Community College are boasting healthy graduation rates of their students. More than 3,000 this past weekend received diplomas from UNR. TMCC on Friday is scheduled to issue nearly 1,400 associate degrees, more than 200 certificates of achievement and 30 bachelors degrees.
“This year, TMCC is also honoring an outstanding community member with the President’s Medal, the college’s highest honor that recognizes the recipient’s contributions toward the enhancement and achievement of TMCC’s mission of providing educational and public services to its students and to the community,” TMCC officials said.
“This year’s recipient is Chairman Arlan D. Melendez, who has served as the Chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, a federally recognized Tribal Government representing Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe people for over 30 years. A veteran of the U.S Marine Corps, Chairman Melendez is also a graduate of Truckee Meadows Committee College.”
UNR boasted more than 500 new business graduates and 70 new physicians graduating from the School of Medicine.
UNR recognized longtime veteran journalist Guy Clifton and philanthropist Carol Franc Buck as distinguished Nevadans. Carrie and Mary Dann, the sisters who battled the federal government over indigenous and ancestral Great Basin lands, were also honored by UNR.
Business news briefs
Training for Nevada gardeners offered online. UNR Extension is offering two programs online for those interested in learning more about gardening in Nevada’s climates. The first program is the Home Horticulture Certificate Program, offered online Aug. 4 through Sept. 29. It will cover soils and plant nutrients, composting, native plants, small fruits and pest management. The cost is $275. Information.
Nevada System of Higher Education awarded $20 million over five years for fire science research. The project is set to increase the capacity of Nevada for wildland fire research, education and workforce development. “This NSF award funds critical fire science research, which continues to be a priority for Nevada,” said DRI President Kumud Acharya.
