A land swap between a Colorado-based gaming developer and the Reno Housing Authority will create five new affordable housing units downtown. Jacobs Entertainment will build a new 65-unit development and then get the housing authority’s Sarrazin Arms Apartments and land.
The Sarrazin building has 60 units but is an old building. Hilary Lopez with RHA said the benefit to the housing authority is a new, modern and more energy-efficient building.
“We’re excited for the opportunity to replace a 60-year-old aging property with a new modern energy-efficient building that … not only provides for one-for-one replacement of units but also provides five additional units of affordable housing,” she said.
Jacobs Entertainment has until the end of 2028 to begin building the new apartment building, about two blocks away from Sarrazin Arms.
“Then, the current residents at Sarrazin Arms apartment would have the opportunity to move to that new property,” Lopez added. “At that point in time, once all of the current residents have been relocated, then we would flip properties.”
RHA has more than 4,000 people on its waiting lists to get into low-cost housing.
The new apartment building, which Jacobs will pay to build, includes studios and one-bedroom apartments. The units will rent for no more than 80% of the current market rate, and existing Sarrazin Arms residents will have the first chance to move into the new building.
No plans were announced for what Jacobs intends to do with the Sarrazin Arms building. CEO Jeff Jacobs has been buying up west downtown weekly motels and demolishing them. Many were demolished years ago and remain vacant lots.
The Gibson Apartments building, adjacent to where the new building is slated for construction, was built in 1917. It had 18 units and increased over the years to 24 studio and one-bedroom units. Jacobs Entertainment purchased the property in December 2021 and has since closed the building for rentals. Downtown Makeover’s Mike Van Houghton reported Jacobs is going to restore the Gibson building.
In 2017, Jacobs said his downtown development was “a few years” away. Jacobs Entertainment continues to receive community-wide criticism for not publicizing long-promised plans to revamp most of west downtown Reno.
