Around the Arch Blog

If you’re thinking about expanding your business or starting a new one, you already know how tough it is to get financing right now. Fortunately, thanks to action taken by the Reno City Council today, you now have another option if your business is in the City of Reno.  Check out the small business loan program that will now be administered through Nevada Microenterprise Initiative (NMI). Read the rest of this entry »

The City of Reno and the Reno Redevelopment Agency will help struggling local businesses weather the economic downturn through a program called the Reno Community Vitality and Economic Recovery (RECOVER) program.  It is designed to ease the impacts of the recession and stimulate the local economy to create new jobs at the same time.  Read the rest of this entry »

In addition to the Recovery Zone Economic Development bonds, the City of Reno also has the authority to issue more than $65 million in Recovery Zone Facility bonds. These bonds offer tax-exempt rates for projects by municipal government, non-profits and private developers that would otherwise be financed on a taxable basis. Staff will announce the City’s time lines for considering private projects that are eligible for conduit-bond financing at the September 23rd meeting.

Meanwhile, interested parties are encouraged to contact the Office of the City Manager. Interested parties should be aware that their projects need to be completed within 3 years, must have repayment sources for the bonds identified, and the bonds must be issued by December of 2010. Nevada Revised Statutes 268.530-568 describes the eligibility requirements for private conduit bonding in greater detail.

So far there are three requests for Recovery Zone Facility bonds. One is from SK Baseball for up to $25 million to complete the build out of the restaurant-retail spaces next to the Aces Ball Park. Another request for $47.7 million is from Northern Nevada Urban Land Development for the Tessera Project which would build Class A office space and retail at the gateway between the City’s urban core and the University. The third request for $21.6 million is from Evans Ranch LLC to build wind-energy generation facilities.

The Reno City Council agreed to turn over most of its $43.7 million in Recovery Zone Economic Development bonds to the Washoe County School District to rebuild new city schools and to the University of Nevada, Reno to build a new medical building to train physicians. Members also decided to keep $10.6 million for energy conservation projects throughout the City.

The City of Reno is authorized to issue up $43.7 million in Recovery Zone Economic Development bonds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The bonds must be repaid by the issuer; however, the federal government makes the repayment more affordable by providing a 45% subsidy on the interest costs. The projects selected are all ready to go and have repayment sources identified. The City of Reno will not issue the bonds but will convey that authority to the School District and the University so that they can issue the bonds for their projects.

The Washoe County School District will receive the largest allocation of bonding authority of $21,930,000. The money will be used for renovations at older city schools.

The University of Nevada, Reno will receive $11.2 million in bonding authority for a new medical school building. The project has already received $31 million from the Nevada Legislature. The State Board of Examiners is expected to vote on issuing a construction contract for the new building on November 7th.

The Reno City Council approved a request from the Ward Three Neighborhood Advisory Board (NAB) for $2,000 in Community Pride Grant (CPG) funds to the Women and Children’s Center of the Sierra, a non-profit organization. The CPG funds will assist with expenses associated with the Jobs Creation Program.

The Ward Three NAB has made their Ward residents a top priority and supports the goals of the Women and Children’s Center of the Sierra to provide assistance to at-risk women to help them become employable, find jobs, and create self sustaining, stable lives for themselves and their families.

NAB CPG funds are designed to be used for neighborhood-specific projects. These funds are allocated to projects that the City may not have budgeted for that the NAB would like to expedite. Funds are generally intended for projects that are short term in nature and quick to implement. While funding is recommended by the boards, its use and expenditure are guided by established city procurement, expenditure procedures, and ground rules.

Reno, NV-Reno’s historic “Masonic Building” will soon house a “business incubator,” “C4CUBE,” which is a non-profit, privately funded company that provides assistance in the development of new businesses and companies.   

Latitude Partners is acquiring the building. The Redevelopment Agency agreed to provide 80 parking spaces in the Parking Gallery to accommodate the parking needs of the incubator and also serve as an incentive to locate the incubator downtown.

C4CUBE will initially bring an estimated 16 employees through the creation of the incubator.  The company estimates that as many as 300 jobs could be created within the next 4. 

If all goes as planned, the move-in date for the incubator project could be as soon as late summer.