Downtown Building Sells for $6 Million with $1.6 Million Renovation

The downtown office real estate market is starting to heat up! The vacancy rate was 14.3 percent at the end of the first quarter, down from 16.2 percent at the end of 2012. One East Liberty LLC, a local investment group managed by Blake Smith, who also was the developer of the Somersett master planned community, purchased the U.S. Bank building in downtown Reno for $5.98 million this month. The group plans to spend more than $1.6 million to renovate and expand the 96,832 square foot, six-story building at 1 E. Liberty St. It will include more retail space, as well as infrastructure improvements. The building will be rebranded, and the original architecture and colors will be restored. The building has a 52 percent occupancy rate. The group is in progress of signing a lease with a San Francisco Bay Area company for the whole sixth floor, about 13,000 square foot of the 40,000 square feet available. READ THE FULL ARTICLE – RGJ ]]>