Targeting San Fran-Sacramento market
A new nightclub will open in July at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. The investment for the resort is big?$15 million?and the door prices will follow suit. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, male patrons will have to spend $40 to enter the new Lex nightclub, and women will be charged $30.
“There is nothing like it in Reno,” said Ben Schwartz, director of nightclub marketing at the Grand Sierra. Lex is meant to appeal to ritzy customers from the San Francisco-Sacramento market. It will have three bars, 31 VIP tables, go-go dancers and DJs. A swimming pool will be the centerpiece of the club.
Grand Sierra is betting a lot on Lex. Its $15 million investment dwarfs the $3.9 million paid for the 214-room Siena Hotel Spa Casino in downtown Reno in 2010. It is more than half the $23.12 million spent on Ascuaga’s Nugget in Sparks last December.
Schwartz said the investment is a sound one as Washoe County gaming revenues rebound. “With Reno growing, we want to be more accessible to the Bay Area. This is something they will come for,” he said. “We want to hit a new demographic, and Reno has new growth potential.”
“The Grand Sierra has really raised the bar on nightlife in Reno,” agreed Chris Baum, CEO of the Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority Baum. “It’s a cool new thing you don’t find in our competitive towns and a stamp of approval for us as a destination. It gives our No. 1 market in Northern California reason to spend some money here with a new type of product. You don’t see a swimming pool in a nightclub every day.”
