The Reno Redevelopment Agency, composed of city council members, voted 5-2 May 7 to approve approximately $68 million in tax-increment financing for a new 10,000-seat arena for the Grand Sierra Resort, per the Reno Gazette Journal.
Under the arrangement, the GSR will be reimbursed 90 percent of its property taxes through 2035 to help fund the development, and owner Alex Meruelo has said he will redirect 5 percent of that back to local youth sports initiatives.
The arena will become the new home of the University of Nevada’s men’s basketball team, as well as a minor league hockey franchise that Meruelo owns. The overall project, which was announced in 2023, also includes other amenities like a skating rink, a new parking garage and potentially a new hotel tower down the line.
The request for TIF funds has proved controversial in recent months, as that element was not disclosed at the time of the original announcement. However, Meruelo’s team has since clarified that the university would not be obligated to contribute funds, rather than the city.
A coalition of local casinos banded together to oppose the financing, as they argued that those programs are for blighted areas only. That said, the casinos did not oppose the GSR being added to a redevelopment zone in the early 2000s, which is what made it eligible to receive such funds.
“We don’t have a lot of economic development tools … so in order to make things work, we have to do private-public partnerships,” Reno Mayor Hilary Schieve said, per the RGJ. “With this TIF plan, someone has to be willing to make the investment and I haven’t seen a lot of that yet. I want to send a message to the outside world that Reno is doing something.”
