The Reno Redevelopment Agency Board is expected to discuss ways the Grand Sierra Resort plans to finance its $1 billion expansion.
A GSR representative says it is not requesting any taxpayer money or City funds. The only public assistance it says is using is through Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which does not use City general funds or new taxes. Instead TIF uses property tax revenue generated by the development to be reinvested back into the project.
The GSR says the current TIF reimbursement request is $68.1 million, which aligns with the City's tax increment timeframe through 2035. It says without the TIF support, "the project would not be financially viable, leaving a $145 million gap between the development costs and the expected returns."
Plans include 10,000-seat state-of-the-art arena, satellite ice rink, fan zone and more.
The Redevelopment Agency Board will meet on Wednesday.
APRIL 21, 2025
The City of Reno Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board (RAAB) met on April 21st to discuss and review the financial gap analysis and proposed deal terms for phase one of the Grand Sierra Resort (GSR) Expansion Project.
Phase one includes the following:
- A new 10,000 seat indoor arena designed to host professional sports, concerts, and major events
- 2,400-space parking structure
- 50,000-square-foot community ice facility
- 24,300-square-foot additional retail
- High-tech aqua golf driving range
- Other site and infrastructure improvements to support access, safety, and connectivity
GSR is seeking up to $97 million in reimbursement from property tax increment to close a funding gap for phase one of its $1 billion redevelopment.
The project developers are seeking tax increment financing (TIF) assistance through the city's redevelopment agency participation program.
When this project was first announced, the GSR said the expansion would be privately funded; but that has changed after developers submitted a catalyst project application for public funding.
The analysis, conducted by Hunden Partners, confirms a financing gap rendering the project infeasible without the TIF support from the redeveloping agency.
The meeting outlined the project feasibility and promoted public participation.
Following RAAB's recommendation, the item will come before the Redevelopment Agency Board on Wednesday, May 7th, for formal consideration.
A multitude of deal term options were presented during the meeting to find an agreement for funding, but the board did not approve any of the deal term options on the table. They instead approved possibly agreeing to a new deal term brought up in a future meeting.
The board voted five yes and two no on the motion provided below:
Proposed Motion: "I move to recommend to the Redevelopment Agency Board approval of, and to authorize staff to finalize and execute, an Owner Participation Agreement consistent with the selected terms."
"We want to thank the Reno Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board for officially recommending that the Reno Redevelopment Agency consider all options for a potential TIF agreement for the GSR redevelopment project," said Andrew Diss, the SVP & Chief Strategy Officer for Merulo Gaming. "The findings from the city's economic analysts strongly support a public/private partnership between the Reno Redevelopment Agency and the GSR."
Regarding the discussion of the payment model, Diss continued, "The pay-go model that was outlined today, where GSR bears all the risk and is only eligible to reinvest a portion of the TIF generated from the project, is a responsible model that safeguards the City of Reno. The city is not being asked to use tax dollars that anyone else pays; it is not a loan to GSR, and there is no money being fronted by the city to build the project."
Diss adds, "This project has gone through more analysis and review than any project in the history of Reno, and each set of analyses shows that this project will create substantial new tax revenues for the city, county, state, and school district. We look forward to coming to an agreement with the full RDA board in the near future so that we can get shovels in the ground and put local labor to work."
