Downtown Reno's Property Puzzle: A Tale of Connected Dots

Washoe County Assessor photos of the properties from the list we published on January 11, 2025, with the addition of the one property that had been transferred to T-Shirts & Souvenirs.

What started as a simple reader question about a downtown corner property has unraveled into an intriguing web of real estate connections that would make a detective's spidey senses tingle.

Remember our piece back on January 11, 2025, about the City of Reno's peculiar habit of playing Sugar Daddy to property owners through the ReStore program? You know, the one where taxpayers somehow got stuck with the bill for basic landlord responsibilities at Crak N' Grill - because apparently fixing broken windows and leaky roofs is now a public service. This is no fault of Crak N’ Grill’s they got the ReStore funding and can/should use it but their landlord should have taken care of basic building repairs.

But here's where it gets interesting: While combing through the property owner's impressive real estate portfolio (think Monopoly board, Reno edition), our eagle-eyed reader spotted a curious omission. Sitting pretty at 195 N. Virginia Street, right across from Cal Neva, was a property that pulled a disappearing act. It was missing from the list.

A little digital archaeology from one of our researches revealed that in 2018, this prime piece of downtown real estate did a quiet waltz from a trust to "T-Shirts & Souvenirs" - with the billing address leading right back to a property owned by... you guessed it... the original trust.

Now, we're not saying there's a story here, but our journalistic curiosity gets mighty itchy. Also, our researcher while tracking down this ownership of 195 N. Virginia found a few other name, and properties that we need to make some inquiries of the Washoe County Assessors Office about in Downtown Reno.

So, dear readers, if you've got any breadcrumbs to add to this trail, drop us a line. We might just need to shine a brighter light into these downtown shadows.

Side note - listed is the property at 330 Evans Avenue. You might remember the fight to maintain a privilege liquor license by Wrightway Market vs the City of Reno in 2023, a tenant of this particular trust.

Graphic from our January 11, 2025 article showing a list of properties that a reader noticed one was missing from.