As part of Oddie Boulevard’s transformation, The Oddie District is also continuing to convert a former Lowe’s home improvement center into a 155,000-sq.-ft. coworking/makerspace with The Generator at the helm. Called The Innovation Collective, this collaborative workplace will also include a 300-seat food and beverage/biergarten court and a black box theater along with its flexible tech space.
Additional spots will be available to rent as soon as autumn of 2022 and commercial spaces can be tailored to the tenant’s needs. The Oddie District has more than 24,000 square feet available for retail and restaurant businesses to co-exist with the 16,000-sq.-ft. open-air biergarten area. Eight thousand square feet is dedicated for boutique shops and more than 55,000 square feet is designed to accommodate flex/tech and office environments. There will also be 800-4300 square feet for a dog park and community garden.
Foothill Partners, Inc. is leading the project, and founding partner and president Doug Wiele explains that over the years people have taken away the “downtown environment” where everyone goes to shop, eat, work, worship, and play.
“Now we eat over here, shop over there, work over here,” Wiele says as he gestures to opposite sides of the room. “We never meet anybody who’s not like us, we never encounter food that isn’t familiar to us. It sounds audacious but our goal is working with great merchants and great businesspeople, rebuilding infill real estate that has failed into a vibrant place where we’re putting mercantile and businesses next to culture and healing our communities,” he adds.
The Oddie District is 10 minutes away from University of Nevada, Reno, Downtown Reno, and Downtown Sparks. Reno/Sparks was named number four in the Milken Institute’s “Best Performing Cities in 2020” list, where “America’s jobs are created and sustained”. The Oddie District aims to be “a big place for small businesses” and wants to turn the vacant big box retail store into a lively workspace.
To see the layout of The Oddie District or for more information about how to lease space within it, visit https://oddiedistrict.com/.