Tag: codgarage

Record Courier: C.O.D. Casino gets final nod from county.

The C.O.D. Casino cleared its final hurdle Thursday, and owner Scott Tate said he has faith in the project despite dissenting Commissioner David Brady’s assertion gambling is on the decline and the plan is a “quick fix.”

The board voted 4-1 to grant the final zoning map amendments to convert the 97-year-old former automotive garage in downtown Minden to a 14,303-square-foot casino, bakery and museum.

Tate said Friday he hopes construction will begin in six to nine months.

Sounds like the final hurdle has been crossed to getting the C.O.D. Casino in downtown Minden built. The county commission gave full approval to the project on Thursday, and out of everyone in attendance at the meeting, there was not one person in opposition.

These gas pumps are something of a local landmark...wonder if they'll be incorporated in the new design.

Overall this seems like a good adaptive reuse project. Downtown sure needs a shot of something to pump some life back into it, and casinos have proven themselves to be good at getting bodies in seats. The hope is that some of them will decide to go for a stroll on the way from the slot machine to the car, and revitalize the rest of the area.

Pioneer Auto Parts, future home of Schat's Bakery.

Construction should start soon, but I can't imagine this opening until next year. Until then downtown will have to rely on its usual events: the Concerts in the Park, which should be starting up in a few weeks here, and the Farmers Market.

The project to reopen the old C.O.D. Garage in Minden as a casino has been chugging along steadily, having to work its way through several approval and zoning hurdles. It sounds like everyone wants the project to go through (except the owners of Sharkey's and CVI), because it will bring more people to downtown Minden, but there's just so much red tape to cut through to get something like this off the ground. The latest issue has been the amount of parking required for a project of this size, compared to how much parking is available in the downtown area. The Douglas County Planning Commission approved a variance this week that would cut down on the number of parking spaces required. In exchange the developers will pave and stripe the empty lot where the old Pioneer Motor Company livery stable used to be, right across the street at the corner of Esmeralda and 395. Right now people park on that lot during special events such as the Minden Park concerts and the Parade of Lights, but because it's just a big dirt area it turns into a free-for-all, with people parking everywhere. Striping it will improve the efficiency, allowing up to 58 cars to park there. And it will be public parking, not C.O.D.-only parking.

Now if the new casino is super popular, this lot will fill up quickly, leading to even worse parking problems downtown. But the Minden town board has decided this is a good problem to have, having too many people downtown. So they're agreed to let that be a problem they'll deal with when they come to it. There's still the possibility of putting a parking garage downtown.

With one business closing in downtown Minden, the plans are underway to open another one. And this one has the potential to bring a steady stream of people downtown, something Minden needs very much.

This is a relaunch of the plans from two years ago to convert the old C.O.D. Garage building into a casino and bakery. The Hellwinkel family, who owns the building, had a partnership in 2005 with the owners of Slotworld in Carson City to get the casino built, but that deal fell apart. Now the Hellwinkels have new partners, the owners of the Fallon Nugget, and they're looking to make it stick this time.

In addition to the casino, there will also be a Schat’s Bakery, museum space, and a day spa as part of the project. There's no word of all the trouble the casino ran into last time it was proposed, where Sharkey's tried to get a 100-room requirement passed for new casinos in Douglas County. So maybe that's blown over. They are running into parking problems, but the town board seems to think they can wave that away with a variance, because downtown is so dead most of the time that casino patrons can use other parking lots in the area with no problem.

So while it hardly seems like we need another casino, this might be the jolt that downtown Minden needs to come back to life. And adaptive reuse is always a good thing, especially for old buildings like this.

Now let's get somebody interested in the old Flour Mill. Please?