450 N Arlington Avenue – Reno, Nevada
After the former Reno High School was demolished in 1968, the property along the east side of Arlington Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Streets was purchased for construction of a hotel to be owned by Lake Tahoe Inn H.K.M. Architect William Morris designed a complex which included an 11-story hotel with 349 rooms connected by a passageway to a four-story building at the south end. The restaurant, bar, and registration desk would be located in that building. This new structure would be the largest hotel in Reno at the time, beating Harrah’s by about 25 rooms.
The complex would include 300 parking spaces and construction was estimated to cost $6 million in the early stages. Financing was provided by Prudential Insurance Company of America. Initially, the developers said they wouldn’t pursue a gaming license and that turned out to be an elaborate ruse because Prudential didn’t lend to casinos.
The City received the permit application around September of 1973 with the applicants hoping to have the hotel completed in the summer of 1974. So many nopes. By that October, owners Max Hoseit, George Karadanis, and Robert Maloff had announced it would be branded as a Quality Inn but they hadn’t chosen a name. They had, however, suddenly decided to add a casino. Wink, wink.
The Sundowner Hotel opened on May 23, 1975 with plans for the restaurant and bar plus the newly considered casino to open around July 1.
The gaming license application was initially denied due to allegations Max Hoseit was involved in fraud and usury. He was also accused of polluting Lake Tahoe at one of his other job sites. Incidentally, Hoseit’s former business partner, Jack Van Sickle of Carson City, was indicted in 1969 for conspiracy to murder his ex-wife, a judge, and four attorneys…one of whom was Max Hoseit. All charges were later dropped.
A final decision was scheduled for June 26 but by that time, Hoseit had withdrawn from the corporation (Sundowner Hotel, Inc.) He was still part of Lake Tahoe Inn, which owned the property and leased it to the Sundowner. The trio successfully convinced the gaming board Hoseit wouldn’t be involved in casino operations and the application was approved in July of 1975.
Episodes of mischief plagued the Sundowner during its first summer. Someone turned on a seventh-floor firehose and left it running, causing damage to walls, ceilings, and elevators. That August, the hotel was a victim of what we now call swatting. The 911 caller said an officer had been shot in a room which ended up being vacant. The officer was at home at the time of the incident.
Reno’s biggest hotel also boasted the biggest TV screen at 4×6 feet in the Rawhide Room Lounge on the second-floor mezzanine.
Expansion of the Sundowner was announced in July of 1976. A larger 19-story tower with additional gaming space and about 250 additional hotel rooms would be constructed directly east of the south building, which would require demolition of the Star Dust Motel. It would also require water saving measures and negotiations for additional sewer allocations. That was the tricky bit.
Meanwhile, hotel guests experienced a string of robberies in their rooms. In October of 1976, two couples were bound and gagged and robbed of about $18,000 in cash and jewelry to two men with guns. They were fortunately unharmed.
The Sundowner rebranded as a Best Western in February of 1977 and demolition of the neighboring Star Dust was completed that summer. Construction began on the new tower before the sewer issue was settled. The casino addition was allowed to use the former Star Dust allotment but they did not have permission to build out all of the hotel rooms. Believe me when I tell you they built that new tower less than two inches from the back wall of the Bonanza Inn.
While all of this was happening, Prudential found out they had accidentally leant to casino operators. They threw a fit that November but there wasn’t anything they could do other than try to sell the property. Their own work was sloppy and they failed to include a clause in the mortgage stating no casino could be operated on the premises. It was an awkward time.
Back to the sewer. In December of 1977, the City told the owners they could only have 10,000 gallons per day rather than the 17,000 gallons they requested. This meant they could still build everything but could only put the number of rooms in service that would keep them from exceeding their permitted usage.
Construction worker Larry Newcomb was crushed by a lift on the jobsite and paralyzed in 1978. He later sued and was awarded $4.45 million due to the placement of the lift.
Canadian tourists were shot at in the Sundowner parking garage during a failed robbery attempt in January of 1979. The husband fought back and got pistol whipped but they weren’t seriously injured and they kept their money.
The following month, a federal grand jury subpoenaed the City’s records as part of an FBI investigation into its sewer allocation list. The new water treatment facility was still years away and property developers were all competing to get their projects approved. Lots of fingers were pointed with regard to campaign contributions and what the insurance industry calls moral hazards.
City workers also discovered more plumbing than was approved had popped up in the Sundowner expansion so they issued a stop work order until the unauthorized plumbing was removed. Architect Morris had submitted plans to switch 59,000 square feet of office space over nine floors to 162 additional hotel rooms, which required more sewer capacity. It was a whole thing and the application was rejected that April. The request was then resubmitted in June of 1979 and withdrawn in July, resubmitted again in September, and finally approved that December.
Meanwhile, progress continued with the Sundowner’s new coffee shop opening in December of 1979.
The Roundup Buffet opened on the third floor in March of 1980 followed by GK’s Steak House.
The Sundowner advertised 600 rooms by June of 1980 and a piano bar opened in the Rawhide Lounge that July. That lounge didn’t last terribly long, however, and the space became occupied by the Reno Press and Commercial Club around May of 1981.
From the time the Sundowner opened, numerous police reports had been filed due to money and property being stolen from hotel rooms. In some cases, it was asserted that a passkey was used but that was never proven. In March of 1984, that pattern came to a head when three women were robbed at gunpoint and threatened with rape in their room. The women sued because they said the Sundowner knew they had a security problem with multiple reported incidents and refused to act. Trial testimony included statistics indicating the number of burglaries at the Sundowner was more than triple the closest local hotel. The hotel was found liable in 1986 and the plaintiffs were awarded $1.3 million.
The lesson didn’t seem to stick because on March 25, 1987, police stated a passkey was used to enter 32 rooms and more than $1,100 was taken. Also in 1987, a 79-year-old woman had her hip broken during a purse-snatching incident in a hallway as she returned to her room. She was later awarded $350,000 in damages. The Sundowner’s attorney told the jury they shouldn’t award high punitive damages because the facility had “made extensive efforts to ensure the safety of patrons.” Obviously.
In 1989, Karadanis demolished the Gaslite Motel in the block west of the Sundowner for future expansion. By that time, visitors had begun to expect resort amenities and all the Sundowner really had to offer was a pool. Karadanis envisioned a live entertainment venue to complement the hotel and casino offerings.
By 1990, however, business was really slumping. That Christmas Eve, an electrical fire in an unoccupied room in the north tower ignited a mattress. Firefighters’ efforts were complicated by frozen emergency equipment. Because the sprinklers and standpipes couldn’t be used, they had to break a window and drag hoses to extinguish the fire. The room hadn’t been occupied in three days and management actually said only about 40 of the north tower rooms had been in use. They apparently decided not to heat the upper floors to save money. That created additional problems when the water used to fight the fire froze the elevator, closing the entire north tower for several days.
Reno’s continuing casino building boom, including the giant Project C complex just to the east, didn’t help matters.
Events like Hot August Nights would sell out rooms but the Sundowner couldn’t maintain that momentum throughout the year.
The hits kept coming, literally. In November of 1996, a woman was robbed of $580 in a Sundowner elevator. She was hit in the face and thrown on the floor during the ordeal. A June 1997 editorial complimented the Sundowner on their new night lighting project, which made the area look cleaner and safer. However, this didn’t do much for interior security. The following month, an elderly couple was robbed by someone who had entered their room while it was empty and waited for them to return.
The Sundowner rolled into the new millennium with enthusiasm for their upcoming 25th anniversary year. Unfortunately, that would be their last major milestone.
That November, an elderly lady was dragged off her slot chair as she tried to hold onto her purse while it was being stolen. Her knee was injured in the fall and she suffered a dislocated shoulder. If you can’t even secure your gaming floor, what are you even doing?
In January of 2001, Karadanis acknowledged publicly that the Sundowner hadn’t made money since 1995. He and Maloff had been trying to sell the property but were having trouble finding buyers, despite putting about $2 million into property and gaming upgrades over the previous two years. There was added concern about possibly having to pay additional taxes to help fund a new event center. Both men were looking forward to retirement.
That August, Bill freaking Gates played in a bridge tournament at the Sundowner and that was possibly the last fun moment in its history. Shortly afterward, the Garden Gazebo Buffet began having trouble maintaining appropriate food temperatures due to worn equipment. Advertising spending was cut drastically in 2002, dwindling to almost nothing in early 2003.
On October 3, 2003, the Gazette-Journal reported the Sundowner would be closing that December 1 due to ongoing losses. No severance was offered to the approximately 375 employees. They didn’t even allow a full month of insurance, with coverage being terminated effective October 17. This was a bit of a gut punch, especially for staff who had worked at the Sundowner for 20 years.
But then it got even worse! Most employees were told on Friday, November 7 that they shouldn’t come to work the following Monday. That shorted them another three weeks of pay right before Christmas. Several sued for lost wages due to the abrupt change.
Rumors about a potential buyer saving the day failed to materialize. A small group of employees worked to secure the building, clear out the vault, prepare financial statements, and help the Nevada Gaming Control Board with a final audit. Casino patrons were given until March of 2004 to redeem outstanding chips and tokens.
In January of 2004, it was reported that the Sundowner hotel rooms in the north and south towers could be converted into entry-level condominiums as part of a first-time homebuyer program. It was suggested that the casino areas could be repurposed as retail space. The potential buyer was not named at that time but by April developer Siavash Barmand of San Francisco was mentioned in conjunction with the deal.
The newly renamed Belvedere Towers received approval to change the zoning in July of 2004, the same month Barmand took possession of the property. Plans called for a 377-unit condominium and retail complex. Interior demo was underway in the north tower by March of 2005 and plans for the south tower were nearly completed. By August, Barmand was no longer involved with the project and Bijan Madjlessi had picked up the baton. The interior ended up needing a lot more demo than initially planned, causing the Belvedere to experience one delay after another.
Two additional floors were added to the north tower for penthouse units. By April of 2007, only 98 units had been sold, just in time for the Great Recession. The sales office kept saying the condos would be ready for occupancy in a few months but the first residents didn’t begin moving in until July 2, 2008. Advertised amenities included a heated rooftop saltwater pool and spa, movie theater, fitness center, recreation center, and business center and conference room. In addition to studio, one and two bedroom units, they also had two-bedroom penthouses listed for $850,000.
A July 29, 2008 fire, quickly determined to be arson, started on the roof of the four-story building and then went up the west and north walls of the south tower while its interior was under construction.
A little smoke infiltrated the north tower but no damage was sustained. Fewer than 15 people occupied those units and no injuries were reported. Damage to the south tower was estimated at $120,000.
At the same time, notices of foreclosure were popping up in the paper. Taxes hadn’t been paid, loans hadn’t been paid, and vendors hadn’t been paid. Trustee sale notices were posted and updated for a couple years. During that time, the City cited the management company several times for code violations. The Belvedere finally cleaned up the fire damage in November of 2010.
Multiple units were up for tax sale in April of 2011. Belvedere developer Bijan Madjlessi’s attorney, David Lonich, bought 92 of them for just under $2 million. At that time, only 80 condos were owned by individuals. Mountain Air Enterprises had purchased the unfinished south tower and a civil suit was filed over that sale.
Madjlessi was also charged with felony insurance fraud. He submitted multiple claims for the same losses netting almost $1.5 million. The arson case was still open at that time. He received the insurance money and then failed to make building repairs for two years. Madjlessi also defaulted on a huge development in Petaluma, California around that time. The insurance fraud trial was scheduled for October 28, 2014.
Madjlessi, Attorney Lonich, and two former bank executives were arrested in April of 2014 for fraud related to construction loans on the Belvedere. Before any of these charges could be resolved, Madjlessi was killed in a automobile crash in May of 2014. His body was found in his car 400 feet down an embankment after his family reported him missing. He had been wearing his seatbelt, had no drugs or alcohol in his system, and there was no evidence of suicide or foul play so his death was ruled accidental. The surviving three men were convicted in 2017.
While the condos in the north tower seem to have done fairly well, the south tower was never completed. It has changed hands a few times but no one has been able to solidify any plans. In 2022, the Reno Housing Authority looked at it as a potential spot for affordable housing. Unresponsive owners were blamed for the lack of progress but the building has been decaying for quite some time. I found a listing which stated the casino floors were demolished as well as two hotel floors. It probably needs to have elevators replaced as well as the roof and HVAC but hey, it comes with 255 keys!
This is how the site of the former Sundowner Hotel Casino looks today:
If you’re interested in seeing the condo interiors, there are loads of listings on Zillow and other real estate websites. They look quite nice, if maybe a bit on the small side. Some residents have complained about a lack of responsiveness from the management company and there has been some turnover on the condo association board.
The Sundowner sign is still painted on the east side of the south tower advertising the Best Rest in the West! I saw a rumor a few weeks ago that the south tower was being torn down to create more parking but with all of the lots nearby already sitting empty, that seems insane. No permits are popping up on the County website so I’ll believe it when I see it. The last listing I saw had an asking price of nearly $17 million. Bananas.
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