Fine Entertainment’s planned entertainment complex at former Harrah’s Reno will echo vibes of Austin and Nashville.
Jonathan Fine stood just across from the stage of Sammy’s Showroom inside the former Harrah’s Reno hotel-casino, the gutted room’s history still palpable despite being a bare-bones shadow of its former self.
Decades ago, the showroom was the stomping grounds of Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr., who performed at the venue that bore his name until 1982. Today, the former Sammy’s Showroom is an integral part of the vision that the Fine Entertainment co-founder and CEO has for a huge entertainment complex inside the downtown Reno property.
“There’s an amazing elevator that comes out of the center of the stage that hasn’t been used since the ’70s,” Fine said.
“We envision a horseshoe bar at the end of this room with a stage, using all the lighting that they had up there … and doing some kind of a show that’s live music at night.”
Madison Capital Group — the new majority owner behind the renovation of the former hotel-casino into a mixed-use commercial and residential space spanning two city blocks — is banking on Fine’s plans to help the project move forward.
Once named the Reno City Center project, the massive undertaking fell into bankruptcy after it failed to reach an agreement with its lender when prospective office tenant Clear Capital backed out of its lease. The departure triggered a capital call from one of the project’s lenders, which demanded payment over a $20 million loan.
By February, the project was able to come out of bankruptcy, acquiring a new majority owner as well as a new name when it was re-christened as Reno Revival.
Through it all, Fine Entertainment doggedly stuck with the project.
Since making his first visit to the property during the pandemic — Fine Entertainment’s involvement was first teased in 2020 with plans for a “beer god pub” — Fine has soldiered through meetings held by the Nevada Gaming Control Board and Reno City Council, construction delays and freezes, and the switch in ownership and developers.
Fine’s decision to stay has come with a cost, literally.
“We are under eight figures, still,” a sheepish-looking Fine said. “So we’ve spent a considerable amount. We’ve made a huge investment and we are going to make a much bigger one.”
Like Austin and Nashville but with more glitz
Fueling Fine’s investments is the planned 180,000-square-foot entertainment complex.
The mammoth endeavor will claim a significant footprint at the former Harrah’s Reno, taking up the first floor of the main tower, the old “bank building” and the basement. The complex will include restaurants, bars, gambling, concerts and other entertainment.
Given the mix of gambling and entertainment, combined with the fact that Southern Nevada serves as Fine Entertainment’s home turf, Las Vegas would seem the likely candidate for inspiration.
Fine, however, pointed to other markets.
“I don’t think we’re doing what people would consider Las Vegas-style (entertainment),” Fine said. “I think we’re doing a Nashville style, you know — or an Austin style but with more glam and glitz, and a little bigger than what you’d see in Austin.”
So what exactly does Austin-style or Nashville-style entertainment entail and how does it differ from Las Vegas?
Typically, Las Vegas-style entertainment conjures images of impressive scale and over-the-top extravagance. Think Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson ONE show in Mandalay Bay, the Sphere in Paradise or Las Vegas’ slew of celebrity chef restaurants.
In contrast, the vibe in Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, can be described as energetic but more intimate, revolving around live music, trendy food and drink, and arts and culture.
Fine is aiming for something closer to the latter.
“We’re building something for the locals, we’re building something for the college (crowd), we’re building a reason for parents on weekends to stay downtown again (and) visit with their kids,” Fine said.
“We’re building a reason for date night to be downtown again.”
Having more family-friendly options — a longtime request for downtown Reno among locals, along with a grocery store — is especially important, according to Fine.
Attracting families will help get the necessary traffic to support all the attractions Fine Entertainment is building.
Fine Entertainment, for example, offers a summer movie program when school is out that attracts hundreds of people. It also works with high schools for sports tie-ins such as bringing in drum lines during football season. It holds events with mermaids, princesses and bubbles for younger kids.
“We want to be the hub,” Fine said. “We want kids running around the place (because) it activates all the other places.”
Tommy Ahlquist, president and CEO of Boise-based real estate firm Ahlquist, called Fine’s plans a perfect fit for Reno Revival. Ahlquist serves as the master developer on behalf of Madison Capital Group.
Reno Revival will offer a mix of residential, office, hotel and retail space. While it expects to attract a mix of visitors and locals once completed, Ahlquist said, families and younger folks would truly make it a destination for everyone.
“If you go to (some of Fine’s) places down in Vegas, it is high school bands and people, families, it’s very much designed around the community,” Ahlquist said. “Until I saw that in person, I was wondering what this place was going to be. but then I went down and I thought, ‘Oh, this is perfect.’”
What does Fine Entertainment plan to build inside the former Harrah’s Reno property?
So far, Fine Entertainment has confirmed about 10 attractions that it plans to build at the former Harrah’s Reno hotel-casino, including several based on its restaurants and bars in Las Vegas.
- The Mint: One of the first three concepts unveiled by Fine Entertainment in 2023, The Mint is a cocktail lounge with a retro vibe. The first location for The Mint is in Las Vegas.
- PKWY Tavern: A bar geared toward locals with a selection of 400 beers plus pool, bowling and interactive offerings such as a rewards app. Fine has several PKWY Tavern locations in Las Vegas and Henderson.
- The BLVD Grille: A restaurant that serves premium steaks and cocktails while offering live entertainment. Fine has an existing BLVD Grille in Henderson.
- The George Sportsmen’s Lounge: A restaurant bar with a stadium-style sports experience and gourmet dining that combines a vintage and modern look. Additional entertainment includes local marching bands, singers and dancers. The George has a location in the Durango Casino & Resort in Las Vegas.
- Smelly Cat: Based on the karaoke bar with the same name in Las Vegas, Smelly Cat will also feature live bands and DJ-led singalongs.
Fine Entertainment said other bars and restaurants are planned, including a speakeasy lounge, country bar, underground nightclub, burger joint and Mexican restaurant.
Fine Entertainment will first construct a temporary space to house an early version of The Mint bar in the former Starbucks location that closed this year. It will have slot machines, which will help satisfy the Nevada Gaming Control Board requirement to keep its gaming license active.
“This one should be open sometime in October,” Fine said. “It’s just a small, nice bar with great viewing for football.”
Up next will be PKWY Tavern and BLVD Grille, expected to open in the first quarter of 2026.
Fine Entertainment will also take over the former Harrah’s Reno plaza. Its plans for a 25-foot tall awning with a giant LCD screen still need approval from the city of Reno.
“Hopefully we can work with the city to get what we need done on the plaza to do a massive overhaul and an indoor-outdoor sports viewing venue,” Fine said.
If Fine Entertainment builds it, will they come?
With multiple venues planned for the initial phase of the Reno Revival, the question is whether there’s sufficient demand to fill it.
In Las Vegas, Fine pointed out, the market is segmented between locals and tourists. Fine believes downtown Reno can do both.
“I think we’re going to get a ton of local (people) — enough to make sense of the project,” Fine said. “The tourism and the hotel rooms that are around is icing on the cake and will be a nice addition to what we’re doing.”
A good number of the local traffic that Fine is counting on will hinge on how quickly the project gets moving on its planned residential and office spaces.
In March, the project estimated that it would have about 300 residential units and 120,456 square feet of office space across all three of the Harrah’s towers. It will also have an estimated 390 hotel rooms.
Part of the challenge is that the project had to resubmit to the city its permits and drawings by architectural firm Gensler.
“(Gensler) had a really tight timeline to get a bunch of drawings into the city and get the permits in so we’re just waiting for comments to come back,” Ahlquist said.
Fine believes that the questions about foot traffic will resolve if his company builds something that people will want to go to.
Giving people a place worth visiting will also solve the long-festering problem of not enough people coming downtown. If you want people to visit downtown, you need to give them a reason, Fine said.
“We don’t want people to come down and get dinner every once in a while, we want people to come downtown and hang out and spend their time here,” Fine said.
“You can come down here to watch football in the early morning. You can stay for different activities and events all day and then have dinner down here. We want to bring a full environment, a full ecosystem of downtown back.”
Fine believes the temporary Mint bar opening in October will give people a taste of what they can expect at the entertainment complex, from the drinks and food at the bar to the large LCD screen and slot machines.
“Even though this is a temporary space, this will remain open until we get everything else open and we close this space and remodel it into a different venue,” Fine said.
“Once we open this space in 30 days, there will be something open on this property 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the foreseeable future.”
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