Two Reno Casinos Put on the Block

Harolds Club and the Nevada Club, two of downtown Reno’s oldest casinos, are for sale after tight money thwarted plans to add hotel rooms to Harolds, according to its owners.

Phil Griffith, president of the Fitzgeralds Group, said the group, which owns both clubs, has retained the investment firm of Bear, Stearns & Co. to make the sale offering. No sales price was given.

Fitzgeralds Group acquired the Nevada Club in 1986 and neighboring Harolds Club two years later with the intention of transforming Harolds Club into Reno’s premiere hotel-casino, Griffith said.

“With the tightening of the financial markets, we have been unable to obtain the capital required to build hotel rooms,” he said.

Griffith said the group decided that if it could not build the rooms, Harolds should be sold to somebody who can. “Our decision to include the Nevada Club and the former site of the Palace Club in the sale package makes the site very attractive to a developer of a major hotel property,” he said.

Griffith also said a small number of management employees had been reassigned or laid off because of the normal wintertime slowdown and the threat of a recession. He would not say how many people were involved, but said no additional personnel changes were anticipated.