Upping the Ante

Peppermill Reno Tackles Major Expansion

by Scott Blair

One of Reno's most successful casino/hotels, Peppermill is undergoing a major $350 million expansion, adding a new hotel tower, events center and pool/spa deck to better compete with Las Vegas and Indian gaming.

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With many casino/hotels in Nevada, construction never seems to end. This is true at the Peppermill Reno, which is constantly evolving to remain competitive.

Today the Peppermill is one of the most successful properties in northern Nevada, with an average of greater than 90% occupancy throughout the year, according to Bill Hughes, director of marketing operations with Peppermill Casinos Inc., which also owns properties in Wendover, Nev. and other locales throughout the state.

With the existing hotel maxed out on weekends and summer months,

Peppermill began a major $350 million expansion in October 2005 to add hotel, casino, parking and events center space. Reno-based Sierra Bay Contractors, closely associated with Peppermill through shared ownership, is the construction manager of the project and is performing general contractor duties on most of the phases.

The first phase of the expansion was a new 6-level parking structure, completed late last year.

"It's a well-designed system, and one of the easiest garages to get in and out of," says Tom Carroll, principal with Reno-based SMC Construction, the general contractor on the cast-in-place concrete structure. Each deck is approximately 100,000 sq ft.

The garage is connected to Peppermill's main casino through a new porte cochere housing a second level with walkways, offices and an arcade.

"It's a very difficult project because we are literally building at the front door of the property," says Bob Cobun, vice president with Sierra Bay. "We have to make sure the customer has good, clean access that is well lit and safe with minimum disruption."

The construction team took extra measures to minimize noise from concrete pumps during the garage construction due to the close proximity to the entrance.

The garage features ornate decorative touches to give the customer the first hint that the new expansion will carry a Tuscan-themed design. EIFS was used with efficient results to achieve the decoration. "We can make that do anything we want and have it look like a million bucks," Caroll says. "From the ground you can't tell the difference." Morris & Brown Architects of Reno designed the garage, with Chico, Calif.-based Culp & Tanner handling structural engineering duties.

Once the garage was complete, SMC and Sierra Bay began constructing the 18-story hotel tower through a joint venture partnership. The post-tensioned concrete structure will eventually house 600 all-suite hotel rooms within its gently arching shape.

"We decided to do a separate tower to the west of the existing tower and make it much more contemporarily-styled with bent glass around the corners," says Peter Wilday, principal architect with Reno-based Peter Wilday Architect, the design and interior architect on the project with Morris and Brown as the production architect.

Crews are averaging one floor a week on the tower, with two pours per level, Carroll says. Starting with the 16th floor, the floorplates suddenly cantilever six-ft to allow for three floors of more grandiose rooms.

"We built the fliers big enough to handle the upper cantilevered decks," Carroll says. "The only thing that changes is the edge form."

A total of 20,000 cu yds of concrete will be used during construction of the tower.

Concrete will be pumped until the ninth floor where crews will transition to the crane and bucket method. "We don't want to run a slick line because the tower decks are so intense with cabling and cans for plumbing, electrical and HVAC," Carroll says. "It takes us a bit longer, but we get a higher-quality job using a bucket than using a slick line."

Even though the tower's glass skin will be very contemporary on the exterior, the interior will incorporate the Tuscan theme throughout. "It's a real collection of rich, warm tones, with stone and stucco-like finishes," Wilday says.

The smallest rooms are 550 sq ft with the largest on the cantilevered decks taking up 3,000 sq ft.

"We'll probably have three different people running the finishes because there is so much and we can't sacrifice quality," Cobun says. "We also have to be done on time." The tower already has bookings scheduled for the beginning of 2008.

"Our goal is to continue to raise the standards in the Reno marketplace and to create a property that is on par with any of the four or five-star properties in Las Vegas," Hughes says. "We want to increase the trip frequency, not only from the northern California market which has been our primary feeder market, but from all over the western United States."

The property's new 63,000-sq-ft convention center, which recently broke ground alongside the hotel tower, should help further those goals. The steel-framed building features trusses nearing 200 ft long which will provide a clear span space approximately 200-by-300 ft.

"It has partitions to allow the space to be subdivided into many configurations, or we can push them out of the way and open it up," Wilday says. "The convention center has to be done by the first of December," Cobun says. "It's a very tight, challenging timeline." >>

A newly-constructed central plant recently came online for the site, allowing for the demolition of the existing one to make room for an expansion of the pool deck and construction of a new two-story structure housing a spa, restaurants and nightclub. The one-acre outdoor pool complex continues the Tuscan-theme and will triple the existing swimming pool's size. It will also contain a water feature that will rise from the center of the pool hydraulically, Cobun says. It will form designs using water spray jets.

Peppermill hasn't had to wait long to see benefits from the added features on the property. "We've been able to maintain our business and in fact grow it during construction, which is something pretty unusual for an ongoing facility," Hughes says.

Key Players

Owner: Peppermill Casinos Inc.
Construction Manager/GC: Sierra Bay Contractors
General Contractor: SMC Construction (garage, j.v. on hotel tower) Architects: Morris & Brown Architects; Peter Wilday Architect
Engineer: Culp & Tanner; Odyssey Engineering
Electrical: Nelsen Electric; Intermountain Electric
Mechanical: Savage & Son; RHP
Steel: Martin Iron Works; Regional Steel
Concrete: McClone Construction; Scott Meeks & Sons






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