Whitney Peak Hotel (formerly Fitzgeralds Reno and CommRow) is a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

and former

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

located in Downtown

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. It is owned and operated by DRW Holdings LLC.

History

Fitzgeralds Reno (1976–2008)

Lincoln Fitzgerald, owner of the Nevada Club casino, began construction on a new 16-story, 347-room hotel and casino in 1974. Fitzgeralds Reno opened on May 17, 1976, at a total cost of $16 million. After Fitzgerald's death in 1981, his widow, Meta, sold the property in 1986 to the Lincoln Management Company for $26.25 million. Fitzgerald's Reno was the last of 4 properties owned by

Fitzgeralds Gaming Fitzgeralds Gaming was a gaming and hotel company based in Reno, Nevada, that operated four casinos under the Fitzgeralds brand. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2000, and subsequently sold all its properties. History Lincoln Manage ...

to be sold after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2000. Prior to this, sister properties were located in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, Tunica,

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and

Black Hawk Black Hawk and Blackhawk may refer to: Animals * Black Hawk (horse), a Morgan horse that lived from 1833 to 1856 * Common black hawk, ''Buteogallus anthracinus'' * Cuban black hawk, ''Buteogallus gundlachii'' * Great black hawk, ''Buteogallus ur ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. In 2005, Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc., owner of Atlantis Reno, attempted to acquire Fitzgeralds Reno. In April 2007, L3 Development, a development firm based out of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, announced its intention to purchase the property and convert it into a boutique hotel. On November 1, 2007, ownership of Fitzgeralds Reno officially transferred to a joint partnership between L3 Development and RAC II LLC, marking the first time in decades that the property was under private ownership.

The Rainbow Bridge

The frequent nature of rail traffic along the

First transcontinental railroad North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the " Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail netwo ...

would often make access to the Fitzgeralds from the north inconvenient. As a result, sometime in the 1990s, Fitzgeralds undertook the construction of a footbridge across the tracks to the north, accessible from a structure modeled as a castle tower erected at the southwest corner of Virginia Street and Third Street (directly across the street from the entrance to the Eldorado). Guests would enter the base of the tower, ascend a set of escalators (they only went up; those wishing to exit the property via the bridge would have to wait for an elevator), and upon crossing the bridge, end up in the Lucky Forest. Due to the construction of the ReTRAC train trench, the bridge was determined to be in conflict with necessary structural elements of both the trench itself, as well as the resulting Virginia Street overpass. This, along with the trench rendering the bridge both redundant and unnecessary, ultimately led to its demolition in 2007.

CommRow (2011–2013)

On October 1, 2008, Fitzgeralds Reno announced its imminent closure in November 2008. 470 employees were laid off and the new ownership evaluated options for the property. The lower floors re-opened as CommRow on October 1, 2011 with the world's tallest climbing wall constructed on the exterior, CommRow was designated to have a hotel component but this never materialized and the business model as a whole, struggled and closed down on January 1, 2013.

Whitney Peak Hotel (2014–present)

Whitney Peak Hotel was announced as CommRow's replacement and the Chicago-based ownership decided it was going to gut the aging structure and rebuild from scratch, and the new property opened on Memorial Day weekend 2014. The completely renovated property shows no trace of the prior CommRow or Fitzgeralds Reno. The 164' exterior climbing wall, indoor climbing boulders, and the Blarney Stone monument are the only remnants from the past business model.

References

External links

*
CommRow
{{coord, 39.527959, -119.813897, display=title 1976 establishments in Nevada Casino hotels Casinos in Reno, Nevada Defunct casinos in Nevada Hotel buildings completed in 1976 Hotels established in 1976 Hotels in Reno, Nevada Resorts in Nevada