When I first moved to Reno in 2020, you could drive down North Virginia Street and it was mostly empty dirt patches and pieces of the university campus. You could see the sun and the sky shining through your window. It was peaceful and dare I say for Reno, it was cozy.
Now, the 12-story apartment complex, The Dean Reno, blocks every inch of sunlight shining on a large section of Virginia Street, right across the way from the E.L Wiegand Fitness Center.
The new complex is one of several now towering over UNR’s campus, casting a large shadow on all beneath it — there’s got to be a metaphor in that intimidating image somewhere.
It’s depressing to drive through that road now, permanently seeing what is deemed officially as the “UNR Crane,” hearing the early morning blare of construction and avoiding rubbing your car side mirrors against grimy orange blockades extending all the way down the road. When will it all be finished so we can live a peaceful life again?
The answer seems to be never.
Among “luxury” student housing, Park Place became ready for move-in last year, while HERE Reno just started leasing this year and yet another complex The Edison is expected to open its doors in 2023.
Further away from the university, but still close by new buildings all have the same luxurious claims: places like The Onyx 695, The Retreat Luxury Apartments, Vida Luxury Living Apartments, Summit Ridge Luxury Apartments, The View Luxury Apartments, The DeLuxe Apartments and Sierra View. “Luxury” is used so much it just feels like a filler word that’s being used so apartments can start their rates at $1000 a month per person.
As a previous resident of Park Place at Reno, I can say the amenities did feel luxurious — there was a large common space on the roof with a pool table, a movie theater, a gym, tanning booths, study rooms, a pool, two hot tubs, a basketball court, etc.
However, paying $905 to live with four other people and have a parking space that wasn’t guaranteed was dreadful. Not to mention, the complex required students to live in Circus Circus for roughly a month to two months before they even got to move in. And as a resident that lived there the first year it was being built, I got the luck of the draw with the “brand new, luxury” feel.
And trust me, I tried looking elsewhere that was near campus. Rates at another complex Identity were scratching the $1000 per person mark for a four bedroom apartment. Uncommon was knocking a $900 rate and Canyon Flats was smack dab in the middle of a risky part of town, something I had to consider as a female student who walks everywhere.
So I lowered my standards of apartments, looking for non-luxurious ones farther away from campus. The Republic and the YOUnion had roughly the exact same amenities as Park Place — I guess it’s not so luxurious at all.
At one point people probably thought the Republic and the YOUnion were luxurious apartments, and now students refer to them as the “cheap” apartments. They are less than a decade old.
What’s going to happen when the word “luxury” is used so often that it doesn’t start to sound as shiny?
However, it is not just students like me being priced out. Reno residents are struggling with finding affordable housing right now, and luxury housing complexes are not helping the problem.
Luxury apartments with prices starting at “the great price of $999” are not going to help people who cannot survive with a rent more expensive than three months of a car payment.
Maybe the goal of luxury apartments is to make the city better by making it prettier and bringing big money makers into the city to spur attention onto Reno. But what about prioritizing people already here?
Wake up and smell the roses, Reno, luxury housing is not the solution. It’s the problem.