TRPA closes while it moves office

STATELINE -- Upgrades are under way at a commercial building on Market Street off of Kingsbury Grade that will be the home of the Tahoe Regional Planning Authority as of next week.

Owners of the building are finishing more than $1 million in improvements that helped entice the agency to become their tenant.

Office space available to the agency, created from the bare bones of a warehouse, will double to 23,500 feet. Parking will double, from about 50 spaces to more than 100. The office will allow TRPA to host its own public meetings at South Shore, rather than having to rent space at the Horizon Casino Resort.

Because of the move, the agency, which regulates building at the Lake Tahoe Basin, will be closed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The shutdown will include its Web site and telephone system. Employees are expected to box up and cart over their files, project blueprints and office equipment through the weekend so the agency can reopen Monday.

"We're hoping we've gotten the word out and people will simply plan ahead and not make a trip to the office Wednesday, Thursday or Friday," said Pam Drum, agency spokeswoman. "We've done mailings to all the people who do business with us and posted a notice on our Web site."

The public will have to tolerate a makeshift front service counter for about a week while the permanent one is finished. The counter is used by builders or owners to drop in and ask questions or turn in applications. A delay in the relocation of a wood shop, a tenant before the agency agreed to move in, caused the delay.

TRPA signed a four-year lease at the 128 Market St. address at a flat rent rate of more than $400,000 a year, about the same rent the agency paid at its current Dorla Court site. The lease allows TRPA an option to buy the office or extend its lease for up to 12 years.

In the lease, the agency agreed to pay $75,000 for tenant improvements, much less than what the owners paid to create the agency office. One of the owners, Falcon Capital, a development company based in Round Hill, was willing to absorb that cost because it can make more money renting the space as an office, instead as a warehouse.

"For us, one main reason we bought the building was to have the TRPA as a tenant," said Kevin Lane, president of K & S Inc., a firm in charge of renovating the building. Lane works at Falcon Capital with his father, Randy, who is a member of TRPA' Advisory Planning Commission.

TRPA's new address

(effective Monday)

-- Mailing: P.O. Box 5310

Stateline, NV, 89449-5310

-- Physical: 128 Market St.

Stateline, NV, 89449-5310

-- Contact: (775) 588-4547 phone; (775) 588-4527 fax;

www.trpa.org online