Sunday, April 19, 1998 | 2:24 a.m.
Tony Santo, Reno Hilton president, said the 47,000 square-foot addition will give the Hilton a total of 192,000 square feet of convention space.
"There's no 2,000-room hotel I know of that has that much meeting space," Santo said, noting the 3,000-room Las Vegas Hilton has 220,000 square feet.
To make room for the extra convention space at the mall's west end, some mall tenants will be relocated and others will leave the Hilton.
The Hilton's project is part of a local effort to focus on conventions as a source of guaranteed business at a time when the Reno area is facing intense competition for tourists.
"We estimate it can give us a 5 percent increase in hotel occupancy (within a couple of years)," Santo said. "We think that the Reno market needs more business travelers."
The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
A Hilton study concluded current mall space is too big for the Hilton's 2,000 rooms, but too small to attract a major anchor tenant.
The mall has been an attraction since it opened as part of the MGM Grand hotel-casino in 1978. Bally Manufacturing bought the resort in 1986 and renamed it Bally's Reno. Hilton Hotels Corp. bought it in 1992.
archive
