Former actor wants to build Beverly Hillbillies casino in Reno

Monday, May 11, 1998 | 8:11 a.m.

Baer, who owns homes at Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas and Beverly Hills, Calif., wants to build his proposed Jethro's Beverly Hillbillies Mansion & Casino at the struggling Park Lane Mall south of downtown Reno.

The project, he said, would combine entertainment and shopping and complement a 16-screen movie theater currently under construction.

The first-phase of construction for the hotel-casino would cost $100 million to $130 million, Baer told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

But that's if a 408-room hotel is built. Baer said he'd like to start with two, 408-room hotel towers and eventually add a third.

Some rooms would have Jacuzzis, some fireplaces, and some both, he said.

The casino portion would be "mansionesque," he said.

He wants construction to start by next summer. The project would take about 14 months to complete.

"This is not a grind joint. The Beverly Hillbillies is a mansion," he said, adding that advertisers still use characters from the show that ran from 1961 to 1971.

"By combining retail, a movie theater and Beverly Hillbillies, you cater both to the locals and to the tourists, so your chances of failure are all but eliminated," he said.

Other featured attractions would include Granny's Shotgun Wedding Chapel and restaurants - from Granny's Vittles and Hog Jowls to Drysdale's Fancy Eatin' for the Richins - serving country-style specialties with varying menus and price ranges.

Baer, 60, would not discuss financing or his partner, adding that terms and conditions have yet to be settled pending zoning, mall requirements and other factors, the Gazette-Journal reported.

Baer said he will take his plan elsewhere if the Reno community and government officials are not receptive. Financiers for gambling ventures are not exactly beating a path to Reno, he said, so the city should try to help those who are willing to invest here if the city wants to rejuvenate its lackluster economy.

"Reno is not a place you fight to get into," he said, adding that if Reno's casinos are not made more interesting, the city will continue to lose tourist trade to Indian casinos in other states.