New twist in UNR’s Whittel estate buildings

Brendan Riley

Wednesday, July 28, 1999 | 9:24 a.m.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - Regents meet Thursday to consider a new twist in efforts by the University of Nevada, Reno to get the historic Thunderbird Lodge on Lake Tahoe's east shore and build a research center nearby.

Under the latest plan, a nonprofit corporation - not UNR - would buy the lodge and other improvements on the old Whittel estate just south of Sand Harbor. But the university system would have the authority to name three of the five directors.

The Thunderbird Lodge Preservation Society's initial directors include UNR president Joe Crowley; Ken Hunter Jr., UNR vice president of research and academic affairs; Scott Higginson of Del Webb Communities Inc.; Stephen Wells of the Desert Research Institute; and Graham Chisholm of the Nature Conservancy.

Phil Caterino would manage the society. As a representative of the American Land Conservancy, he helped to broker the deal to let the U.S. Forest Service take possession of the 147-acre estate - excluding the buildings - in a land exchange with Del Webb.

Under the latest plan, the preservation society will sign a $9.8 million note due to Del Webb, and then try to raise funds to pay off the note over the next three years.

Del Webb bought the $40 million property from New York mutual fund tycoon Jack Dreyfus in order to trade the land to the government for public land near Las Vegas that it wants to develop.

The latest change means UNR wouldn't be the buyer and wouldn't have any financial liability. But it would have unlimited access to the estate and could operate a field research station in the old lodge.

With DRI, UNR scientists hope the research station will boost the campus to the forefront of research activities at Tahoe.

UNR also plans to hold conferences at the estate, built by flamboyant real estate tycoon George Whittel in the late 1930s. The estate was bought by Dreyfus in 1972 after Whittel's death.

The initial idea was to give students, teachers and the public access to the conference center. But under the latest plan, UNR would have just 30 days' free use of the estate for conferences. The system would have to pay rent for added time.

The conference center also could be used by outside groups, including corporations.

"The public can still be there, that's for sure," said Paul Page, UNR's vice president for university advancement, when asked Tuesday about the deal.

Page also surmised that the presence of a developer representative - Higginson of Del Webb - on the board of the society is aimed at "protecting the loan" that Webb would make.

The university plans also call for guided tours to showcase the property's historical, architectural, cultural and biophysical elements.

Dreyfus also owned another estate in Zephyr Cove, south of the Thunderbird Lodge, that's the subject of a separate land exchange. That deal, involving 46 acres and another lakeside mansion, underwent a probe by the U.S. Inspector General's Office and is still mired in controversy.

The regents' special meeting Thursday will be teleconferenced at university system offices in Reno and Las Vegas.