Ormsby House in Carson City ‘under renovations’ according to sales listing
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Thu, 01/18/2024 - 6:10pm
Updates to the saga of the Ormsby House in Carson City are few and far between, but recently, the sales listing of Carson City’s largest vacant gaming and hotel institution has been updated. It is being listed for $16,750,000.
The interior of the Ormsby House, at least back in 2019 when it was briefly in escrow, is mostly gutted, although a number of hotel rooms still remain in fairly good condition, and the iconic grand staircase still stands.
What the renovations are exactly is not known, though Carson Now reached out to Nevada Commercial Group brokers for comment, who are handling the sale.
The Ormsby House was built in 1970 and includes approximately 100,000 square feet of commercial space, nine stories of hotel rooms, mixed use, and/or office spaces.
The basement also features 7,662 square feet of commercial space, and 1,395 square feet of office space.
There are two vacant parcels to the south included in the sale as well.
The last time the Ormsby House entered escrow was in November 2020, although no information was permitted to be discussed due to a non-disclosure agreement. This apparently fell through, however, as the property was never sold.
Prior to that, the Ormsby House went into escrow again in September 2019 in what became a rather bizarre story. A man named Joe D’Angelo wanted to purchase the property and name it “Joshua’s House,” which he proposed to turn into an almost community center-like facility which he pitched at the time would include five star restaurants, a showroom, medical suites, a power plant, and more.
However, Carson Now revealed that D’Angelo had made a number of big promises that fell through before, including planning to build a community fore the homeless on 87,000 acres of land near Pahrump, which would include parks, a performance hall, a water park, museums, recreational centers, a fairground, and more under the name Joshua’s Community.
D’Angelo also told Carson Now he’d tried to create a similar project in Winnemucca, but then-Winnemucca City Manager Alicia Heiser said no such project had ever been proposed to her knowledge.
The original Ormsby House was named for its creator, Major William Ormsby, who built the hotel in 1860 on the corner of 2nd and Carson Street.
The hotel remained in business after the death of Ormsby, who was killed in the Paiute Lake War, and was purchased by Dominique Laxalt in 1900s and destroyed.
In 1972, former Governor Paul Laxalt built a new Ormsby House at the corner of 5th and Carson and sold it to the Lofting family in 1975.
The 90’s spelled the beginning of the end for the Ormsby House. In 1990, the Ormsby House filed for bankruptcy protection, and in 1993, it was foreclosed and shut down.
In 1995, the hotel was reopened by a man named Barry Silverton, but in 1997, it went into bankruptcy and again was foreclosed.
Bob Cashell, former lieutenant governor and Reno mayor, was appointed as general manager and by 1999 it was back on its feet and sold to Al Fiegehen and Don Lehr, the owners of Cubix Computer Corporation.
They soon after laid off all employees and began the renovation, which will be going into its 25th year this year.
In March 2018, the owners allowed the building permit for renovations to expire and said the building will likely be converted into housing and retail. However, there have still been no plans put forward relating to condos or apartments on site.
