Alright, look just to your left-there’s Arlington Towers, standing tall with a little swagger, like it’s still the new kid on the block. Back in 1965, this was THE project in Reno. Folks around here watched as workers poured record-breaking amounts of concrete-first 750, then 1,150 cubic yards in two separate, breathtakingly BIG pours. That’s the kind of day where your boots end up a permanent part of the sidewalk.
Now, for a bit of drama, picture a massive 40-ton climbing crane, so expensive you could buy a big house with its price tag: $80,000 back then, which would be somewhere north of $750,000 today. This beast sat right in the building’s elevator shaft, helping the crew tackle a new floor every week-until, of course, reality stepped in. Labor strikes hit, turning those construction plans into a waiting game. At one point, just 85 workers tried to keep the place moving, when there really should’ve been three times that. All told, more than four months of lost work dragged out the completion date. At one stage, only ONE of the promised elevators was up and running for this skyscraper-so, if you lived here back in ’67, you were either patient, or very fit.
Arlington Towers opened in 1967 as the pride of Reno-22 stories, roughly 260 feet high. That might not sound like much if you’re from a city with more glass and steel than sky, but here, this cast a LONG shadow. For a couple years, it outranked everything else around, until a rival casino tower stole the title in 1969. At night, I imagine it glowed like a beacon-fresh, modern, and just a little bit ostentatious.
The original setup was roomy apartments, shops, and offices on the first two floors-about 11,000 square feet each, so plenty of space to stretch out. In 1980, Arlington went from apartments to condominiums. Units went on sale just as the economy took a nosedive-never perfect timing, is it?-so sales started slow. Still, these were some of Reno’s most desirable addresses: downtown, views of the city and mountains... and you could even spot the tower in the 1973 film "Charley Varrick." Not every building gets a Hollywood moment.
Fun sidebar: After selling the tower for $9 million in 1969-about $70 million today-the Cavanaugh family found themselves in a bizarre tax tangle with the guy who bought it. Whoever said real estate was simple has never dealt with the IRS.
Arlington Towers might not be Reno’s tallest anymore, but it’s still iconic-one of those places everyone in town seems to have a story about. When you’re ready, our next stop is Saint Thomas Aquinas Cathedral-just head north for about four minutes.
