Urban living is officially hot as the landscape of Reno becomes dotted with both ground up and condo conversion projects. Developers from California, Denver and the Pacific Northwest have the town, an emerging new growth market, on their collective radar and local investors are also lining up.

The areas surrounding Reno High School contain some of the city’s most quaint and intimate neighborhoods. Swing by Idlewild Park and you’ll find The Village at Idlewild, a good-sized community of 220 units spread across 12 buildings featuring the “new urbanism” design. The complex is anchored by The Lodge, the development’s multi-amenity community center. First-phase buyers are expected to move in late spring and early summer to the 10-acre site, which previously was a mothballed water treatment plant. The price of a studio starts in the low $170,000s in a neighborhood the sales agent calls “affordable southwest.”

Across town, downtown Reno’s housing renaissance is punctuated by the Palladio, a high-rise, luxury condominium spearheaded by BCN Development of Denver. The project will consist of 92 high-end luxury condominiums in a 13-story tower. Construction costs are estimated to be $28 million. BCN also has plans for a new 10-story property called the Chambolle.

And derelict hotel-casinos are also being transformed by Reno’s condo-crazy makeover. The Residences at Riverwalk, formerly known as the Comstock, was purchased by Los Angeles-based BF Management in 2004 for $6 million. The company is spending nearly $5 million on construction, according to its building permit. Developer of the former Sundowner, now called Belvedere, is Menlo Oaks Corp., of Marin, Calif. The company plans to build 188 units in the north tower.

The Village started life as an apartment project, said Chris Nelson, managing principal for Capstone Partners, the Portland, Ore.-based developer. Nelson, who lived in Reno for 10 years when he worked for Trammel Crow, said the decision to shift to condos was inspired by several forces. Most importantly, he said the company quickly realized the strong demand for affordable, high-quality projects on the for-sale side.

Capstone, which secured financing from Key Bank to build the $33 million project, said half the investors are limited partners from Northern Nevada. While he declined to name them, he said they are mostly business owners in real estate and construction-related sectors. “We got the backing from people we already had relationships with…people interested in [backing] Capstone projects,” Nelson said.

Working from offices in Seattle and Portland, Capstone arranges investment and executes work for health care, office, industrial, retail and multi-family products. The team is currently working on projects and investments with a total value of nearly $200 million. The firm has been cash flow positive since two months after its founding.

Nelson said the land purchase price was about $750,000 “as is with warts.” After demolition, land improvements and securing water rights, land costs should total about $2 million. The Naisbit Company is the general contractor.

Capstone’s first commercial project in Reno was the 12-story Class A office building known affectionately as the Old Porsche Building, which it acquired for $20 million. Capstone renamed the edifice the Museum Tower to dovetail with the nearby Nevada Museum of Art. The new name is part of Capstone’s branding effort to help create an envisioned “arts and culture district” downtown. “There’s great potential for the urban core that hasn’t been realized yet,” Nelson said. He added Capstone hopes to further paint its own presence on the downtown Reno skyline with an ambitious 17-story condominium project, which is still in the land acquisition development stage.

Based on current projections, Nelson estimated total development costs at $77 million. “This will be a luxury urban high rise with street level commercial condominiums,” Nelson said, and will likely involve local investors. The project is still in the feasibility and schematic design phase.

At the Village, Capstone has partnered locally with Dickson Realty’s Coleen Cooke as its community sales manager. She said the gated property has attracted a “nice cross section” of interested buyers who like the fact that the high-end features are standard and not upgrades. “Buyers think it’s a top-of-the-line product,” said Cooke, commenting on pre-sales. “Capstone is a high-quality group of [business] partners,” she added, citing its success in the Portland and Seattle markets.

“It’s affordable luxury…we’ve got a great amenity package,” Cooke added. And, even though they are stacked apartments, the names of the studio, one- and two-bedroom units evoke a certain kind of lifestyle: Loft, Cabin, Bungalow, and Cottage. “You don’t have to upgrade other than [opting for wood floors] and buying the washer-dryer package,” said Cooke, who has worked in the market for 15 years. That time in the sales arena has given her a frame of reference for earlier condo projects, conversions and otherwise. “Unfortunately, many of them were shoddily built,” said Cooke, citing a lack of construction quality, especially settling problems in foundations.

As she fields interest calls, Cooke also brags up some of the project’s other virtues: a noise dampening system that exceeds most new condo construction, onsite management and a fairly reasonable HOA of $155 per month.

Perhaps the greatest testimonial is the fact the Capstone partners have bravely earmarked one of the units as their own, the better to hear comments from new residents whenever they’re in town on business.