The Generator soft opening:
Saturday October 2nd, 12pm-6pm
That’s righttt! We are having a soft opening party, 12pm-6pm on Saturday October 2nd, 2021! Past members are welcome to come to our new location at The Oddie District and get familiar with our new space. We will be serving pizza around 2pm, and will be accepting signups for memberships. Join us for an exciting day of fun kicking off the opening of the new location.
The Generator GranD Opening:
Saturday October 23rd, 7pm-midnight
Everyone is invited to celebrate the grand opening of The Generator at The Oddie District on Saturday October 23rd from 7pm - Midnight. We’re kicking off the grand opening with our yearly Haunted Halloween Mini-Golf Party. Both new and returning members will be able to signup for memberships and start using the open shops that are operational.
8/25/21 Oddie Update
Since we closed operation at Bell St, the Staff and Board of Directors have been hard at work getting things prepared for opening in October. Everything from planning events, writing studio artist agreements, setting up our new work/trade program, getting permits, staging the building and more.
Recently, two beautiful murals have been added to the outside of our building with more to come! Killbuck, a long term studio artist, will be painting our logo above our front door entrance(to the left of the oddie district mural) in the next few days.
As our soft opening date grows closer, we are excited to get members into the building to help with shop set up and interior painting. We have volunteer opportunities all throughout the month of September. Those can be viewed on our ‘events’ page and signed up for on ‘TimeCounts’.
We are so excited to get everyone together again and start making art.
7/23/21 Oddie Update
The Generator will be closed for the months of August and September while we get everything moved and settled into our new location at The Oddie District. We have officially put out a call for volunteers for the move! Signup to lend a hand with the moving/packing/unpacking process on our volunteer tracking app, timecounts.
Volunteer Days:
Sunday, Aug 1st 12pm-6pm.
Wednesday, Aug 4th TBA
Friday, Aug 6th 1pm-5pm.
7/8/21 Oddie Update
We're officially moving out of our Bell Street location and into Oddie.
This is our last month at Bell and we will be closed for the month of August.
We're currently submitting plans and setting up electrical at Oddie. We are hopeful that we'll be able to complete the electrical and initial build-out quickly so we can get our occupancy permit and open up in fall.
We plan to do our Haunted Halloween Mini-Golf at Oddie barring any unforeseen speedbumps so start planning your holes! If you have any questions please reach out to us at info@therenogenerator.com.
6/12/2021 Oddie Update
Our facilities team, Ski and Nick Disco, have been hard at work unloading our trailers and moving things over from storage to The Oddie District. They’ve also been working with the developers, Foothills Partners, to figure out exactly what we need to build and upgrade in order to be permitted by the Sparks Fire Marshall. As of right now plans have been submitted and are awaiting approval from Sparks Fire. Once everything is signed off we can begin building out the space in a temporary way so that we can get our occupancy permit. Then things will really start moving along! Ski echoed the enthusiasm of our whole staff, “We’re all very excited about opening our new facility inside The Oddie District this fall, we wouldn’t be where we are without all the hard work from the team a Foothills Partners Incorporated.”
Although we do have a long way to go before the space is really built out and ready to go we are hopeful that we can get the woodshop and metal shop set up ASAP so we can start serving our community. “At Bell Street, we are able to help members get started making art again after this long break. “At Oddie, we will be able to go even bigger with more programs, more artists spaces, and tons of build space,” commented Erin our Director of Impact. we are able to help members get We will also begin development on an outdoor art park where we plan to have many amazing community gatherings.
Right now the timeline looks like we’ll be moving into The Oddie District fully at the end of July but as we all know things are forever changing and we’ll keep you posted as more things develop!
We are so excited to finally move into our permanent home and start settling in with all of you.
The Generator will be the heart of the new creative live-work-make space, The Oddie District.
Introducing the new Home of The Generator
We are so excited to share with you our new permanent location, 2450 Oddie Blvd in Sparks, NV! Our maker space will be part of a larger work-live-make innovation hub called The Oddie District. This new hub will feature artist studio lofts, food and beverage options, flex tech workspaces, our makerspace and so much more. The Generator will have a 30,000 sq ft location as well as a 20,000 sq ft enclosed outdoor art park.
Want to get involved?
Want to help us realize our dreams?
We are currently fundraising to help us build out our new facility and purchase new tools and machinery. Make a donation and share our cause.
Your donations will help us purchase:
Hand tools like drills, impact drivers, angle grinders and more
Educational materials for our new K-12 programs
Machine maintenance for our CNC machines, laser cutter, drill presses, etc
Supplies such as consumables, drywall, conduit, etc
Donate today to help us make the new Generator extra awesome. Is your business/organization able to donate machinery, tools or materials? That’s awesome! Please reach out to facilities@therenogenerator.com to organize all material donations.
Plans for a Redevelopment of Former Lowe’s Building in Sparks Unveiled
SPARKS, Nev. (Oct. 19, 2020) – “The Oddie District” will tackle one of the big real estate questions facing our country: What to do with all the empty big-box stores? Creative flex-tech offices, maker spaces, small shops, food and beverage offerings and work-live studios for artists and entrepreneurs will buzz after a $30 million redevelopment of the 200,000 sq ft. building at 2450 Oddie Blvd., formerly a Lowe’s Home Improvement Center and the biggest vacant big-box building in metro Reno/Sparks.
Through a model being pioneered by real estate developer Foothill Partners and national startup ecosystem developer Innovation Collective, two proven concepts are coming together. These concepts will bring vibrant, creative and community-minded energy to a long-empty big-box space, reinvigorating an aging neighborhood in the heart of Sparks.
This project is built on a long held purpose that both Douglas Wiele, the President and Founding Partner of Foothill Partners, Inc. and Nick Smoot, the founder and CEO of Innovation Collective, share: creating places and spaces that encourage collaboration in an enjoyable workplace, building a stronger, more resource-rich economy.
The partnership formally unveiled its plans for their Work-Live-Make Innovation Hub© at an on-site press conference on Oct. 19.
The Generator, a nonprofit maker space collection of celebrated artists and engineers from Burning Man and the greater Reno/Sparks community, is the cornerstone and largest tenant in The Oddie District, in 40,000 square feet of the building. Artwork created at The Generator will displayed in an Art Park being developed in what once served as the garden center of the home improvement store.
“We are thrilled about this project,” said Doug Wiele. “The Generator is a cultural icon of Reno/Sparks; to provide it a long-term home, to surround it with working environments for design, engineering and production companies and to build together a broad culture of innovation and creation will be great for Sparks and for the region. To pull all this together in the shell of a vacant big-box retail building makes it all the better.. Projects such as The Oddie District demonstrate the power of socially responsible investment strategies. We look forward to attracting the kinds of businesses that can help us build culture at The Oddie District.”
Innovation Collective, which also works with the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development to launch innovation communities across the state, will provide 12,500 square feet of collaborative office spaces next door to The Generator. Additionally, Innovation Collective will host its mentorship summits, innovator trainings, storytelling sessions, idea sharing sprints and growth groups that serve as an amenity to tenants of the district, many of them offered at no cost to the community.
Another 60,000 square feet of flex-tech space at The Oddie District will become home to technology, research, engineering, software and design companies. An 8,000- square-foot brewery/distillery will open onto covered, open-air seating area, and an events stage to be carved from the front of the building. Another 10,000 square feet of space will be available for food and beverage uses, and 9,000 square feet will provide homes for small shops and service businesses. Work-live studios will provide workspaces and homes for artists and entrepreneurs.
“For the last 8 years, we have been working in cities to ignite creative community and share the amazing innovations of those cities with big brands and venture capitalists”, said Smoot. “At full tilt, we will be running about 70 events per year in the Sparks area. Keep in mind that Innovation Collective isn’t your normal tech incubator or co-working space; we have created a model that sparks creativity, teaches tech skills and incubates high value companies. We’ve developed experiences to help creators and entrepreneurs as they explore their self-talk, money management, health, goal setting, community engagement and more. Authentic community and value creation are the goals.”
Foothill Partners specializes in creative, adaptive reuse of existing buildings. The company, headquartered in El Dorado Hills, Calif., is also spearheading Reno Public Market, the redevelopment of Midtown Reno’s Shoppers Square.
Foothill’s Director of Arts & Culture Nettie Oliverio added that Foothill Partners is passionate about a strong local arts community.
“We do well to align ourselves with arts and culture communities”, said Oliverio. “We are excited beyond measure to have this opportunity to work with the acclaimed artists and engineers of The Generator. Their work is known around the world, and our company is gratified to provide a platform for their creative success.”
The partners expect to complete its acquisition of the building, currently owned by Renown Health, late this year. The Generator will move into the project soon after the purchase.
“This marks a major step forward for The Generator,” said Jerry Snyder, president of The Generator’s board of directors. “The team at Foothill Partners reached out to us to make our new high-quality location at The Oddie District a reality. We are deeply grateful for the community spirit of Foothill Partners, and we look forward to working closely with our new neighbors as The Oddie District becomes a vital center for the arts, technology and all things creative.”
Construction inside the structure is scheduled to begin in February, with the first phases available for occupancy in September. Plans call for completion of The Oddie District by early 2022.
For more information about Foothill Partners, please visit www.foothillpartners.com. For more information on Innovation Collective, please visit www.InnovationCollective.co.
A rendering of The Oddie District.
Keep checking back for additional updates about our move to Oddie!