Chaney Kelley trio ending Horseshoe’s era

The owner of the closed Horseshoe Club buildings, who is slowly clearing them out for possible tenants, gave a tour Monday to demonstrate the potential there.

Jeanette Kelley conducted the informal tour for Ronni Hannaman, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, and the Nevada Appeal after distributing renderings of how the trio of buildings could look after an exterior facelift also is done. The former downtown casino is at 402 N. Carson St., which is on the northwest corner of Carson and West Telegraph streets. The three buildings run north to what was 412 N. Carson St.

Kelley said the structures will be renamed the Chaney Kelley Buildings in part to recognize her late father, Eugene Chaney, Jr., who founded and operated the Horseshoe Club from 1973 until his death in 2007. Kelley, who ran it with siblings since, said when she started in the family business years ago it wasn’t with any idea of remaining indefinitely.

“It started out, ‘Yeah, I’ll help you, Dad,’” she said. Now, however, she is the family member and sole owner presiding over changes to reflect the times. She said she may sell the smallest of the three structures at the north end of the former casino, which is a 4,400 square foot building on two levels, and put the proceeds back into the two buildings to the south.

The southernmost structure at 402 N. Carson St., which is the largest at 5,800 square feet on two levels, already has the capability of accommodating a restaurant. The one just north of it and the middle structure is 5,100 square feet, also on two levels. The lower level of all three buildings was the casino, while upstairs there are 10 offices and five apartments spanning the three buildings.

Kelley had the main Horseshoe Club sign removed last week from the exterior and parts of it were on the floor inside when Monday’s tour took place. She said the sign is going to a collector. Other gaming and related paraphernalia also were strewn on the floor, showing the work in process, and the bars were partially dismantled as well.

“I’m in the process of taking out the bars,” said Kelley.

Hannaman during the tour noted Kelley might be able to lure a tenant or tenants who would be willing to invest in renovating the interior or interiors for the types of business they want to operate.

Kelley said she still holds the Nevada Treasure Chest stock for the business that ran the club, which catered primarily to locals before it closed months ago, and she believes she controls the gaming license for up to 24 months after the closure. She said with the license she had been seeking more than $3 million for the club. She said, however, she intends now to move in another direction, unless gaming company interest develops, given that it hasn’t sold.

She said the buildings without the license are worth perhaps $1.5 million or $2 million, and she is trying to market them through John Uhart Commercial Real Estate. She said overall, the buildings might rent in the neighborhood of $1.45 a square foot per month, including utilities, though that’s an overall estimate and precise amounts for differing areas inside haven’t been established.

John Copolous, a local architect, did renderings for the buildings’ facade conversions, and Kelley said he did a great job of retaining historical architectural details of the separate structures. She also said the downtown site on which the buildings sit are at the heart of next year’s Carson Street makeover project, as well as at the historic core of the community across from the state’s Laxalt Building.

In the 1850s and ’60s, according to records Kelley has, major players in the town’s infancy had a hand in the development of the block on which the former Horseshoe Club is located. A history of the 400 block of North Carson Street, lot 8, shows it was part of property that in 1858 was controlled by A. Curry, J.J. Musser, F.M. Proctor and B.F. Green.

The document shows that from 1858-60, the four men “were negligent as far as titles were concerned” and “gave away property to people who guaranteed that they would build upon it. During this period, Maj. Wm. Ormsby acquired the property of Block 41 (which was divided into 10 lots) in the Proctor & Green Division of the newly surveyed Carson City.”

Ormsby was killed in 1860 in the Pyramid Lake War. His heirs appear then to have had Block 41, lots 2-10, in the Proctor & Green Division.