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The City of Reno invites residents to attend a community meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 5:30 p.m. at the McKinley Arts & Culture Center, located at 925 Riverside Drive. City staff will provide an update on the future of the Lear. Architectural Resources Group and AMS, which are conducting an ongoing feasibility study, will also present an update. Attendees will get a preview of proposed next steps for the Request for Interest and Request for Proposal processes, which are scheduled to begin in spring 2027.
The meeting follows the Reno City Council’s direction to staff at its April 8, 2026 meeting to conduct a Request for Proposals process for the Lear building. At its May 6 and August 26, 2026 meetings, respectively, the Redevelopment Agency Board (RDA) approved $2 million in funding to the Lear for exterior improvements, and a feasibility study to help inform future uses of the building.
This will be the City’s second community meeting to discuss the future of the Lear. The first meeting was held in January 2026.
History of the Lear:
During the 1930s, two prominent women from Reno’s history, Luella Garvey and Anna Frandsen Loomis, spearheaded a project for the First Church of Christ, Scientist, to construct a new and larger church building. A site was selected at the corner of Ralston Street and Riverside Drive, just across from the banks of the Truckee River. Luella Garvey suggested the church building be designed by a California architect who had designed Garvey’s own residence just a few years prior. The church was constructed and held its first service in October of 1939 and served the congregation for nearly 60 years.
In the late 1990s, the congregation realized a need for a larger venue and began working on finding a group to take over the church and renovate the building as a performing arts theater. In 1998, Moya Lear, a member of the church, advocate for the arts, and local philanthropist, donated over a million dollars toward the purchase of the building by the Reno-Sparks Theater Community Coalition (RSTCC). The RSTCC and later the Lear Theater, Inc and Artown have all worked toward rehabilitating the building into a theater but this work was never completed. The building has been vacant for over a decade and needs substantial investment to ready the building for a new use and make it safe for the public.
To learn more about the historic building, visit the City’s Lear page. https://www.reno.gov/community/arts-culture/historic-preservation/lear.php
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