In 1934, a new post office opened at 50 S. Virginia alongside the Truckee River. It was a beautiful Art Moderne / ZigZag Modern building designed by Frederic DeLongchamps with Edward Parsons. It opened during the main decade of the divorce era and was an extremely busy “General Delivery” site. It served the town well as Reno’s Main Post Office until 1975. It continued to serve as a post office box and window counter service until 2007.

In August of 2012, ownership of the Reno Downtown Post Office was transferred to 50 South Virginia LLC, which carefully restored the building. Bernie Carter, Managing Member of 50 South Virginia and founder and visionary behind Reno Midtown development, will tell us how the ideas and plans and restoration of 50 S. Virginia took place, leading to a beautifully and faithfully restored downtown building.

Bernie grew up in White Pine County and graduated from UNLV. He started in banking and retail in Nevada and Colorado, and then moved on to commercial development and redevelopment. They moved to western Nevada in 1995, where he and partners formed Dacole Company. In 2008, they acquired the old Sprouse Reitz building and converted it to Ace Hardware. The next several years involved the development of MidTown in Reno. Always believers in small business, the MidTown projects housed over 25 mom-and-pop stores and led to the revitalization of that area.

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