This was in the paper a few days ago and I forgot to post it, "OLD TIMERS DISEASE" Looks as though they bought the piece of property that was supposed to be a Sams Town Casino, but that never happened and the property just sat there with the Sam Club Coming Soon sign for several years. It would be great if this one materialized by some miracle or whatever. Reno can always use another "Locals" Casino, and that's what the Stations are noted for.

Las Vegas-based Station Casinos Inc. is planning a hotel-casino for the southwest corner of Mt. Rose Highway and U.S. 395 on land it has agreed to buy from Bayer Properties, an official for Bayer said Tuesday.

Bayer is developing the Summit Sierra outdoor mall at the northwest corner of the intersection, and agreed to sell Station 50 acres of land on the corner south across Mt. Rose Highway from the mall, which is under construction and scheduled to open in March, said David Silverstein, a principal with Alabama-based Bayer.

"We entered into an agreement to bring a hotel-casino-spa of the caliber Station builds to our project at Mt. Rose and South Virginia," Silverstein said.

He said the plan is to build a property similar to the Green Valley Ranch in Henderson.

Station earlier this year bought 96 acres of land and related water rights for $15.1 million on the southeast corner of the intersection, which was disclosed in a proxy statement. The agreement to buy 50 acres from an affiliate of Bayer was disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week, although the price was not included.

Station officials would not discuss the plans Tuesday, saying the company plans to make an announcement regarding Reno today.

The company is known for locals-oriented casinos in the Las Vegas area and lucrative tribal casino management deals in California.

"We still must go through the entitlement," Silverstein said. "They own a tract of land (on the southeast corner), but believe as we do that being closer to the retail we are building as well as closer to the freeway interchange will make this site a better location for the product they are looking to bring."

He said the project will have good pedestrian access between the hotel-casino and mall, but declined to say if a skywalk was in the preliminary plans.

"We haven't worked through all the details," he said.

Summit Sierra promises to bring many new upscale retailers to Northern Nevada, including a Dillard's department store.

The Reno Community Development Director said Tuesday he had not seen plans for the Station property, and was not aware of the sale agreement.

Station manages the Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln, Calif., for the United Auburn Indian Community. That casino, which opened in June 2003, has siphoned off Northern California gamblers from Washoe County.