When Community Spaces Disappear ..

Pete and Wayne were community champions.

It's good to know the owners of the Moana West Shopping Center have found another tenant for a space at 3366 Lakeside Drive.

Swill Coffee & Wine closed in December 2025 after a rent increase. Swill wasn't just a coffee shop—it was a gathering place for nonprofits, seniors, community meetings, and local organizations. Losing spaces like that has a real impact on Reno. The void Swill left when they closed has still not been filled in Reno

Seven months later, the space has a new tenant Between The Covers Bookbar, Nevada's first romance and fantasy bookbar.

Our disappointment has never been with the new business. It's that community gathering spaces are becoming harder to keep when rising commercial rents force longtime local businesses to close. Once they're gone, it's not always easy to replace what they meant to the community. We were saddened when Moana West Shopping Center/acquired by Local Moana LLC, a shell company operating under the Las Vegas-based Logic Commercial Real Estate gave Swill a Matterhorn sized rent increase showing the lack of compassion for their community - seniors - nonprofits.

Picon hope property owners remember that successful shopping centers are built on more than rent checks. They're built on businesses that become part of the fabric of our community. Swill was just that community.