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RENo SPoRtSdomE
span," says Kanish. "We probably checked out every
building in Reno, and there were only two of them that
filled the mold that we needed."
The building was within their budget, and they signed
the lease. But next came financing the buildout. Kanish
wasn't sure how he was going to convince banks to
lend him the money. It was 2012, and the economy
hadn't recovered to a point where borrowing was easy.
"We have a great idea. We know it's going to work,"
said Kanish. But the banks weren't there.
In the end, Kanish simply got lucky. He was at
the 2012 USIndoor Conference & Tradeshow in
Indianapolis when his phone started ringing. "There
was a huge hail storm in Dallas. One of my roofing
guys called me and goes, 'It hailed almost softballs
around here. You need to get down here quick.'"
Kanish left the Conference and headed home to begin
working on storm repairs. "We made enough money on
that storm to basically fund the project, and that was
the lucky stroke. It was perfect timing." If not for the
storms, Kanish thinks he wouldn't have been able to
finish the project and wouldn't be in the industry today,
In addition to the money from the storm repairs, the
buildout was boosted by Kanish's wife, Jamie, an
architect. "She knows the ins and the outs. She's not
just the architect for our roofing business. She's very
involved and has had some very innovative ideas."
What become Reno Sportsdome was an old airplane
hangar without a cooling system. To have added one
