Changes in store for South Lake Tahoe businesses

South Lake Tahoe is continuing its renaissance with businesses undergoing changes with either complete makeovers, remodeling or demolition and rebuilding.

Over the past several months, South Tahoe Now has been highlighting all of the changes along the South Shore. But we're not done yet as the changes continue.

The Sno-Flake Drive-In was recently purchased by Australian sisters Titian and Raia Anning. The dated iconic building will soon be seeing some changes. The Annings will be adding an outside deck off the dining room, with seating to accommodate the bikers and walkers flocking to the Harrison Avenue area. They plan to have French doors opening from the deck into the dining room. Also new for the restaurant will be beer and wine sales. The owners have applied for a liquor license so patrons can enjoy a drink other than milkshakes and soda.

Just behind the Sno-Flake is another new project, one that some area residents are excited about.

"It was a nightmare," said new owner Darren Cobrae of the Tahoe Pines Motel on Modesto Avenue. Cobrae purchased the rundown motel in February of 2015 after vacationing in South Lake Tahoe for two days.

Once a problem property with heavy drug use among tenants, Cobrae just served his 11th eviction.

"This neighborhood deserves better units," he said. "It took 15 years to run it (the old Montgomery Inn) into he ground. I've done more in seven months than the previous owner ever did."

Cobrae says he believes the Harrison Avenue/Al Tahoe area can be a tourist center with the new biking and walking paths. With the number of second homes in Al Tahoe, the vacationers are looking for eateries and shops to be able to walk to, and Cobrae wants to provide that, and more.

Coming from a background of building restaurants, Cobrae wants to add two restaurants to the property along with a boutique motel, retail spaces and lofts where the tenants would live upstairs and operate their business downstairs. He is across the street from the new Tahoe Mountain Lab who's owners have purchased the old Tribune building and converting it into workspaces and conference rooms.

When you look at the motel, the left side is home to a sunken fireplace area, which Cobrae wants to use for a new restaurant. He plans on adding the second one where the current manager's living quarter area, which also has a large wood burning fireplace.

Built in 1955, the motel had an addition made for the 1960 Olympic games in Squaw Valley.

"I'm on board and this is the first step," said Cobrae of the evictions and landscaping of the front of the property. Even with the problems incurred so far, he said he'd do it again.

"I want this to be a beacon for everyone that comes to Tahoe," he said.

He said he is a bit frustrated and wants the City to work with him as he cleans up the property and creates a mixed-use center. He's hired Gary Midkiff, a local land use consultant to help him through the process of creating his dream, a process he hopes isn't a long one.

Long time local Jan Bergman has sold her business, Awards of Tahoe. The new owner has moved the trophy business from Harrison Avenue to 298 Kingsbury Grade #D.

The Chateau Inn on Park Avenue burned in November of 2007 and has been sitting vacant and fenced off since then. Plans are being developed by the new owner, who owns the nearby Bluelake Inn, and will include demolition. There is a strong possibility that the location will be mixed use with retail on the bottom floor and condominiums on the top floors.