Nathan Topol, the man who over a span of 35 years helped shape the development of both Tahoe’s North and West shores, as well as parts of Reno, passed away last month from injuries suffered in a single car accident on Highway 89 between Truckee and Tahoe City. Topol is remembered as someone who deeply cared for his family and Tahoe, and as a visionary developer who sought to improve the land that he loved with projects such as the West Shore Café, Homewood High & Dry Marina, and Raley’s Shopping Center in Incline Village.
Topol, who was 77 when he died on July 30, moved to Truckee from Brooklyn, N.Y. in the 1940s after his father purchased the Burney Lumber Co. Topol’s children said this move had a formative impact on their father’s life.
“Going out West, it was manifest destiny for him,” said son David Topol, who lives on the West Shore.
Nate Topol ran the Truckee lumber mill for his father (there was another mill in Burney), which gave him a strong connection to the land, his family said.
“He knew all the trees and vegetation and would teach his grandchildren,” said Nate’s daughter Samantha Topol from her home in Chicago. “He hand watered all the trees on his property during droughts. He felt a connection to the beauty of the area. It meant a lot to him because of his family history.”
Longtime friend David Antonucci, who gave the eulogy at Topol’s memorial on Aug. 11, remembered that Topol was fanatical about preserving trees in his developments.
“I would say to him, ‘Weren’t you in the lumber business?’” Antonucci said.
After Nate Topol’s father retired and moved to Hawaii, Nate and his brothers took over the lumber company. According to Antonucci, in the 1970s the brothers sold the business and Nate Topol invested the money in real estate, helping to develop the Lakeridge community in southwest Reno, including the construction of the Lakeridge Apartments, Lakeridge Tennis Club, and Lakeridge Center Office Complex. Topol later acquired the Lakeridge Golf Course.
In the 1980s, Nate Topol bought 1,000 feet of West Shore lakefront property from Helen Aldrich, the former owner of Homewood ski area. The land came with a marina and a bunch of old motel cottages. Over the course of three decades, Topol transformed the land into the West Shore Café’s many iterations, from an ice cream shop to an outdoor restaurant and pier that became a boating mecca, and finally to the current modern building and inn.
“He could see a piece of raw land and visualize it as a finished project that would be desirable,” Antonucci said. “He told me that it was his goal to take land and add value to it in ways that were important to people.”
All five of Topol’s children worked at the old West Shore Café and the marina. David Topol said it was important to his father to build things that he could be proud of as a resident of Tahoe.
“He wasn’t just looking to turn a profit and ditch town,” David said. “He was going to drive by everyday and look at it. I think that’s unique to develop a place where you live.”
But Nate Topol wasn’t immune to the vagaries of the real estate industry. He ran into trouble with the contractor of the new West Shore Café, which broke ground in 2002 but didn’t open until 2008. Two years later he sold the restaurant and hotel to JMA Ventures, the new owners of the Homewood ski resort. During the collapse of the real estate market, Topol lost several of the timeshare units he was building next the West Shore Café to foreclosure.
Nate Topol wasn’t only involved in the West Shore; he also had his hand in major North Shore projects. He helped his brother, Peter, develop the Raley’s commercial center in Incline Village, and managed Tahoe City’s Lighthouse Shopping Center, which Peter built in the 1970s (the center is no longer owned by the family). The Tahoe Inn, which houses the Blue Agave restaurant, was also in the family portfolio at one time. Nate’s brother, Steve, owns the restaurant.
“No one had the feeling and intuition to invest in a place like him,” said David Topol.
Nate Topol was also a major philanthropist in the Tahoe area, donating the West Shore Café to host fundraisers for Arts for the Schools, the California State Parks Foundation, the North Tahoe and Meeks Bay fire districts, and the cross-country ski trails at Sugar Pine Point State Park. He donated the Topol Pavilion, now the site of the West Shore Café, as the home of the Lake Tahoe Music Festival.
“He always liked to leave things in better shape than when he got there,” David Topol said. “He took care of the place he loved.”
Nate Topol’s family and friends were shocked by his sudden death.
“The guy was a perpetual motion machine,” said Antonucci, whose nickname for his friend was “Nate the Builder.” “He talked that he would live to 100. He was determined to keep working.”
