Bully's taking a pass on Minden

Bully's Sports Bar and Grill has given up plans to expand to Minden.

"It was going to be $300,000 in water and sewer capacity fees with the Town of Minden," said property owner Dennis McDuffee. "They didn't think they could make a go of it with those prices. The zeros got too big."

The decision to scrap the project to create a new location for the Reno-based Bully's came after a long building permit process.

"The building permit process alone took six months," said McDuffee. "They pulled out. It didn't happen. Maybe the new buyer could make something happen."

McDuffee said the 13-acre property at the corner of highways 88 and 395 is now in escrow with an undisclosed California developer.

"I bought the property from Safeway - bought the nine parcels over two years with other investors," he said.

McDuffee said nobody knows yet what is coming, and although there has been talk of it for years, there are no plans for a Safeway store to occupy that space.

Grocery stores are hard to get, he said, because of speculation that another Wal-Mart may eventually come somewhere to the Carson Valley.

"They're concerned," McDuffee said. "Wouldn't you be?"