Nugget development plan to be unveiled

A special meeting of the Carson City Board of Supervisors is set for 6 p.m. Thursday in the Sierra Room of the community center, 851 E. William St., where the Carson Nugget team will make a special presentation about what's going on downtown and the city's plans for getting Carson City back to work.

At their Nov. 5 meeting, supervisors heard an ambitious plan that would involve a partnership between the Carson Nugget and a number of public entities including Carson City involving about eight acres of the Nugget's parking lots between Robinson, Musser, Carson and Stewart streets.

The vision for the project would include a Knowledge and Discovery Library, business and technology incubator, evening entertainment venues such as an IMAX theater, office buildings, residential lofts, a public transportation hub, above- and below-ground parking, a public plaza and activity center, arts and cultural programming.

Fifty percent of the Nugget Development Project will be owned by the Hop and Mae Adams Trust. One of the primary missions of the trust is to support the youth of Carson City through educational opportunities that lead to jobs, so the trust would support the creation of the library as a center of learning and business incubator as an entrepreneurial center.

After hearing the plan, supervisors directed the Office of Business Development to return with specifics. The OBD will present an economic impact study Thursday which paints a bleak picture for Carson City's future if it continues on its same course.

"It shows that if we don't band together as a community and pick ourselves up by our bootstraps together, things will not work out well," said the OBD's Deputy Manager Tammy Westergard. "Simply waiting for the economy to turn around on its own is not going to cut it."

Westergard said letters of intent will be presented to supervisors from the operator of a digital lab - the new industry that will be the focus of the business incubator - and from the operator of the business incubator, both of whom would like to be ready to break ground by 2011.

A draft finance plan will be presented, which will include a 1⁄8-cent sales tax increase request. The spending plan will show that for every public dollar spent on the project, private dollars will match dollar for dollar.

"This is a great opportunity for the public to come and hear about the project and then ask questions," Westergard said.