Olive Garden coming to South Carson City

The Olive Garden is coming to Carson City.

That announcement was made at the Board of Supervisor's Thursday meeting where supervisors approved an amended redevelopment plan for the Southgate Shopping Center in south Carson City.

Under the agreement, Big 5 Sporting Goods will move from its north Carson City location, 3727 N. Carson St., to a 50,000-square-foot space in the Southgate Shopping Center next to Big Lots, which is slated for opening the first week of November. The shopping center also includes the Burlington Coat Factory and JC Penney.

Big 5 is expected to open in the first quarter of 2011 and the Olive Garden sometime next year after constructing its own restaurant in a parcel adjacent to South Carson Street, said Rob Rothe, president of Carson Southgate LLC.

Rothe said the Olive Garden would only open its location in the Southgate Shopping Center if more retail space was filled, prompting the amended redevelopment agreement.

The shopping center has struggled to fill vacancies since Walmart left for Douglas County earlier last decade.

The original redevelopment plan for the Southgate Shopping Center was drafted in 2007 when the city was courting Sportsman's Warehouse, but that deal fell through after the company went into bankruptcy two months before opening.

Under the 15-year redevelopment agreement approved on Thursday, Carson Southgate LLC will keep 50 percent of the sales tax generated annually by Big Lots and Big 5, an estimated $120,750.

Meanwhile all of the sales tax revenue generated from the Olive Garden - estimated to be about $157,500 - will go to the city.

Rothe said the project's lenders required the city to approve the 50 percent sales tax agreement, more generous than the 40 percent agreement for the failed Sportsman's Warehouse deal three years ago, given the stressed commercial real estate market.

But with the added revenue from the Olive Garden, Rothe said the city will keep about 70 percent of the overall sales tax generated by the three properties.

Office of Business Development Director Joe McCarthy estimated the Olive Garden will generate about $7.5 million in taxable sales a year. It also will bring about 50 full-time jobs, he said.

"In my opinion the Olive Garden will be a real significant brand for South Carson City," McCarthy said. "We're filling up the empty buildings as fast as we can."

Mayor Bob Crowell was the only dissenting vote on the redevelopment agreement. Supervisor Shelly Aldean did not vote because she owns property in the shopping center.

"We've done 80-20 on the car dealers... so that's the policy that's been in place," Crowell said, adding he didn't think it was appropriate to lure the Olive Garden to the shopping center by granting subsidies to other businesses.

"We've never given a sales tax break to a restaurant, and that's essentially what they're doing so I disagree with that," he added.

Supervisor Pete Livermore noted that Big 5 would not be a new source of sales tax revenue for the city, but commended Rothe on the deal.

"It's the package itself that's attractive to me," Livermore said. "I got to congratulate him for staying the course on this."