Citibank building to become mainly office space

Remodeling the old Citibank building downtown begins next year, said Steve Neighbors, The Hop and Mae Adams Foundation trustee overseeing the foundation’s Carson City property.

“I’m in the process of doing all the asbestos abatement and clearing out the building,” said Neighbors, in town this week before flying back to Idaho. Neighbors has his Strategic & Operational Solutions office in the suburban Boise community of Meridian. He said the plan is to convert the long-vacant bank building in downtown Carson City mainly into offices and some retail.

“That building had a lot of problems,” he said.

Neighbors said he expects The Hub, a building being renovated into a business incubator not far from the old Citibank structure, to be completed by February. Then, or soon thereafter, he will start the ball rolling on remodeling at the larger bank building he is having converted to downtown offices.

The Hub is the former Stewart Title Co. building at 222 N. Carson St., and the larger Citbank structure is not far away on the southwest corner of Telegraph Square.

Shaheen Beauchamp Builders LLC, a Carson City construction firm, is completing The Hub and has been at the bank building for the asbestos abatement and related cleanup work there.

Neighbors, who hopes to proceed toward remodeling in spring or summer, said the goal is to find tenants and do the remodeling to suit their needs. During that period, remodeling will be done both inside and outside, he said.

He said it’s possible space could be rented by business firms using services at the incubator, if such companies are far enough along in an early growth phase, or other firms could move up from the incubator over time.

Neighbors said after he purchased the 25,000-square-foot building for $900,000 early this year that it could take at least a year to put in shape for occupancy. He also said he wouldn’t have paid a dollar more for the 1960s structure, which has been vacant for years. At one point the building at 308 N. Curry St. was listed for sale at $1.5 million, and some local realty people thought Citibank originally wanted even more.