Chamber chief: Carson’s recovery gathering steam

A trifecta of retailing and a McDonald’s restaurant makeover were among items heralded Tuesday by Ronni Hannaman, Carson City’s Chamber of Commerce executive director.

Hannaman said a Ross Stores outlet will open at Southgate Mall, both Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bealls will open at Carson Mall, the McDonald’s at North Carson Street and Winnie Lane will start a conversion into a yuppie-style modernized outlet, and downtown The Hub business incubator will open to set the stage for the start of old Citibank building remodeling.

“Things are filling up,” she said, going through a list of spaces that were unoccupied before, during and after the recession.

Speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon meeting, she credited the downtown incubator and Citibank projects to the Hop and Mae Adams Foundation and called the man who heads it Carson City’s primary downtown “land baron.” She was talking of Steve Neighbors, adding that man from Strategic & Operational Solutions of Idaho also plans a young entrepreneurs’ club in Carson City.

She also mentioned without specifics that there are prospects for a new downtown lodging property eventually and repeated her line about the Ormsby House possibly opening by October for the state’s sesquicentennial celebration. She said she has toured the building, and interior work is getting close to the dry-wall stage.

Hannaman said she favors closure of Third Street downtown to make a walking mall. She would prefer that if there is a one-eighths-cent boost in city sales tax, it be used to do one thing well rather than going for “50 million projects.” And she continued sounding her “accentuate the positive” theme by saying the city got through the recession in better shape than naysayers may believe.

She indicated the downtown changes, the Ross Dress for Less opening in March and Carson Mall’s addition of Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bealls in April, as well as the McDonald’s change, are among signs of recovery.

But Hannaman talked as well of Golden Gate Petroleum and Tractor Supply near the freeway on U.S. Highway 50 East and eventual prospects for the old Super Kmart to the north, just off Carson Street. Without providing details, she said a sports center might eventually move into the ample North Carson space there near the fitness facility.