Harvest Hub a co-op food collaborative

Harvest Hub, the grocery and deli planned in downtown Carson City, will be a cooperative on Adams Carson LLC property, and the nonprofit business aims to raise $100,000 in startup funding.

The plan for the outlet on the block bounded by North Curry, West Washington, North Nevada and West Ann streets envisions a new, energy-efficient building on parcels put together by the Hop and Mae Adams Foundation, which have been transferred to the Adams Carson limited-liability concern. The new building will be leased to the cooperative, said two women involved.

Stephanie Gardner of the Food For Thought program and Miya MacKenzie of MacWest Marketing, a spokeswoman for the foundation, explained details from their varying perspectives Thursday.

“The plan is to put the store on that property,” MacKenzie said when asked if the foundation’s limited-liability company owned the entire block. She had announced the name and location a day before, but the question arose Thursday over ownership and the existing residential-style vacant structure at 808 N. Curry St.

At one time, it housed a jewelry store that later moved to a Carson Street location and then closed, but MacKenzie said it now is condemned. She said the foundation/LLC will work with anyone who wants to save it by moving the structure, but whatever happens to it a newer building will be constructed with energy efficiency a goal “so it has low operational costs.”

She said energy-efficient lighting and solar power are likely, but she couldn’t share a proposed size yet because matters remain in the early planning stages. MacKenzie said more details are expected in a couple of months, and the target for opening is 2015.

Gardner, executive director of the Food For Thought program that provides healthy food to needy children during the academic year and in summer months, said her organization and others working on community food needs are involved. She named the others as the Ron Wood Family Resource Center, the Boys and Girls Club Entrepreneur Program, The Greenhouse Project and Future Farmers of America.

A Harvest Hub 501 (c) 3 non-profit has been formed and the organization has a $12,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to help kick things off. She said a fundraising goal to get the store going is up to $100,000 more.

“Karen Abowd and I have been talking about this,” she said, adding discussions went on for some time.

Abowd, a city supervisor, heads The Greenhouse Project and is co-owner with her husband, Charlie, of Adele’s restaurant.

The foundation named for the late Hop and Mae Adams of Idaho, who owned the Carson Nugget, is run by trustee Steve Neighbors, who also lives in Idaho. The foundation, formed in 2008, has been purchasing downtown property since. Adams Carson LLC now holds at least 42 parcels on Curry, Nevada, Carson, Robinson, Fall, Plaza, Telegraph, Spear, Proctor and Stewart streets and on Longview Way, according to recorder’s office data.