Committee discusses critical issues surrounding Nugget project

Members of the newly formed Carson Nugget Development Advisory Committee received an extensive briefing tonight on where the project is now, and what still needs to be worked out.

Nugget President Steve Neighbors and project consultant Mark Lewis were on hand to answer the committee's questions about the project before a capacity audience in the Sierra Room at the Carson City Community Center.

Many details of the project will not be finalized until after a developer is selected, which Neighbors predicted would be in the next two months.

Neighbors said that developers are being carefully vetted by him and his team to find the right one for the project, that includes an estimated 350,000 square feet of building space. He predicted that about 500 jobs would be created by the construction phase of the project, paying about $20 an hour on average.

He also said that the developer would responsible for financing the project, as well as assume all the costs for planning, architecture and engineering. Neighbors also ensured the committee that the developer would assume the risks for construction costs and scheduling.

However, because the developer is assuming more risk, Neighbors said he or she will have a lot of say in what is eventually built.

Neighbors told the committee that the city's contribution would be limited to the revenue raised from the one-eighth cent sales tax increase under consideration by the Board of Supervisors, as well as incremental taxes created by the expected rise in property tax revenue created by the project. The sales taxes are expected to raise $12 million, while the incremental taxes may bring in $30 million, according to Lewis.

"For the 1/8th cent sales tax, you will be guaranteed a state-of-the-art library," Neighbors said.

The biggest hurdle for the project may be getting three state agencies to move into the new office space.

"The state leases are critical to the project," Lewis said.

Lewis said that they can offer the state savings by locating their offices near the center of state government, as well as savings from energy efficiency and shared resources. But this was questioned by the committee, pointing out that these agencies do not currently occupy the kind of class A type office space planned for this project. It was also pointed out that the costs of moving those state agencies would be hard to justify considering the financial problems the state is facing.

A new timeline released for the project sets at deadline of this June to have leases with the state finalized, with ground breaking for the project slated for January 2011.

Committee member Dwight Millard aired concerns of how adding all of this new office space would have on all of the other vacant commercial space in the city. Lewis said the goal of the project is to create new jobs, through the business incubator and digital media labs, that will help fill those empty spaces. Neighbors said that the incubator would be started up before the building project is complete, and that portions of the incubator would be spread to different parts of the city, because "not everyone wants class A office space."

Neighbors added that while the business incubator is planned for the public portion of the project, that the city wouldn't have to pay any operating expenses for its operation.

Millard said parking is a major factor for any downtown area, and he worries that the construction phase will negatively impact parking for all of downtown. Neighbor said they are working on a parking plan, and that the planned parking garage would be part of the city's portion of this project.

Guy Rocha brought up the concern of some people about locating the library next to a casino. Neighbors said the Nugget in the past had problems with serving alcohol to minors, but has since imposed stricter enforcement and cleaned up the problem.

"If you look what kids are doing on the Internet and TV, I think the safest place for them is in a casino," Neighbors said.

Only two people spoke during the pubic comment portion of the meeting, both in favor of the project.

The next meeting of the committee will be held once Neighbors announces that he has selected a developer for the project.

Documents from this meeting will be place online at: http://downtownanswers.com