Carson City Center/Nugget Project: Digesting the details

Monday's Advisory Committee Meeting included a lot of new details about the Nugget Project that we are still looking through.

For those who haven't seen the presentation by P3 Development, you can read it here.

I think they made the best pitch for this project so far, and showed that this somewhat scaled-down version is at least close to being feasible, given the revenue constraints requested by members of the Board of Supervisors.

They also resolved some of the long-standing questions people have been asking, such as the status of getting state agencies to lease the planned office space (no, not at this time), ownership of the land under the library (to be deeded over after lease expires in 30 years) and who is paying for the parking garage (the city).

These are just preliminary plans and figures, since P3 Development and the city are still working out the final details.

One complaint that I have heard since the meeting has to do with the what is shown in the photo (above) I posted with the original story, and is something I completely overlooked at the time.

A friend of mine looked at that photo the next morning and said, "Is that the Nugget parking garage?"

It does appear that the placement of the parking garage is very advantageous to the Carson Nugget. The entrance is off Robinson Street, and is right where the Nugget already has its valet parking.

The proposed hotel would wrap around the other side of the parking structure, to the point where it will be not be very convenient for library patrons or visitors to the public plaza to use. And the parking requirements of the casino and hotel will more than take up all the spaces for the planned garage.

Other mock-ups of the project had placed the parking garage in a more centrally located area that could be used by all the different entities in the development.

P3 Development's plan does show where they have created enough street-level parking to service all parts of the project, at least to the previously agreed-to standard of two spaces for every 1,000 square feet of building space. (I've heard from two people who are heavily involved with commercial real estate who don't think that is enough parking, but that's another issue.)

Parking garages are expensive, and the covered parking they offer is valued more than parking on the street. I would expect to hear some grousing from people who look at this as the city paying for a parking garage that is set up to be used almost exclusively by the Nugget.

However, this looks like it could be easily fixed by flipping the orientation of the hotel and garage to place the parking structure closer to the library and plaza. We'll have to see if public feedback leads to such a change.

Another aspect that is bound to create questions is the proposal for the city agencies that make up the Business Resource and Innovation Center (planning, building, business development, etc.) to lease space in the the new development. While no lease rates have been set, it would likely be higher than what the city pays now for leasing the older Fireside Building they just moved into last month.

Some might look at this as a backdoor way to help the developer via the city's general fund, since finding tenants in the current commercial real estate market is very difficult. But, if the cost isn't too much and these agencies can show that they can use this new space to create a successful business incubator program, then it might allay those concerns.

That brings up a couple of the still-unresolved questions about just how the business incubator and digital media lab would operate. Maybe we will see some more details on these in the coming weeks.

Rob Joiner, a candidate for Carson City Supervisor, also pointed out today on his Facebook page a problem with the financing options the developers talked about Monday night:

"During the meeting Monday of the downtown project advisory committee, Mr. Courtney of P3 stated that they were pursuing Building America Bonds (BABs) and that the city would not be obligated to bonding. However, BABs are only available from the federal government to state or local governments. So, will the city's taxpayers be asked to guarantee these bonds?"

He then linked to an article on the subject.

This was only one of the financing options that Courtney mentioned, so we don't know for sure what option will be used, or what the interest rates will be.

It looks like we will have to wait for 30 to 60 days to see what makes it into the final plan, and how that plan weathers the journey through the citizens committee, possibly the planning committee, and the Board of Supervisors.