More twists and turns for the Nugget Project
Submitted by Kirk Caraway on Wed, 08/25/2010 - 7:29am
It's a bit of a challenge to follow the story out today about what's happening with the Carson City Center/Nugget Project.
It starts out saying that Nugget President Steve Neighbors is "encouraged" by the response from the governor's office, after meeting with them to discuss their concerns about the state's role in the project. Those concerns were expressed in a letter from the governor's Deputy Chief of Staff Lynn Hettrick last month.
But later on in today's story, Hettrick said the same issues about providing sufficient space for the Department of Health and Human Services and parking remain. I detailed how this affects the project here, and ran the numbers to show how the state office component of the plan doesn't pencil out.
At the end of today's story, City Manager Larry Werner is quoted as saying the state part of the project isn't as critical as they had thought, and that they are moving forward with putting together options for the Citizens Advisory Committee and Board of Supervisors to consider.
Werner here is signaling something I've been alluding to for a few months, that the project may end up being nothing more than the city library/discovery center.
The state office building component always seemed doubtful to me from the first time consultant Mark Lewis mentioned it before the CAC. Just after that, I talked with a CAC member and strong supporter of the project, who told me, "If that's their Plan A, then we better look at Plan B, because that ain't happening."
It's possible the city could go it alone and pay for the library/discovery center out of the proposed 1/8th cent sales tax increase and tax increment financing.
But, as I pointed out before, the problem is parking. If the Nugget doesn't mind losing a section of its parking lot to the new library, then it can work. If not, then someone is going to have to step up and pay for a parking garage. It doesn't appear the city has the money to do that. Perhaps the Nugget can find financing to build this along with a new hotel that they want in the project space.
Or, perhaps Sen. Harry Reid can find a few million dollars lying around Washington that he can send this way, as he is doing with the $400,000 earmark for the business incubator part of the library.
Stay tuned for the next twists and turns of the Nugget Project.
