Nugget development project: Why wait?
Submitted by Kirk Caraway on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 11:07am
When I heard about the Nugget development project, my first thought was, here we go again. I envisioned the mutant offspring of two other economic development projects embarked on by the city, the V&T and the downtown ice rink.
But I have to say after reading all the information about this project, it sounds really great.
In a nutshell, the city and the Carson Nugget will together spend about $90 million to create a downtown plaza area with a new library, digital video projection facility, startup business incubator, office park, residential units, IMAX theater and a parking garage. It's an ambitious vision to jumpstart Carson's economy. The project, if approved, would begin construction in 2011. Go read all the information about this project.
Because of my background in Internet business, the incubator and Sierra Digital Media Lab ideas hold great interest to me. In fact, my biggest question is, why wait?
After looking at the plans for this project, I can see there are a number of existing buildings in Carson City that could be easily and cheaply converted for use as a digital video production facility, even on a temporary basis. Heck, we have one building on the north side of town big enough to shoot the sequel to Titanic, if they so desired.
If there is a real demand for this type of video production, then it would make sense to get them going now and not wait three years. That way, they could get a toehold in this market, in advance of the new facility being built. After all, in two years there could be a hundred digital media labs springing up in the region, all vying for the same work.
For a very small investment, the city could give this digital media business a real boost to get started cranking out video, and creating jobs right now.
The same thing goes for the business incubator. In fact, we already have the beginnings of an incubator at the Northern Nevada Development Authority, which started their own small-scale project earlier this year. For a very small investment, the city could help out with this existing effort, and we might see several profitable businesses starting up even before the first shovel of dirt is turned on the Nugget project.
The other advantage of doing something now is to test if these ideas really have the legs to make it, before taxpayers pony up millions of dollars.
The reality here is that the proponents of this project have motivations separate from those of the digital media/incubator business. The redevelopment authority's mission is to develop Carson City's downtown, and they would put in a three-ring circus with dancing bears if they thought it would work. The Nugget wants to see this project for the plaza and parking garage, along with the other activity it will bring in their doors.
There are a lot of aspects to like about this project. The library, plaza and parking garage are the kinds of infrastructure that can draw businesses to Carson City. I've always thought that it makes more sense to invest in projects like this that improve the environment for all businesses, than it is to hand out cash bribes to get companies to move or stay here.
The Carson Nugget also seems to be a great potential partner for the city in this project. I'm not sure you could find a more civic-minded company in this town.
That being said, beyond all the hype and excitement, there are a lot of questions that will need to be answered to find out if this indeed is a workable project. Before everyone gets overly excited about the prospects, we need to test some of this out to see if it's real, or just wishful thinking.
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