PROJECT DETAILS

The mission of the Carson City Center project – secured through a public/private partnership between Carson City and its public library and the Mae B. Adams Trust/Hop and Mae Adams Foundation (Carson Nugget, Inc.) – is to achieve long-term sustainable and focused economic growth by building a diverse, innovative downtown economy with high-wage, high-impact jobs that provide opportunity and prosperity for the city’s residents, businesses and entrepreneurs.

Objectives include:

• Diversify Carson City’s existing commercial sector to better handle declines in any industry
  

• Benefit the youth of Carson City with job opportunities, training and easy access to available resources.
  

• Bolster Carson City’s innovation leadership position.
  

Financing Details     Public-Private Partnership Arrangement     Library Program Details

Recent availability of prime downtown land holdings has made Carson City's downtown dreams possible. The economic and development goals expressed in the 2006 master plan, Envision Carson City, creates a new age of potential for unprecedented investment in the historic downtown of Nevada’s capital city.

The City Center project is a model of cooperation between:

• Carson City Library –  a catalytic piece of the development, promising a state-of-the-art, technology-focused knowledge and discovery public library.
  

• Mae B. Adams Trust – the Carson City Nugget’s community trust to help achieve the goals of the project.
  

• Carson City Regional Transportation Authority – allied to facilitate vital transit connections.
  

• Northern Nevada Development Authority – industry recruitment partner.
  

• Carson City Cultural Commission – connecting commerce with culture.
  

• U.S. General Services Administration – land use cooperatives and the “Good Neighbor Program,” because the project site is immediately adjacent to G.S.A. property.
  

Located on approximately six acres of the Carson City Nugget’s surface parking lots, Phase 1 plans include: 

• A 65,000-square-foot Knowledge + Discovery Center (KDC) to include focused business incubation and digital media technology.
  

• A year-round public plaza and activity center for recreation, arts and cultural programming.
  

• A 395-space parking garage.
  

FINANCING DETAILS

Costs

Project Costs$45,092,300

Land Costs             $4,500,000

    $49,592,300

Revenue

Land      $4,500,000 value (donated by Mae B. Adams Trust)

City Resources    $12,000,000 (landfill revenue)

  $11,300,000 (redevelopment funds)

       $500,000 (city utilities/public works, one-time)

TOTAL        $28,300,000

        

Gap     $21,292,300

Costs

Project Costs$45 mil

Revenue

City Resources     $24 mil

Gap    $21 mil

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP ARRANGEMENT

A not-for-profit entity comprised of the Carson City Board of Supervisors, Carson City Library Board of Trustees and the Mae B. Adams Trust will equally assume the roles, responsibilities, risks and rewards of developing the public portions of the Carson City

Knowledge + Discovery Center project.

Upon final phase commitment from Carson City, the Mae B. Adams Trust will immediately deed the three parcels assigned to the project’s public pieces to the not-for-profit entity. The entity will seek financing collateralized by the land, a down payment and library/city leases assigned to the Knowledge + Discovery Center, public plaza and parking garage.

The library/city will lease buildings from the not-for-profit entity, with all proceeds going toward the purchase of buildings, improvements and land. Upon payment completion, the not-for-profit entity will deed the land, buildings and improvements to the library/city and dissolve the not-for-profit entity.

The primary mission of the not-for-profit entity includes business and economic development as well as special focus on career paths and workforce training for youth through formal and informal educational opportunities. The secondary mission is to create a central community gathering place. The missions are ensured through the entity’s governance which designates voting rights as such: the City with 34%, the Library Board of Trustees with 33% and the Mae B. Adams Trust with 33%.

A project owners association (POA) comprised of both the public and private entities within the entire project area will ensure that common areas are appropriately maintained, safe, insured, programmed and marketed. Project covenants, codes and restrictions (CCRs) will be developed and enforced by the not-for-profit entity, and association dues will be equally assessed.

All partners are in agreement regarding the key points that define roles, responsibilities, risks, and rewards. This partnership secures a long-term, healthier future for the entire community.

The past two years of conceptualization gathered stakeholders, gleaned their opinions of the vision and integrated their input into today’s revised program. This work follows the community’s downtown revitalization plan described within Carson City’s downtown mixed-use, form-based urban code (DT-MU) which was passed in 2007. The plan was successfully utilized in 2008, when 300 citizens and 47 downtown businesses aligned as the Carson City Downtown Consortium delivering seven successful projects, including the Saturday Morning Curry Street Farmer’s Market.

LIBRARY PROGRAM DETAILS

Nationwide, recently-built libraries are offering spaces and services that are transforming communities. In cities such as Durango, Colo.; Bozeman, Mont. and Cheyenne, Wyo., public libraries buzz with constant activity, ring cash registers in nearby areas and host family and community-focused activities and events. In fact, new public libraries are seen by many urban planners as true economic catalysts.

The role of new libraries is wedded to the changing economic landscape, both locally and globally. The shift in the last two decades to a global information economy demands different, non-routine, interactive and analytic skills, as well as lifetime learning for the 21st century workforce. Libraries offer rich and authentic content, and modern libraries can provide immediate accessibility to the latest knowledge. Library staff can foster lifelong learning, as well as help people build and keep marketable skills. To that end, libraries and the people they serve are becoming more purposeful and intentional in addressing the learning needs of the new economy.

Technology and media literacy skills, communications skills, cross-disciplinary thinking skills, health literacy skills, financial and business skills … all this and more can be acquired in the library setting as part of self-directed lifelong learning. Of course, libraries will never replace institutions of formal learning, but the reality is that people today, youth as well as adults, spend much of their lives learning outside the walls of formal classrooms. In modern libraries, people of all ages can participate in programs that enhance and compliment their formal education and better prepare them for the workforce.

Input from community surveys and focus groups recognize a new downtown library facility would become an indispensible part of the fabric of community life. In November 2009, the Mae B. Adams Trust opened the door for turning what was formerly a dream for a new library into an attainable reality.  

The Mae B. Adams Trust’s mission guided its proposal to facilitate the construction of a new library.  With this mission in mind, the Trust determined that a new Knowledge + Discovery Center in the heart of downtown Carson City would be pivotal in strengthening the skills of teenagers, and could be the anchor of a project aimed at providing an economic boost to the entire community.

The Carson City Knowledge + Discovery Center project is a result of years of planning that has fostered a cooperative venture with the goal of promoting economic diversity, learning and sustainability. It combines community investment with private philanthropic resources to create a vibrant economic and civic core in Nevada's state capital.