Nugget's plan to be presented at meeting

A plan to build a town center plaza comprised of numerous buildings and businesses to stimulate Carson City's economy will be presented to the board of supervisors tonight.

The city's Office of Business Development will bring letters of intent to the meeting from a business and technology incubator management company and digital lab management company willing to begin talks with production companies.

About eight acres of Nugget property in the heart of downtown have been allocated to Carson City through the Hop and Mae Adams Trust, which could help the city to reach its economic development goals, said Tammy Westergard, the OBD's deputy manager.

By bringing in new business and industry types that are not currently in the region, officials expect the Carson Nugget Economic Development Project to create high-paying jobs and pull the local economy out of its slump, Westergard said.

"A third-party economic impact analysis commissioned by the Nugget describes what the state's economists have been saying for months, that banking on tourism and gaming won't make ends meet - not today, tomorrow or into the foreseeable future," she said.

Carson City Library Director Sara Jones said San Jose, Palm Springs, San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, Oklahoma City, Denver and Charleston, W.V., have all published stories about the city's plans.

"Seems like we have something pretty unique and of interest to the whole country," Jones said.

The plan supervisors will see tonight includes a 15,000-square-foot business incubator space designed to blend seamlessly into a new high-tech Knowledge and Discovery Library.

The plan calls for:

• A suite of offices in the library to be designed to become an incubator home to startup businesses

• Programs to accelerate business growth

• An array of business support services and resources

The preliminary finance plan for the project includes a 1⁄8-cent sales tax increase for 30 years. Adding 1⁄8 cent to sales taxes would cost an average Carson City household $26 per year.

The meeting is at 6 p.m. in the Sierra Room of the Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.

Go to www.nevadasworkingcapital.com/projects.html for more information on the project and presentation.