Reno company buys former Kmart building

A Reno-based company purchased the former Super Kmart in Carson City last week with the intent of developing the 170,000-square-foot building for commercial use.

The building, in the North Town Plaza shopping center, has been vacant for about seven years. It sold on June 11 for $1.5 million to Jiangson Duke, LLC., according to the city recorder's office.

Jiangson Duke, LLC., registered with the state on April 1 and lists two officers: Jack Rao of Sparks and Weiye Lin of Reno, according to the Secretary of State's business registry.

Marc Picker, a Reno attorney representing Jiangson, said the company has been in talks to buy the property for the past four months.

"There are tentative plans to renovate the building and make it a functioning retail facility," Picker said, adding the company is looking at businesses to potentially fill the space. "It is not an investment property. It is an intent to develop it and put it back into useful activity."

He added the company wants to move quickly, but will have to renovate the building, which has been empty since Kmart closed in 2003.

The former owners, Carlyle/Cypress Carson City LLC, a Dallas-based equity firm, bought the building in 2006 for about $6.7 million, but never found a tenant for the property that opened in 1995.

The Wilmington Trust Co. of Delaware owns the underlying land, valued at $3.1 million.

Assessor Dave Dawley said, because of the devaluation over the years, the

$1.5 million sale will be considered an outlier when the city evaluates property values. In 1995, a 30-year lease for the building was signed for $16.1 million.

The North Town Plaza shopping center has struggled ever since Kmart declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2003.

Joe McCarthy, director of the Office of Business Development, said the former owners were not aggressive in pursuing tenants after losing bids to house the Burlington Coat Factory and Home Depot.

"The previous landlords didn't seem to have an appetite to move quickly," McCarthy said. "All the surrounding businesses, all the businesses around there could really use a shot in the arm."