Old Scolari’s space in Carson City is getting a facelift

A 99 Cents Only Stores outlet is expected to open in half the old Scolari’s Food & Drug. Co. space on East William Street in Carson City, according to real estate and city planning people.

Facade work is under way to give the store a facelift over coming months prior to the California-based company opening a store that will feature items for 99 cents and grocery choices that can cost more, according to Kathy Hone of Minden, into whose Plaza 50 properties the store is going, and Susan Dorr Pansky, Carson City planner.

“I don’t have an opening date yet,” Hone said. She said the facade changes and store decision to locate in the center at 2100 E. William St. could be a catalyst for more growth and is good news for her other tenacious commercial tenants, who have survived the recession to reach this point. Dorr Pansky confirmed the changes and also looked forward with optimism.

“They are improving that old facade,” said Dorr Pansky, who noted permit review is in the planning process.

“We definitely have some good news going on in the city right now,” she added.

Scolari’s, a Sparks-based food and drug company, no longer operates in Carson City but still has stores in Nevada and California.

The 99 Cents Only Stores company is based in City of Commerce, Calif., and at the end of fiscal 2014 had 343 stores in California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas. Nevada stores include one at 5695 S. Virginia St. in Reno and 580 E. Prater Way in Sparks.

Average sales per store across the firm that were open at least 12 months, on a trailing 52-week period basis, reached $5.4 million. That compares with $5.3 million in the previous year, the firm has reported.

Founded by David Gold in 1982, the firm has its largest number of stores in Southern California. Gold came up with the store’s concept while operating a liquor store. He told the Los Angeles Times that when he put liquidation items on sale for 98 cents or $1.02, they didn’t sell out, but the price point in the store name he later adopted worked much better.

‘When I put a 99 cent sign on anything,” he said, “it was gone in no time. I realized it was a magic number.”

In 2011, the company agreed to a $1.6 billion buyout by Ares Management, a private equity firm, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. By early 2013, the Gold family was no longer involved and in May of that year the store began selling some items, such as milk, for more than $1.