Staples store possible near Target, Home Depot

Target and Home Depot could have another major retailer as their neighbor by the end of the year, if negotiations continue to go well with a local business property developer.

Staples, which bills itself as the Office Superstore, has signed a letter of intent to lease store space in the North Valley Plaza at Highway 395 South and Jacks Valley Road, Paul Starn, representative for DGD Development, said Thursday.

"Major terms have already been settled and we expect to break ground within three months, with a store opened by the fourth quarter of this year," Starn said.

He said the deal is not 100 percent firm and either party could back out, but that he would be surprised if the project did not move forward. In August, a South Lake Tahoe developer said Staples was considering a site there but was also looking at other locations.

DGD would build a 24,000-square-foot facility for Staples. Starn said there is a 55,000-square-foot building site available between Target and Home Depot and that one or two other stores could go into a building that large along with Staples.

The new building would share a wall with Target's south end, leaving an open space or "drive aisle" between it and Home Depot, he said.

"We have the zoning from Douglas County," Starn said. "We would have to go for a major project design review, which is where any conditions about appearance and such are placed on a property."

The North Valley Plaza also includes three parcels at the front of the project, along Highway 395. Those would be desirable to restaurants, banks or video stores, for example, Starn said. No potential occupants have been named for those spaces.

DGD Development is owned by Carson City's Serpa family and primarily by John Serpa Jr. The family also owns an undeveloped parcel just north of Jacks Valley Road along Highway 395. Starn said no deals for that property are near announcement.

Home Depot is scheduled to open Feb. 3, while Target opened in October in the new shopping center that lies a short distance south of the Douglas County/Carson City line.

Douglas County officials welcomed the plaza project as way to recapture sales tax dollars that had left the county for Washoe County and Carson City, and to attract sales from Carson City and Lake Tahoe.

Carson officials have discounted the possible loss of tax revenues, predicting increased shopping opportunities in the general area will attract shoppers from outlying communities to the Carson-Douglas area instead of Reno-Sparks and encourage local buyers to shop closer to home.

Even as Target, Home Depot and possibly Staples open in Douglas County, prospects look good for a Costco membership discount store and a Lowe's Home Center in south Carson City.