Carson City Capitol Mall project reaches city planners

A 10.5-acre Carson City Capitol Mall project with a 10-story hotel, multi-story office structures and parking garages moved from the drawing board to city government Thursday.

Manhard Consulting, on behalf of Carson City Development, LLC, filed a request at the Community Development Department for a special use permit to erect the multi-use downtown project on land near the Carson Nugget casino. Community Development Director Lee Plemel said planners will take it to the Planning Commission for possible action on May 27 at that regular Wednesday commission meeting.

The mall footprint — bounded by Robinson and Musser streets on the north and south, respectively, and Stewart and Curry streets on the east and west — will include not only the 150-room hotel, but a technology conference center and offices, retail space, numerous public plazas and amenities, as well as parking garages to handle 1,600 vehicles.

The private sector project will include 421,200 square feet of office floor area, 61,200 square feet of retail, 150 hotel rooms, as well as an eight-story and a four-story parking garage for the anticipated traffic it and the downtown will attract, according to application documents. The bulky submission said it has estimated the project is going to generate 8,485 weekday trips into the downtown.

Matt MacRitchie, Chicago area developer and one of two principals with Carson City Development, LLC, said the special use permit application’s final draft he approved is “just for basic outline of the hotel, the two office buildings and the large parking deck and mall space,” but the garage for the casino to the west, which takes the development to the west side and Curry street, required more information.

“Then we had to go into much more detail on Carson Street for the parking garage; it has renders, it has elevations, it has material selection,” he said. MacRitchie previously outlined the project for the Nevada Appeal to a degree, but this submission was more detailed and started the official public review stage of the proposed private-sector downtown development.

The detailed plan calls for not only the 10-story hotel, but eight-story and a six story office buildings, eight-story and four-story parking garages, and significant numbers of retail spots at the street level. Submission documents said those encompass “design elements to both soften the streetscape at the pedestrian level and maintain the existing vital view sheds corridors.”

MacRitchie, who has touted outdoor and related amenities throughout the preliminary period and run-up to Thursday’s submission, continued that as he focused on the public usage space, He said it includes a couple of stages, an ice rink, lots of green space and a water feature.

Project land mostly is held by the property arm of the Hop & Mae Adams Foundation, which formerly owned and operated the Carson Nugget and still owns that building. The casino business, however, now is operated by another firm. The foundation, founded by the late Mae Adams, owns not only the land near the casino but various other downtown parcels and buildings as well.