Construction plans firming up for Lowe's store in Carson

The planned Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse Store could be opened on Fairview Drive by early next summer, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, tenants of the east portion of Silver State Mall that will be razed to make way for the store have begun to receive eviction notices and make plans to relocate.

Lowe's spokeswoman Suzanne McCoy said current tenants have been given 30 to 60 days to vacate the property.

Once the east portion of the shopping center is empty, demolition of it and construction of a new building will begin, McCoy said.

The Wash Tubb coin laundry will likely move into a larger location to be built in south Carson City, owner David Leid said Wednesday. He said he had received notification Wednesday and plans for a new location are not final.

"Our intent is to build a new, larger one at the south end of Carson City," Leid said. He added that the laundry, which has to relocate more than 60 washers and dryers, has 60 to 90 days to move out. "We were given some extra time."

The Bookcellar, one of several stores in the mall owned by former mall owner Tsutomo "Tom" Wakimoto, will move to a new location yet to be determined, assistant manager Warren Maxwell said Wednesday.

He said he was not sure what would happen to Wakimoto's other businesses there. The other stores include The Gift Box, Treasure Isle and Amimoto Japanese Restaurant & Bar.

Los Tres Amigos, the restaurant owned by Alma Sanchez that has been a Silver City Mall tenant since 1972, will remain in Carson City. "We are looking for a bigger and better location," Sanchez's son Ervey said Wednesday.

A new Carson location is also expected for Thai Spice Garden, said Panithan "Otto" Chotisin, whose family owns the restaurant across from Los Tres Amigos on the east side of Silver City Mall. Chotisin said the eviction notice was probably sent to his attorney so he did not know yet when he has to vacate the location.

Interstate Insurance Services is another long-term tenant of the mall. Mark Young, at the parent office in Reno, said Wednesday he could not comment on the eviction.

Four businesses on the west end of the mall - Office Depot, Sav-On Drugs, Big Al's Pizza and Ming's Chinese Restaurant - will not be forced to relocate because of the Lowe's project. A local investor retained the Big Al's property, while the remainder was sold to Fadco LLC, a real estate investment company in California.

The 135,000-square-foot Lowe's, which includes a 28,000-square-foot lawn and garden center, is larger than the prototypical Lowe's building, McCoy said.

"But the Carson store is typical of the stores we will be building in the West Coast market," she said.

McCoy said the two Eagle Hardware stores in Reno and Sparks will be converted to the Lowe's nameplate by autumn. Lowe's bought out the Eagle chain as part of its expansion to a nationwide operation.