Ghosts of Carson: Super K

If you’re a real Carson City old timer, you remember Kmart being in the Silver City Mall, right where Lowe’s is today. It was there until about 1994, when the superstore moved to a brand new shiny big box at the north end of town. This site on College Parkway had enough room for them to expand to a full “Super” K, with a complete grocery store attached.

This Super K was the hot thing in town. At a time when our Wal-Mart was still regular and there was no Costco, this was the only all-in-one department/grocery store we had, and the largest store in town. I even worked there for a year and a half, manning the sporting goods counter. In later years, though, Costco, Target, and the new Super Wal-Mart took their toll on the Super K. The store lasted until 2003, when sales had fallen enough that it didn’t make sense to the corporate office to keep it open anymore. They held a huge closeout sale, then shuttered their doors.

Ever since, the old Super K has sat empty. Carson City was lousy with these empty big box stores for a while, though luckily just about all of the other ones have been repurposed with new tenants. Super K is one of the few left still abandoned.

Super K opened in 1994 and closed in 2003. That was 9 years open. Now, in the year 2012, it’s been closed and abandoned for as long as it was open. That’s half its life spent in this state. That’s a pretty bad statistic, and there are no signs of it getting any better.

Real estate companies have tried to invest in the Super K over the years, either finding one big retailer to move in or chop it up into space for smaller stores. Nothing has ever worked out. Only one tenant ever even tried to make a go in the old building. Gold’s Gym took over the old garden shop, and it’s still open today. That’s a small percentage of the total square footage here, though.

For a while after it was built, Super K stood alone. Soon it fulfilled its promise of being an anchor store, though, bringing a larger shopping center and other stores and restaurants to this corner. Bully’s Sports Bar has been here quite a long time.

In the late 90’s, the shopping center was greatly expanded and named “NorthTown Plaza”. Thousands of square feet of retail space were built, with the expectation that Super K would be here forever. That didn’t quite work out. Some of these spaces are still standing empty, and in 14 years haven’t had even one tenant. Others are a revolving door of failed businesses, or they house offices that don’t need a lot of foot traffic to be successful. The shopping center is faltering, and without a strong anchor to support it, it’s never been a success.

2003 Pictures

In 2003, when they were in their last days of closing, I took my camera into the rapidly emptying shell of the Super K. I recorded aisle after aisle of empty shelves and clearance merchandise. It was the last days of what had once been a bustling retail operation. We didn’t know at the time that 9 years later the building would still be sitting lifeless.

So Super K waits for some kind of second life, a slumbering ghost on the edge of town.

15 comments

  1. The one thing that I think this town really needs is an INDOOR arcade/mini golf and snack bar …a place the teens and kids can hang out at with music too. There is nothing like this in this area and is needed.. Please find a company that can help with this !!

  2. I suggest that the city push to have some of this space that has been dead for a very long time to be done up to create a Youth Center for the kids in Carson City. There are tons of things for adults to go and do but without the children. I know there is a Boys and Girls club, but seriously; that is more structured for the younger kids. There really is no place where the teenagers can go and hang out in a safe environment. Either this structure or the old Boys and Girls Club where the cottages can be used as game rooms, book/study rooms, music/rehersal rooms, etc. Instead of letting these buildings stay abandonded, we NEED to focus on the youth!!! Thank you.

  3. I hope someone is watering those trees. Last time I drove through they looked a little thirsty.

    I’m with Sydney. Indoor arcade, indoor go karts, indoor paintball,…

  4. I agree. Some kind of youth thing would be great in Carson. The problem is that it just doesn’t pencil financially. To work, there would have to be a place where the rent was basically free and the labor was pretty cheap. Getting the start up equipment would be tough. Maybe something grant based?

  5. Wayne,

    As I recall, an alert resident realized that in the process of K-Mart vacating, water and irrigation was going to be shut down.

    For door #2, who can remember the name of that civic-minded lady?

  6. Have you ever considered looking into the old Lift Engineering complex on Arrowhead? It’s been I’m a state of disrepair since the mid 90s and has a pretty notorious past. I toured the back warehouses yesterday and it was very spooky!

  7. Thank you for posting this. Super K Mart was a fun hang out for me and my friends from the summer of 1996 to fall of 1997. I was feeling nostalgic today and was very grateful to come across these pictures and documentation. Take care.

  8. You stated that it closed because sales had dropped off and management decided to close this store. That is not my understanding. I had a close relative that worked there for 22 years and had worked at the old one in Silver City Mall for many years. My understanding is K-Mart owned the building when this one was first built and then sold it and they were leasing it and the new owner raised the leasing rate so much that K-Mart decided not to renew the lease. I guess maybe it could have been because of sales but my understanding is this store made money.
    You also said a lot of the empty stores had new tenants around town. There are still a lot of empty ones around that I know of. That whole strip mall where this K-Mart was has been mainly empty since they built it. There have been a few other businesses in there, but they have come and gone. I would think the pandemic didn’t help any either.

  9. I heard that because KMart and Sears were closely related and they had to close some KMarts because of bankruptcy. Ours was a victim of that I believe. I am a longtime resident as well and remember the old Kmart and Sears were both in the Silver City Mall. Gosh, the sweeter days. Now we have too many houses and not enough services.

  10. On three occasions, I have tried to lease some of the empty space for a non profit school and the owner did not return my attempts to reach out on those three occasions. Maybe I will try again.
    My thoughts are that a reasonable lease option for some of the space is best if it is used, and in the best interest of community rejuvenation, rather than sitting empty waiting for the right price.

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