Wednesday, June 14, 2006

And it only took a couple decades..

It finally looks like the city is VERY VERY close to getting redevelopment happening on the 700 block of K Street

This is such and important piece of the K Street puzzle. I am a little surprised at the price of getting this done, but honestly I don't care.

It's going to take money to get this done. Retailers are not going to pay a high rent to move onto K Street right now, bottom line. It was mentioned that the rate of return for Zeiden is very low, below 5% in some cases. He could do better with no risk putting the cash in a money market fund. Thank you for investing in Sacramento, Joe.

The timeline is the new retail should be open by Octoberish next year. Just in time for holiday shopping. How great is that going to be!

One piece of info I did enjoy hearing was that a good portion of the project will include stores that can't be found else where in Sacramento. Instead of the usual Borders or B&N, Cody's Books from Berkeley has been mentioned as one of the potential tenants. I'm really hoping for an Urban Outfitters as well.

Listening to Robbie Waters talk about K Street of the past and how forward he is looking to it getting back to the vibrancy on the 50s and 60s on K Street have me goose bumps.

From the plans, the entire south side 700 block (52K Square Feet) will be new retail, along with 731 on the north side and the kiosk that might become a sidewalk cafe. I think I heard that there will be about 12 new stores when completed.

The one thing I would have rather seen is the 35K in office space be housing, but after the long wait, I can live with it. Esp with Saca and team potential providing 600 units on the 800 block.

2007 Holiday Party on K Street Mall. Hurrah!

Related Story From Last Weeks Business Jouranl


_____________________________________________________________________
City OKs subsidy for K Street revival
By Terri Hardy -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, June 14, 2006


Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo calls the 700 block of K Street the city's "ground zero" -- one of the area's most blighted streets and crucial to its revitalization.

In a step toward its renovation, the City Council unanimously granted a developer more than $15 million in land and cash Tuesday night to transform the area. Stores are expected to open in October 2007.

"This is a key project and a key block to get done," Fargo said. "This is the entry point of downtown."

Under the deal approved Tuesday, the city will grant a development team headed by Joe Zeiden a subsidy of $11.1 million in land and $4 million in cash. The Zeiden team will spend $17.6 million.

The project includes 52,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, 35,000 square feet of office space on the upper floors and a flagship, 10,000-square-foot Z Gallerie Store. Zeiden owns the Z Gallerie chain.

The Zeiden team has promised destination retail shops unique to the city, including Sur La Table, American Apparel and Lucky Brand Jeans.

"This has been three years in the making," Zeiden said. As part of its plan, the Zeiden team has pledged to improve the historic storefronts in keeping with federal rehabilitation standards.
Kay Knepprath, a local preservation activist, said she was pleased with the renderings for the project, including the use of a variety of facades. She called the street "one of the city's most important blocks."

Knepprath noted the plan did not call for housing, although the Zeiden team had said they would include some living space.

For more than two decades the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street have decayed. Last year, the city took a get-tough approach, giving property owners a tight deadline to produce viable development plans.

In the end, the council selected two developers for the task -- the Zeiden team for the 700 block and a team headed by developer John Saca for the 800 block.

The Saca portion envisions two 300-foot towers, with 600 units of housing and ground-floor retail. The project will take longer than the Zeiden project because it will require an environmental impact report.

Because the two groups did not want a joint venture, a city consultant concluded the major stumbling block would be land acquisition from a host of property owners. And to make the deal pencil out for both development teams, a city consultant said properties beyond K Street would need to come into play.

City financial assistance also will be necessary, officials said. In January, the city began talks to purchase eight parcels within the two blocks. To date, six have been purchased or are under contract. Eminent domain proceedings have been started on the 800 K St. property and negotiations are continuing for 704 K St.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Urban Outfitters would be fabulous. H&M would be even better, but it took forever to even get one in SF, let alone here.

You're right, this piece really is key in making something of downtown.

GA said...

I can't wait to hear more names of retailers that sign on.

I think a Pottery Barn would do awesome in the project with so many new housing units coming on line in the next couple of years.

Anonymous said...

This is excellent news for the city. Now, they must, MUST move the bus station by the time these stores open.

GA said...

I totally agree, Carl. I have doubts it will happen though.

The owner of the greyhound site went through the process of trying to find the greyhound a new home last year, but to no avail at last report.

I have my doubts how hard they attempted to really find it a new home though. I'm sure the Greyhound is paying top $ for that site and he just wanted to "attempt" to find a new site to hold the city off from dropping eminent domain on the property.

There might be someone who reads this blog that has some knowledge on the subject that can fill us in...:)

Anonymous said...

I doubt that the Greyhound will move in time, but that doesn't have to be bad news necessarily.

The Greyhound station area sucks because there is nothing to mitigate its blight. With the changes comes a more agreeable mixture of people in that area.

Moreover, and even better news, is that as we speak the city is extending the light rail to the Amtrak station. This is all part of the city's plans to centrally locate transit. Perhaps I'm being optimistic, but this makes the movement of the Greyhound station even more reasonable (what better place to put the station than 50 feet from the outgoing freeways, with transit connections everywhere)?

GA said...

"The Greyhound station area sucks because there is nothing to mitigate its blight"

I agree with that. I have always said if you mix in some non blighted activites to the area things will blend in together much better than they do now. I still would like to see it moved to the Amtrak though. It's a tragedy that the Intermodel is still so far away.

I really don't mind the grit of a city. I def prefer it to the shinny sterile developments that can sometimes happen in redevelopment.