Old Sacramento hotels rise again (as offices)

Scurfield to pull permits in a month or two on re-creation of former Ebner and Empire hotels

Friday, February 15, 2008
Sacramento Business Journal - by Mark Anderson

The Scurfield Co. and Carson Development are putting plans through the city for their new building, a re-creation of the historic Ebner and Empire hotels.

Old Sacramento's newest hotel could begin construction in a matter of months.

The $6 million project could begin construction in the spring. The building, along with the ongoing construction of the Orleans Hotel site on 2nd Street, will fill two of the four large vacant lots in Old Sacramento, the historic district that is the region's top tourism draw.

Fifty-three of the buildings in Old Sacramento are on the National Register of Historic Places. Any new building has to blend in with the neighborhood, which dates back to the 1850s. The

Ebner/Empire building will be a single structure made to look like the two neighboring historic hotels. Both buildings have been gone for years. The Empire Hotel collapsed many decades ago. The city tried to save the Ebner, but with its crumbling walls and unsafe foundation, the city eventually had to tear down its hulking shell five years ago to keep it from collapsing onto neighboring buildings.

The new building will be at 116 and 118 K St. in the center of the historic district.

New building, same look
The Ebner/Empire will have street-level retail and professional offices on its two upper floors, said Dave Scurfield, owner of the Scurfield Co., a property management company.

The new building will look like the originals, with balconies over K Street, and all the flourishes of the old structures. The 24,000-square-foot building will likely be home to a large restaurant and another smaller retail space, Scurfield said. The two upper floors will be Class A office space.

Read more here… Sacramento Business Journal

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Old Sacramento has really started to see some progress as of late; so far $20 million is being spent in an effort to re-create the past. I don't go into old Sac very often but I think I'll have to take a stroll to see what's going on.

I sure wish the city had not rushed to put in parking meters in old Sac a few years ago... the new meter technology that’s going in downtown have them placed every 10 to 15 spaces and are much better visually to see than the clutter they decided to put in which cause such a controversy.