Railyards Infrastructure Update

Good news arrived in September with federal clearance for the Intermodal project and the receipt of State infrastructure dollars allowing construction to proceed on a number of Railyards projects. State funding dollars from three separate State of California Proposition 1C infrastructure programs for the construction of two major downtown streets, 5th Street and Railyards Boulevard. They also received their first disbursement of funding for the abatement work on the historic central shops. With these funds, these projects are moving forward full speed ahead. In addition, the Intermodal team reached a major milestone by securing federal environmental clearance allowing the project to move ahead into final design. Regional Transit's planned extension of the "Green Line" announcing the ground breaking event early October. The "Green Line" will extend light rail north through the Railyards to the River District serving future residents and businesses in these areas. All of these projects will produce a tremendous amount of construction activity at the Railyards and create more jobs for the region.

http://www.sacramentorailyards.com/home/home.htm

Developer buying Marshall Hotel

2009 Presidio Co., proposal

Bob Shallit reporting today that the Marshall Hotel at 7th & L St. has a buyer and plans to build a 14 story "W"-style boutique hotel in the future. The plan is to get all needed entitlements lined up so that it will be shovel-ready when the times right to start building. As seen in the posted renderings above, the plans call for retaining two exterior sides of the 98-year-old, five-story Marshall building and incorporating them into a stepped, 14-story structure.

2007 Grand Heritage Group proposal

I love the idea of combining the old building with a new structure so that the project becomes feasible to build, but these renderings make the tower addition look tacky without even tiring to blend the old and new structure. The developer Presidio Co., need to take a queue from the previous Grand Heritage Group proposal of 2007 who proposed a similar concept but did a much nicer job designing the tower addition. The 2007 proposal fell through because of the credit crunch, but their execution to blend old with new was excellent.

http://www.presidioco.com/catalysts.htm

East End Gateway Redesign

On Wednesday the 16th, CADA will go before the Planning and Design Review Committee to request a review and comment in the form of advisory knowing they are exempt from having to do so. This 9 story, 110 unit project with approximately 5,000 square feet of ground floor retail has had some minor changes with the balconies being reduced and some variation in color, finish, and materials to break up the appearance of the cement composite panels.

It’s great more housing will soon be built but I think this final design looks blah lacking innovation with little to no character so as not to offend those on the street. It’s to bad the previous 15 story residential tower approved by the Design Commission was scraped by CADA last year.

Downtown/Midtown Sacramento Skyline

Please click to enlarge. This panoramic photo was taken last Wednesday from the roof of the L Street Lofts; 180 degree view looking west.

City officials tell K Street hotel developer to show them the money

The clock’s ticking for Bob Leach and his development firm USA Hospitality Inc. Leach has until the end of November to present Sacramento officials with a viable financing package to build a 23-story hotel and a parking garage on city-owned property on 8th Street, between K and L streets.

And just to add some pressure to the $136 million project, the city is working on a concurrent request for proposals for other developers to submit plans for what they can do with the land, which will be released at the end of November if Leach’s plan doesn’t work out.

In addition to racing the deadline to tie up financing, the city also wants Leach to tie in the façade of the adjoining Bel-Vue Apartments — a 99-year-old structure — into his parking garage.

Printed in this weeks Sacramento Business Journal

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Well is this a surprise? It appears to me that the city is not thrilled with Bob Leach's proposal and is open to other plans in how this land can be used. I'm sure a hand full of developers are getting lined up for a $31 million subsidy. I'm also certain they will do a better job of using the Bel-Vue facade than attaching it to a parking garage. Good luck Bob.