Downtown Focus for Arts Programming

Starting this month, the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, in partnership with Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, Center for Contemporary Art and Crocker Art Museum is preparing to launch West of 16th Street, East of the River.

The extensive series of arts-related programming and special events throughout Downtown will highlight public art and historical architecture, the Crocker family’s legacy, Downtown’s sculpture garden, a unique collection of Chicano art and temporary art exhibits by local artists.

Taking a cue from other cities’ efforts to revitalize districts via arts related activities, DSP is utilizing ground floor vacancies for temporary art installations. Colliers International, St. Anton Partners and the CIM Group have donated space for temporary exhibits by various local artists and designers. Their work can be viewed at various locations throughout Downtown.

Arts programming aims to support downtown businesses, museums and galleries and was developed out of requests for more Second Saturday and summertime activity. “Businesses have expressed interest in connecting with Midtown’s very successful Second Saturday event,” said DSP Programming Manager Julia Beckner. “Downtown is home to the city’s oldest and most interesting public art and architecture, yet the district is often overlooked as a center for arts and culture. We hope that, with this summer schedule of arts related programming, we can bring attention to all that Downtown has to offer.”

Property owners interested in donating space should contact DSP Programming Manager Julia Beckner at jbeckner@downtownsac.org. For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit www.downtownsac.org/secondsaturday.

Content provided by: Downtown Sacramento Partnership

Certified Farmers’ Markets

Downtown will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. providing shoppers with the opportunity to buy California grown produce and flowers at four Downtown locations. For details visit downtownsac.org/farmersmarkets.

• Roosevelt Park (10th & P streets): Every Tuesday May through September

• Fremont Park (15th & P streets): Every Tuesday May through September

• Cesar Chavez Plaza (10th & J streets): Every Wednesday May through October

• Downtown Plaza (4th & K streets): Every Thursday May through October

Courthouse Could Rise on Capitol Mall?

Bob Shallit of the Sac Bee’s reporting that two locations are now under consideration to build a new state courthouse. The newest spot is now at the abandon Towers site at 3rd and Capitol with negotiations starting this summer. The original site for the 12-to-16-story, $540 million courts building was to be between Fifth and Sixth streets, just north of H, on the edge of the downtown rail yard. To pay for the building, Sacramento County will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in court revenue bond funding from SB 1407 (Perata) in 2008, which authorized the issuance of $5 billion in revenue bonds to fund court construction projects in the State. Nacht & Lewis Architects and HOK have been chosen to design a new courthouse in Sacramento.

Why would they consider moving this project so far from jail where prisoners would then have to be transported on the streets to and from the court everyday? This makes no since to me? The original plan was to build the courthouse at the corner of 5th & H Street that included a tunnel under ground where inmates could be moved to and from the jail with vary little risk of escape. The H Street locations also better because the lands owned by the county, where as the Capitol Mall land is not.

I hope they keep with the original plan to build by the rail yards, the proximity to the jail would save the county lots of money in the long run.

Zapata Park Playground to be built in one day's time

This Thursday, May 20, a brand new playground is being built by 200 volunteers in the downtown area. Through a variety of partnerships, this playground will be a state-of-the-art space measuring 2,500 square feet. And, it’s all being built in just one day! This is exciting for several reasons. First, there will be a lot of happy children and families thanks to the new playground. Second, I think it’s further proof that downtown Sacramento is becoming a re-invigorated location with thriving businesses, hotels, and now—family locations.

WHERE:
Zapata Park
905 E Street,
Sacramento, CA 95814

WHEN:
Thursday, May 20
8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Project Kick-Off
9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Best viewing of playground construction
1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Final construction phase and adjustments
2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. “Board-Cutting" closing ceremony
(Note: All times approximate)

CONTACT: Lesley Miller at (916) 442-1394 or lesley@3foldcomm.com

Volunteers from the Home Depot, KaBOOM! and Community Housing Opportunities Corporation join.

Globe Mills Gone Bad

It appears the good intentions to convert the Globe Mills feed and flour mill into affordable senior housing isn’t faring so well. According to the Sac Bee, after being redeveloped two years ago with the help of government funds, Globe Mills was billed as a safe yet hip place for seniors to settle. But police calls to the building have been frequent. Residence have been attacked in the complex's elevator and are fed up with the criminal activity of other tenants, drug dealing and prostitution which are common place according to some residents whom are starting to move out.

Globe Mills is a former feed and flour mill built in 1914 that has now been converted to affordable senior apartments starting at $650 / 1br. The cost to transformed a former grain storage and flour mill into a mixed-income residential development, $38 million.
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I saw these crime problems coming three years ago when I was in the area taking photos with a friend. It only took a few minutes before we saw some guy taking a pee on the side of the under construction Globe Mills building while across the street homeless were gathering. The real draw back to this location is the steady traffic of downtrodden walking along 12th Street to and from Loves & Fishes. Three years later, I don’t think much has changed. If the city is going to spend this kind of money on projects downtown, they really need to provide a more visible security presents. This has been a sketchy area for decades just like some areas of K Street, so it’s now time to put more police in the area if you want opinions to change of what urban living is like in Sac.

Greyhound Terminal Preconstruction Design

Rudolph & Sletten, Inc. has been awarded the professional services agreement in the amount of $96,673 for preconstruction design-assist services for the Greyhound Terminal project on Richards Boulevard. Work is anticipated to begin on site this summer with completion near the end of 2011. Greyhound’s scheduled to move into the new terminal building by April 1, 2012 when the lease at its current location (703 L Street) expires.

Ad Hoc Committee Created

This Tuesday the City Council will adopt a Redevelopment Agency Resolution to appoint a special advisory committee comprised of the Mayor and three Council Members to review the development team qualifications and project concepts for the 700/800 Blocks of K and L Streets, the Selection Committee recommendations, Staff's recommendation, and provide a recommendation to the Agency Board.

In December 2009, the Economic Development Department issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) soliciting qualifications and project concepts from development teams for the development of mixed-use projects for the 700 and 800 blocks of K and L streets (See Attachment 1, Map of Development Sites). Development teams were encouraged to submit team qualifications and project concepts for any of the development areas or any combination of the development areas. In February 2010, four proposals were submitted by the following development teams:

• Team 1: David S. Taylor Interests, Inc. is the Master Developer of this team and is supported by the CIM Group (Developer/Financial Partner), Domus Development (Associates Developer/ Affordable Housing Partner), and Zeiden Properties, LLC (Associate Developer/Retail).

• Team 2: D and S Development Company is the Master Developer and is supported by CFY Development, Inc. (Developer/ Partner/Contractor).

• Team 3: Bridge Housing Corporation is the Master Developer and is supported by Saca Development (Management and Leasing Services), and Bagatelos Development, LLC.

• Team 4: Rubicon Partners is the Master Developer with St. Anton Partners(General Partner) and Preferred Capital Advisors (General Partner).

Details regarding each RFQ response can be found on the Economic Development website here.

Concerts In The Park Starts Today

Summer Downtown officially begins tonight with the first Friday Night Concert in the Park of the season with performances by Kepi Ghoulie, The Kelps, Dog Party, and Simpl3jack. The free, all ages, outdoor concert series will rock Cesar Chavez Plaza every Friday night from 5 pm to 9 pm starting May 7 though August 13.

The concert series, which attracts on average 4,500 people each night, celebrates the local music scene and will feature a total of 47 bands during the 15-week season.

New features to this season include a new event layout to improve sight lines to the stage, enhanced sound, more food vendors, expanded beer garden and locally produced wine from Revolution Wines. Visitors can park for $5 after 5 pm in the City Hall Garage located at 10th & I streets for park their bikes for free with the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates bike valet.

In addition, visitors can take advantage of special Friday Night Concert deals including a $99 hotel deal at the Residence Inn at Capitol Park and late night happy hour deals on food and drinks. Participating venues include 3 Fires Lounge, Brew It Up!, Cafeteria 15L, Chops Steakhouse, deVere’s Irish Pub, Public Market Bar at the Sheraton Grand, The Firehouse, Ten 22 and Torch Club. For details visit www.downtownsac.org/concerts.

New Bids Needed for Railyard Project

Next Tuesday City officials will ask the Sacramento City Council to reject five bids made for moving the railyard tracks to the north. The City had hoped to see work start this month, but all five construction bids came in higher than the $45 million the city has budgeted for the project. The three lowest bids were in the $57 million range.

The Sac Bee also reported that next Tuesday the council will be asking to proceed with a $4.5 million contract for a new bridge to extend Sixth Street north into the railyard from downtown.

State Office Buildings 8 & 9

In the next month or two an eight year renovation project will be completed for State office buildings 8 & 9 which included 540,000 square feet of office space for the State of California Department of Social Services (DSS). These two 18 story towers had new mechanical, electrical and telecommunications systems, structural upgrades addressing seismic considerations, overall building upgrades meeting current code requirements, and minor repairs to the exterior shell. The seismic retrofit upgrades include epoxy dowel installation and hydraulic dampening system incorporated into the newly installed steel brace frames. Remaining renovations included the HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and fire/life systems.

The State of California, Department of General Services (DGS) relied on MatriScope to perform geotechnical engineering, micro pile installation, and perform special inspection and material testing related to cast-in-place concrete, epoxy anchors, masonry, structural steel, high-strength bolting, fireproofing and LEED Silver grade. A 12,000 SF addition will provide a secured lobby for the two buildings, a second-level walkway connecting OB8 and OB 9, and a child-care facility. Construction cost: $110 million.