Congratulations K Street Ad Hoc members! You have recommended a proposal with 80M funding gap with zero chance of being filled!
What do we (Sacramento) win? A K Street Mall stretch that will look the same (if not worse) in 10 years!!
Instead of being responsible and actually looking at the financial feasibility of the project given the subsidy levels the city has available (which I think tend to be somewhat important nowadays) you couldn't get your eyes off the pretty pictures.
We should all know pretty pictures are a dime a dozen here in Sacramento. Where the money come from is the key question.
The city does not have the money for this project. Plain and simple. It's not even a matter of whether to spend money the city has, they simply do not have the money for the subsidy level required.
Doesn't matter if the 5000 sf house looks better than the 2000 sf one, if you can't afford it, you can't afford it. The recent housing situation should have taught people this.
My support goes fully toward the D&S project who has provide a financing plan that might just actually work. On top of that, the project just happens to provide what the 700 block exactly needs.
If they can reproduce what they did at 14th and R, but on a larger scale, it will be the greatest transformation K Street has seen in decades.
Please go to the link below and email the city council to use common sense in this matter.
http://700block.com/
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On Saturday, July 10, D&S Development will host an event with information about the "Promenade on K," their proposed project for 700 block of K Street.
The event will take place at the Shady Lady, 1409 R Street, from 6 PM-8 PM.
Complimentary food samplings from local retailers will be provided. The Shady Lady is one of several local businesses interested in joining the K Street project. They propose a mid-sized music venue to fill a much-needed niche in the local live entertainment scene, along with multiple restaurants and bars within the venue. This, along with other local businesses, will provide the retail component, while D&S provides mixed-income housing above and behind the retail stores.
According to Bay Miry of D&S, "The focus of our proposal is for it to be a balance between boldnessand doability. The proposal consists of 136 workforce apartments above unique predominantly locally operated retail. All while historically preserving the existing buildings. Think our 14&R project but albeit on a grander scale.
Evidence of equity and financing has been given to the City. The amount of subsidy our proposal requests per unit is significantly lower when compared apples to apples with the other proposals. All ground floor retail tenants have already been identified!"
On Tuesday July 13, the Sacramento City Council will assign an Exclusive Right to Negotiate for the K Street project. The city's selection committee chose the D&S project and David Taylor's 700/800K, LLC, to share the project.
An ad-hoc committee of City Council members chose the Rubicon Partners project. The City Council meeting will select a proposal for further work by city staff, an important step towards revitalizing K Street.
D&S has also set up a website where the public can show their support for the project to the city council, mayor, and city manager:
http://www.700block.com/
Saturday July 10, 6-8 PM
The Shady Lady, 1409 K Street
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6 comments:
Amen.
This was about Vision first, Team second, and what's Possible third. That is how NASA got to the Moon, how progress is made, and that is how K Street will change.
"Safety third" is a fun motto at Burning Man, but we're talking about a stretch of our city that really, really needs a success, even a small one, in a city that already has a lot of long-shot projects teetering on the edge. Throwing every available dollar at a risky project like this is pretty much just begging for disaster.
We don't need a "game changer"--we already have a game we're winning downtown, pretty much based on fixing up the existing buildings and adding residential infill. If you were walking around downtown Sacramento last night, the way it seemed like half the city was, you saw plenty of evidence that Sacramento doesn't need to be "discovered"--it has been discovered, the cat is out of the bag, and guess what, we have ourselves a great city. I drove home at 2:30 AM from 10th & K, and the streets and sidewalks were still active, people were still out and about, and a lot of places were still open. We've got proof that the vision we already have is working pretty well--and the recommended plan builds on that vision.
At some point, yes, there will absolutely be room on our skyline for some big, big buildings and some big, big ideas. But right now, this project's reach exceeds our city's grasp by more than $100 million. Come back to reality with us, where we can make real changes, and build the groundwork for a greater city one brick at a time.
Oh, by the way, we got to the moon through rigorous amounts of design, testing, planning, coordination, trial and error, and extremely precise calculation--along with truly gargantuan piles of cash. We could use a little more of that these days, and maybe a little less credulity.
Mr Burg - it is at the bottom of a economic market when it is most effective to invest in large projects. Your dollar goes further, it stimulates the largest number of jobs, and by the time the project is finished the economy has several more years of healthy growth.
Now is the Time to Execute Vision.
Mr. Paino, that's why we should focus more attention on the large projects that the city has already invested money into starting--in the Railyards, on Richards Boulevard, and elsewhere in the central city. And that's why we should choose a project for K Street that is practical and affordable. The team of professionals who understand money and our city's budget position support it--so does the downtown business community, and the historic preservation community (and when those two groups agree, it's something of a minor miracle!)
It provides more "bang for the buck" for the local economy because it is based on rehab, not solely new construction, and keeps money in the community because it is based on local business not chains, and it is "greener" because it reintegrates K Street into a neighborhood instead of promoting the failed model of drawing suburban tourists.
Now is the time to see the facts. Redevelopment via wrecking ball has failed for generations--repair is bringing back an urban core that this city once had--and can have again, if we can stop the "visionaries" from flattening it.
The council selected D&S / Taylor, in case anyone reading missed it...
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