LivingInUrbanSac: July 2015

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Large Truss Installation at Arena

Last week box trusses for the Sacramento arena started to be installed with each section weighing 100,000 pounds and 124 feet long. Below are images provided by www.earthcam.net & DowneyBrand construction cameras.

EarthCam Sacramento arena cam

DowneyBrand Sacramento arena cam

Friday, July 17, 2015

Gold Rush Days are Back!

Sacramento's Gold Rush Days

Old Sacramento's annual festival to “turned back the clock,” transforming Sacramento’s historic district into a scene straight out of the 1850s will return this year after a cancelling it last year due to the drought and water needed to keep the dust down. According to The Sacramento Bee, the big difference this year compared to previous years is that the street won’t be covered in dirt. Instead, the city plans to use the $25,000 it spends on water and dirt towards enhancing performances at the event. Come celebrate Sacramento’s heritage – Labor Day Weekend Aug. 4-7th 2015

I’m glad to see this event is back, it’s my favorite to see with my kids. Hopefully the dirt streets will return next year with some rain.

Sacramento's Gold Rush Days

WAL - Warehouse Artist Lofts

The R Street corridor has been moving in the right direction for quite some time, but the competition of the Warehouse Artist Lofts (WAL) is truly a remarkable achievement. This six-story structure built in 1914 has been converted into a 116 rental apartments and ground floor retail. The $41.5 million complex has been in the works for 17 years by the Capitol Area Development Association (CADA).

WAL - Warehouse Artist Lofts - 1108 R Street

Sacramento, CA 95811

WAL - Warehouse Artist Lofts - 1108 R Street

Sacramento, CA 95811

WAL - Warehouse Artist Lofts - 1108 R Street

Sacramento, CA 95811

WAL - Warehouse Artist Lofts - 1108 R Street

Sacramento, CA 95811

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Pre-Leasing Vanir Tower

Pre-leasing Vanir Tower proposal

Last November plans were announced for a 26 story high-rise for J Street named the Vanir Tower. The Vanir Tower application team then withdrew its proposal to make “minor modifications”. As of today the Vanir project has not re-submitted their plans to the city but a pre-leasing billboard has been posted at the proposed project location.

What makes this project interesting is that it’s being proposed when the square foot market value to rent a “trophy” building in Sacramento is below what a brand new building would have to charge. Greg Levi, managing director with Jones Lang LaSalle Sacramento and agent for pre-leasing the Vanir Tower stated in SacramentoBusiness Journal last June “Though rents are rising, though, they’re not high enough to bring construction cranes just yet. The highest rents, around $3.10 a square foot, are still about 40 cents below what a brand-new building would have to charge,” Levi said. So essentially Greg’s saying that rents would have to rise an additional 40 cents a square foot before it would be profitable to build this high-rise downtown… that’s a 13% increase.

So I’m still skeptical this project will ever get off the ground for several reasons. First, as stated above, rents would have to rise 13%. Another reason is that they need to fill at least 50% (186,000 of the 372,000 sf) of the tower before banks will consider lending to them for construction. If Vanir Construction Management has deep pockets, they could build this tower on speculation using their own money like the Bank of the West Tower did at 500 Capitol Mall. It appears to me their need to pre-lease the tower says they need to fill fifty percent of the tower.

To use history as my guide, back in 1999, the U.S. Bank Tower at 621 Capitol Mall started the pre-leasing process when it was originally proposed for 31 floors. After several years of not finding enough tenants to fill 50% of the tower, developer David Taylor reduced the size of the tower by 6 floors. Even with the reduced floor count it took another six years before enough pre-leasing tenants signed up so a bank would lend and construction could begin in 2006.

Once Vanir re-submit their revised project with the city and go through both the entitlement and environmental review process, this proposal might have a chance.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

16 Powerhouse

16 Powerhouse at 16th and P Streets

16 Powerhouse is nearly complete, this mixed-use project across from Fremont Park offers 50 high-end apartments and ground floor retail with parking in the back. At a cost of $16.4 million, this LEED Platinum building stands to make Sacramento more attractive and it's slated to be completed in the Fall of 2015. http://www.16powerhouse.com/ http://www.cadanet.org/projects/16powerhouse

Monday, July 13, 2015

Eviva Midtown (formerly “The Warren")

Located at the northwest corner of 16^th and N Streets, one block east of Capitol Park, Eviva Midtown had a groundbreaking last September with work stalling shortly after that. The six story project is now in chugging right along building 118-units with 5000sf of retail with parking below grade and at-grade. This estimated cost to build is $37.5 million with construction ending in April 2016. http://www.evivamidtown.com/