Midtown Dog Park

19th & Q Street dog park concept plan

With funding through the Quimby Act and the city council approval in 2010, a total of $800,000 will be used to develop construction documents, obtain necessary permits and construct the first phase of the park.at the corner of 19^th & Q Streets.  This will be the central cities only dog park with Sutter’s Landing Dog Park nearby on the north end of 28^th Street. The plan includes a public plaza and both a large and small dog area. Link to Dog Park Master Plan and Creation

19th & Q Street dog park master plan

13 Floor Condo Proposed for Midtown

13 floor condominium proposed for 25th & J Streets 

The Sacramento Planning Dept. has received a proposal for 13-story mixed-use building at the corner of J & 25^th Street. As both the SacBee and Sacramento Business Journal describe the project, there would be 134 condominiums over 10 floors, 11,000 sf of retail on first floor and 122 parking spaces in the cellar, third and second floor.

The proposal if built would be the tallest in midtown rising to 179 feet with the Sutter Medical Centers Anderson Lucchetti Women's and Children's Center building on L Street rising to 153.5 feet. The location of this proposal at the corner of 25^th & J Street would sit across the street from St. Francis Manor apartments which stands 9 floors and built in 1978. With the St. Francis Manor midrise just across the street, there should be little reason for the Planning Dept. or locals to act as if this is unprecedented.

The proposal named “Yamanee” is expected to be reviewed by the Planning Commission next year with construction possibly begin in late 2016. Acording to the Sacbee, the project does not have financing yet but are currently seeking city entitlements for the project. The projects land is already under ownership of the proposed towers owner Ryan Heater. 

Preliminary Sacramento Railyards Plans Released

If you have been reading the Sacramento Business Journal lately, it appears the grand urban vision of the Railyards that’s been hyped over the last decade has now been scaled back in many ways. Developer Mark Friedman has asked the city to reduce amount of housing from the target goal of 10,000. The drop in housing goals comes from the reality that high-rise residential towers in Sacramento don’t add up meaning there is no clear track record in Sacramento for high-rise condo success.

Current state of  proposed Railyards area

Later this month LDK Ventures will formally acquire the Railyards from IA Sacramento Holdings, L.L.C., a subsidiary of InvenTrust Properties Corp. While reading another Sacramento Business Journal article on the Railyards, LDK Ventures suggests that most mid-rise offices will have big footprints filling a corporate campus on the northwestern corner of the site. Larry Kelley from LDK Ventures is quoted saying “I think what you’d get is something similar to the lifestyle centers you see in the suburbs, but in an urban area,” he said. After reading this, apparently the new owners gonna turn much of the area into something you find in the suburbs, pretty disappointing considering we have been told for years the Railyards would become the “New Downtown”. 

The only highlight I could find was that Kaiser’s plan for a medical center for the northwestern corner has preliminary plans for a high-rise medical tower on the eastern portion of the 18 acre project. Because of how other projects have gone in downtown over the years, I’m sure this high-rise tower will be scaled down too. Kelly also said that before the existing roads to the site can be opened to the public, another $100 million of infrastructure and several tons of fill dirt need to be delivered to the site.

Proposed Sacramento Republic FC stadium

Larry Kelly did tease the idea that 5 acres along the Sacramento River could be used for high-rise residential development with river views. Although I would love to see this, I’m highly skeptical the final vision will turn out like this.

   

A little background, last January work was competed on $68 million worth of streets, bridges and sidewalks in Sacramento's downtown Railyards. State bond funds paid for $56 million of the project's cost, and private developers paid for the remaining $12 million. The infrastructure project, which broke ground in 2009, is meant to allow private development of the 240-acre former industrial site. The state court system has already chosen part of the downtown railyards for the site of a future courthouse near the Federal Courthouse on I Street. Currently the New Sacramento Criminal Courthouse has been reduced to $300 million from its original budget of $552 million five years ago. The size of the project has also been reduce from a 16-story mid-rise to now a 12-story building and from 44 courtrooms to 35. Somehow with all the reductions of cost, the square footage of 405,500 has remained the same. As stated above, UC Davis has expressed interest in building a satellite campus on the site and the owners of the Sacramento Republic FC have said they would like to build a soccer stadium if the city is awarded a Major League Soccer franchise.

Sacramento Railyards boundary with the Kaiser proposal on the left
and Republic FC stadium on the right

Central Pacific Railroad established the Sacramento Railyards during the steam locomotive era. The company, which later became Southern Pacific, built the first shop in 1868 — before Sacramento gained fame as the western start of the first transcontinental railroad with the driving of the last spike on May 10, 1869.