Retail Tennants for 14th and R Project

I think most people have heard Burgers and Brew (Crepeville owners and one location in Davis) is opening in the 14th and R project, but joining them will be Magpie Caterers.

They will be opening a specialty market, cafe, & kitchen. They'll be offering gourmet deli sandwiches, salads, pastas, special ingredient mixes, constantly changing produce and such, catering services, take home ready made gourmet dinners, dressings, etc. I've heard it described as a David Berkley type of place.

My hope is the market aspect will carry products found at places like Taylor's and Corti Brothers with a great meat, cheese and wine selection.

This really is turning out to be a cool project....

No Target for Downtown Plaza

It looks as though the Downtown Plaza has received yet another blow. The once proposed Target store that was going to add another anchor to the mall has pulled its plans. Last time I counted there were more than a dozen empty store fronts in the mall, so this news about Target is not a big surprise. Westfield Corp. is also planning on spending $60 millions in giving the mall a facelift next year, but from what I have seen from their plans, the “upgrades” won’t do much but shifting things around and put up a giant LED screen. Target has also withdrawn its plans to rebuild a new store at its Broadway and Riverside location… I was even more sad to hear about this.

Crocker Expansion Goes Vertical

· Construction crews began to install more than 1,400 tons of steel to form the frame of the New Crocker on Oct. 17th.
· 175 truckloads of steel will arrive at the Crocker
· The size and weight of the heavy duty steel beams are unique for this project due to the load capacity of the building
· Structure will be built from bottom to top and south to north
· Ninety percent of the $100 million campaign goal has been raised, as of October 16, 2008



· Since breaking ground in July 2006, the majority of construction has occurred below ground
· The steel superstructure will be a visual sign of the historic change occurring at the Crocker
· With a $100 million campaign goal and 125,000-sq-ft expansion, this is the largest cultural initiative in Sacramento 's history
· A world-class museum will boost the cultural development of the city

City Settles with Mohanna

Quick summary since they didn't give much info during the annoucement at the council meeting. I'm sure there will be an article in the Bee or Business Journal seen with more details. (Added below)

-The city approved a settlement with Mohanna for 18.6 Million to buy all his property on the 700 and 800 block.

-The 800 block is going under an ERN for 9-months for a 400-room hotel on K Street and a mixed-use project on L Street with US Hospitalites Inc (Bob Leach who built the new La Rivage on the river).

- There was something mentioned how Leach would have to buy the land at the 800 block for $150 a square foot assuming things actually happen.

- Comment from Fong (paraphrasing): 'Joe (Zieden), if you are watching, time to get to work'

In these economic times, I just hope the 700 block can get going in a short amount of time. With lending still tough to come by and retailers I'm sure not jumping at the idea of opening a new store in an area with bad track record, I'm worried.

The good news for the 800 block is Leach spent 8 or 9 years trying to build the La Rivage, so at least we know he can stick with something 'till the bitter end..which it might take given the long path to this point.

Speaking of hotels, I know that they tend to overall do well in DT, but it seems like there are a lot of them out there right now being proposed. Leach at 800 K, Taylor, Saca, The Marshall, the one at 13th and I...plus The Citizen is now coming on-line. I could see one, maybe two, but not all five in the near to intermediate term.

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Sacramento council OKs settlement to allow K Street development
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - mlvellinga@sacbee.com

The Sacramento City Council approved a settlement Tuesday with property owner Moe Mohanna that will break the logjam on the K Street Mall and allow redevelopment on the bleak stretch of the 700 and 800 blocks just outside Downtown Plaza.

In order to settle an eminent domain lawsuit filed by the city, Mohanna agreed to sell all nine of his properties in the two blocks to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency for $18.6 million.

The storefronts in the 700 block will go to developer Joe Zeiden, who plans to convert them into a retail row anchored by his Z Gallerie Furniture store

The redevelopment agency has agreed to negotiate with hotel developer Bob Leach on the 800 block. Leach plans to build a 400-room hotel -- possibly a Hilton -- along K Street and a mixed-use project along the L Street side of the properties.

Mohanna will remain as a limited partner in the hotel project. If it goes forward, the partners will have to purchase the 800 block properties back from the redevelopment agency.

City council members approved the deal unanimously in closed session.

"We think this is a fair deal for the city, and we really get to put a lot of litigation behind us," Mayor Heather Fargo told reporters after the council action.

The often-combative Mohanna, who has battled the city for months, was subdued when he appeared before reporters.

"We all have to learn to let go," he said. "In this case, it's better to let go."
He said the $18.6 million from the city's redevelopment coffers won't go to him, but to pay off banks and other investors.

The Docks

Last week legislation was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow the mixed-use Docks Area proposal to move forward. The governor signed AB 2026, which would allow the State Department of Parks and Recreation to sell or exchange with the city of Sacramento three Docks project parcels and one further north in property adjacent to the Downtown Railyards Redevelopment Area. Sacramento legislator Assemblyman Dave Jones (D), had tried for three years to the get the parcels transferred, but that move had been vetoed by Schwarzenegger over technical disagreements concerning whether an analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act was warranted before the land could change hands. The legislation, authored by Mike Villines (R) of Clovis contained language by Jones to also allow:

• The Parks Department can enter into an agreement with a non-profit to develop and run a children’s museum in Old Sacramento.

• The state can sell or lease the National Guard Armory in East Sacramento to the Sacramento Catholic Diocese for expansion of St. Francis High School. The Diocese has been working on a deal for more than a decade to expand.


Option A1


Option A1


Option A2

Option B

Last month the Design Commission approved the proposal which now means it will need approval by the City Council to move forward. The proposal is a mixed-use project including 1,100 new homes and 500,000 square feet of office and retail on the Sacramento riverfront. There are currently three land options being considered for the 29.3-acre property site.

New State Lottery Headquarters Building

The California State Lottery has proposed building a new Headquarters Building on North 10th Street near Richards Boulevard at its current location. The plan is to demolished an existing building to make room for a new 6-story, +/- 150,000 s.f. office building that will house all of the Lottery’s offices and operations.







The master plan would also include two more 6-story buildings at roughly 165,000 square feet each and a 6-stories 1,189 stall parking structure. The project passed the Design Commission last month.

The Orleans

The other day I got to tour of The Orleans in Old Sac and think it's a very nice project. The rebuilt Orleans was just completed at a cost $12 million and has 24 rental units with space for retail or a restaurant on the ground floor.









The views from the top floors are awesome... the city view looking east is cool but the sound off I-5 is pretty loud if your out on the deck. The western views are great with the tower bridge on the left and trees everywhere. It sure would be exciting to wake up every morning in the heart of historic Sacramento and walk down the wooden sidewalks to start the day.

The Cosmopolitan Cabaret

This last weekend my wife and I were able to see the premiere performance of "Forever Plaid" and we both enjoyed the show. The Cosmopolitan at 10th and K seems to bring a new energy and street presents that K Street has been needing so badly. The Cabaret has both a contemporary bar and restaurant (by Paragary) with a night club soon to be opening upstairs.



"Forever Plaid's" a fun show that likes to get interactive with the audience. The theater's very distinguished from other Sacramento theaters in that it's cozy and gives everyone a good seat to enjoy the performance. The production made me laugh and get into many songs from the 1950's that were fun to hear in this setting. The Cosmopolitan’s defiantly worth checking out. New life has been given to a street and corner that deserves more entertainment like this.

Sutter Groundbreaking Oct. 13th

Railyards Accomplishments Party

PARKing Day - Friday, Sept 19th

Website: http://neighborhoods.org/sacparkingday

PARKing Day has returned to Sacramento for 2008! Join us at the corner of J and 20th in Midtown on September 19th from 7:00A-6:00P. Download the Event Flyer. We will again be converting a car parking space into a beautiful mini-park called Presley Park — complete with sod, park benches, and trees! We guarantee a good time :)

Another Sacramento park is being organized by VOX Café at the corner of Broadway and Land Park Drive (at R5 Records).

Why are we doing it, you ask? Well, contrary to what a local media outlet inferred last year, we are not a bunch of pot-smoking, hippie environmentalists looking to eliminate cars. We are a group of regular citizens, businesses, and non-profits that would like to see more urban space dedicated to parks and less space dedicated to the automobile. Did you know that in most cities roughly 70% of outdoor space is dedicated to the private vehicle? And while many consider Sacramento to be a "green" city, only 7.6% of the city is dedicated to open space for its people. Those figures are not acceptable to us!

Our goal is to educate others about the importance of green space in cities, and shock some people by demonstrating everything you can fit into one parking space. Some spaces are about 168 square feet in area—even larger than some families' bedrooms!

Please join us on September 19th! If you are able to volunteer, or would like more information, please contact:

J and 20 – Presley Park
Eric Fredericks – eric@neighborhoods.org or 916-669-0676
Michelle van Tijen – michellevt@gmail.com or 510-421-0240

Broadway and Land Park
Cynthia Kruschel cindyk@voxsac.com

For more information on how this idea came about, visit the National Parking Day website. Original concept by REBAR.

You can also:
Join our Planning Group
Join our Facebook Event Page
Join our Facebook Group
View some photos from Parking Day 2007
Read neighborhoods.org articles about Parking Day
SPREAD THE WORD!!

The new B Street Theatre

More renderings of the new B Street Theatre.

Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects

Services Employed: Architectural Design, Graphic Design, Interior Design

CLIENT GOAL: Design a flexible, high quality performance space for this innovative theatre company that has been recognized as one of northern California’s top professional theatres.

DESIGN RESPONSE: The project is on a half-block site in midtown Sacramento. There will be two performance venues for the B-Street Theatre on the ground floor and five floors of condos, approximately 95 units, above. The sale of the condo units will help to subsidize the construction of the theatre space. The full theatre space is approximately 50,000 sf - the thrust stage will have 250 seats and the proscenium will have 350.

500 Capitol Mall Granite & Glass

The granite and glass are going up quickly on Sacramento’s newest high-rise and using premium materials in the process. The granite for instance, has been mined in Brazil and then finished in Italy. Not since 1990 when the Well Fargo tower was built has granite been used for the skin of a building in downtown. The over all tower design has a bit of an 80’s feeling to me and looks fine so far. I’m curious to hear what others are thinking?

Railyards Awarded $17.9 Million

Both the city of Sacramento and The Railyards redevelopment project were awarded $17.9 million Proposition 1B transportation bond funds on Tuesday. The money will be used to extend 6th Street to the north and to construct a pedestrian tunnel at 7th Street. Construction of this portion of the project is slated to begin in 2009.

Back in July $47 million was awarded to the railyard redevelopment from the Proposition 1C bond program, the largest such award in the state.

Back in 2006 voters approved both Proposition 1B and 1C authorizing $2.85 billion in housing bonds for uses that included creating infrastructure and affordable housing near transit. The Sacramento Railyards development is said to be the largest urban infill project in the country. Plans ultimately call for creating a new neighborhood north on downtown Sacramento.

Project developer Thomas Enterprises commissioned a study that predicts the project will create 19,000 permanent jobs, 2,800 hundred annual construction jobs and result in an ongoing annual positive economic impact of $2.7 billion. Private investment in the project is expected to top $6 billion.

http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/
2008/09/01/daily11.html?surround=lfn&brthrs=1
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It’s good to see money flowing and work continue at the railyards. Hopefully infrastructure work will start next year.

Sunset Skyline

Curtis Park Village Clean-Up

The good news is that contaminated dirt continues to be hauled off to Utah preparing the land for construction. The bad news is that the project won't be breaking ground by the end of the year as originally planned. The second part really isn't much of a surprise, but hopefully the clean up will continue and be completed.

Greyhound Bus Terminal

On August 1st a revised Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration for the new Greyhound Bus Terminal off Richards Blvd. was submitted for review. This is great since it has been nearly 19 years of bla, bla, bla, and nothing getting done. The proposed Greyhound Bus Terminal site would be located at 420 Richards Boulevard east of I-5 and 1.2 miles north or the current bus terminal site.



The Richards Boulevard Redevelopment Area, recently renamed the River District Redevelopment Area, was approved by City Council as a Redevelopment Plan area in 1990. Ultimately, the facility will be located permanently in the Sacramento Intermodal Transportation Facility. The Intermodal remains the City’s preferred long-term location for Greyhound; however, the facility will not be developed for a number of years due to the need to secure substantial federal funding.



The proposed project consists of a 13,100 square foot building on approximately 1.74 acres.

R Street Improvment Project

Today the Design Commission will be reviewing the R Street Improvments planned between 10th & 13th Street. If this improvment project gets the nod from both the City Council and Design Commission, construction would start in Spring 2010.



The R Street Improvement Project will construct roadway and streetscape improvements on R Street between 10th Street and 13th Street. The project consists of replacing the asphalt concrete roadway section with Portland cement concrete, placing raised pedestrian walkways and valley gutters, installing industrial-looking street lighting, and providing 90 degree and parallel parking along R Street.



Summary of Proposed Project
• Railroad main and siding track minor adjustments
• Damaged cobbles will be replaced, if available.
• Distorted track segments will be replaced, if available.
• Historic buildings will be protected during construction
• Historic trees will be replaced where possible
• Gritty industrial raised walkway and streets are proposed
• Four inch high walkway provides ADA accessibility with minimal clutter.
• Pedestrian scale industrial lighting is proposed• Overhead electrical and phone to remain on south side of street
• Loading docks continue to function
• Plan accommodates future improvements (capitol lofts)
• Bulb-outs only on numbered streets.


http://www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/meetings/commissions/design/2008/documents/DesignCommissionMeetingPresentation6-19-08.pdf

Powerhouse Science Center at Jibboom Street

Also know as Sacramento Museum of History, Science and Technology which is planned for the Jibboom Street power station.

http://thediscovery.org/powerhouse/






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Looks like this is still plugging away. The city is entering into another ERN with the teams running the show. Looks like an all local team which I imagine many of them are doing pro bono.

Jibboom Street Powerhouse Station Site (Click for staff report)

Team: Carson Development, John F Otto Inc, Dreyfuss and Blackford, Lionakis Beaumont Design Group, Buehler & Buehler. Fundraising is being run by Bentz & Associates who seem to have a lot of experience in this type of thing.

The latest time table seems really aggressive. Hopefully they have some commitements all lined up to meet this time line:

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This sounds like something I sure would love to take my kid to, so I wish them all the luck in the world, and I'm sure I'll toss a few bucks their way since I'm positive they will need what ever they can get.

To sign up for more info down the road:
http://thediscovery.org/powerhouse/JoinUs/default.html

Movie in Fremont Park - September 19th - 5pm

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Celebrate CADA's 30th Anniversary and the Revival of Fremont Park!

Join the Capitol Area Development Authority (CADA), Councilman Rob Fong, the City of Sacramento Parks & Recreation, and Local 522 of Sacramento Area Fire Fighters on Friday, September 19, 2008 from 5pm to 9:45pm for food, live entertainment and Disney's movie, "Enchanted." Fremont Park is located at 16th and P Streets and the public is encouraged to walk to the event or utilize the free bike valet provided by Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (SABA).

Avoid the commute and enjoy barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs starting at 5pm! Bring a lawn chair or blanket for the movie, but come early as the seating area is limited to 200 people. Admission is free and the movie is anticipated to start at dusk (around 7:30pm).There will be a bounce house, balloon artist, face painter, carnival games and free fingerprinting for the children.

For more information about CADA's 30th Anniversary, contact Karen Fleming, CADA Communications Administrator at (916) 322-2114 or (916)384-7210.