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.
Posts
