Your Sacramento Railyards Fact Sheet.

Last week, hundreds of spectators, residents, and well-wishers gathered to celebrate a seminal moment in the Sacramento’s future: the grand opening of Railyards Boulevard, connecting downtown and the Sacramento Railyards site by joining 7th and Jibboom streets, as well as new extensions to 5th and 6th streets downtown.

Between the photo ops, enthusiastic residents and speeches by city officials, there was a palpable sentiment that, more than just another road, this was really a link between the capital city’s past and it’s promising future.

But if you’re a Sacramentan, you’ll probably get very familiar with grand openings and civic ceremonies, as new landmarks will be unveiled at the Sacramento Railyards frequently over the coming years and decades, transforming the region.

“To get to this point…is a real big milestone for the city,” said Councilmember Jeff Harris. “This project essentially doubles the size of our city center. It’s the biggest infill project right now in the US. This is a big deal.”

A big deal, indeed, since advocates, developers, and city officials have been working tirelessly to make the Railyards project a reality for parts of three decades or more.

In order to keep you abreast of all the exciting happenings with the project, we’ve compiled this Sacramento Railyards fact sheet:

The Vision

The Railyards is a 244-acre site located just north of downtown and south of the River District in Sacramento. Transforming the historic former site of the Union Pacific railroad hub, it looks to develop a state of the art mixed-use urban center, complete with a signature mass transit hub. With plenty of housing, hotels, retail spaces, office space, and entertainment venues like theaters, parks, and museums, the Railyards will be an economic boon for the city and a must-see destination for Californians and tourists alike.

History of the Railyards

At its inception in the 1860s, Sacramento’s rail yards were the central hub of the entire western United States, connecting the country and aiding commerce created by western expansion and the Gold Rush.

The first railroad in the Sacramento Valley was completed in 1856, and The First Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869 after several other railroads like the Central Pacific merged.

As early as 1883, Sacramento’s terminal was the primary point of departure and arrival for thousands of travelers, workers, and innumerable goods.

In fact, in the early 20^th century, the Sacramento railroad network was the largest west of the Mississippi River and employed an astounding one-third of all Sacramento workers!

Proposed Project

Plans for the Sacramento Railyards include:

6,000-10,000 housing units

405,741 square feet of retail space

2,757,027 - 3,857,027 square feet of office space

771,405 square feet of flexible mixed use

1,228,000 square feet of medical campus

1,100 hotel rooms

485,390 square feet of historic and cultural uses like museums

33 acres of open space for parks and recreation

A soccer stadium with 19,621 seats, and potential to expand to approximately 25,000 seats.

Once completed, the Railyards is expected to provide housing for an estimated 20,000 people, a community more populous than Land Park and Curtis Park combined.

The keystone of this redevelopment is the refurbishing of the former “Central Shops” buildings that originally served as the Southern Pacific Depot and maintenance facilities.

An expansive public market place will be at that site, as well as a railroad museum and performing arts center.

It’s estimated that new Railyards site will create 19,000 permanent jobs once it’s opened, as well as employ thousands of contractors and construction workers.

Initial Plan

Developer Millennia Associates tried to buy 70 acres in the southern portion of the rail yard in 2003, with hopes of eventually purchasing and developing the entire property. The project stalled until Thomas Enterprises, Millennia’s financial partner, finalized the rail yard purchase in late 2006.

The first version of the Sacramento Railyards redevelopment that was officially on the books was registered as P05-097 and approved by the City Council on December 11 2007. It was a scaled-down version of the monumental project we now are familiar with, encompassing “only” 12,100 housing units, 1.4 million square feet of retail space, 1,100 hotel rooms, 2.4 million square feet of office space, 485,390 square feet of historic and cultural space, and 491,000 square feet of mixed use.

Current Status

That 2007 proposal was updated in June of 2015, when a new proposal was submitted with a much larger scope, including a change of the land use plan that would incorporate two new additions: a soccer stadium and a Kaiser Medical complex with its 14-story hospital

The Railyards redevelopment has been portioned into five phases. The first phase, Infrastructure Building, is already underway.

Since the Railyards site contains soil and groundwater contaminants that are harmful for humans, environmental remediation has been underway since the 1980s in compliance with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Who is involved?

The Railyards land is owned by IA Sacramento Holdings, L.L.C., under the umbrella of InvenTrust Properties Corp. The project was master-planned by the Jerde Partnership firm. A local development team includes Larry Kelly, who was responsible for turning the MCClellan Air Force Base into a thriving industrial park.

Of course there are many city and municipal agencies and departments involved, but if you have any questions about the Sacramento Railyards or want more information you can contact Associate Planner Teresa Haenggi:

THaenggi@cityofsacramento.org

(916) 808-7554

Next Steps

With the Golden 1 Center opened the fall of 2016, the Sacramento downtown revitalization is in full swing, and that includes the Sacramento Railyards project.

As well as continuing to develop the infrastructure at the Railyards and connect more streets, the city will look to finish construction on nearby F and G Streets, finish new retail and housing projects on the 7000 block of K Street, and break ground on a new county courthouse building.

Now that our downtown is linked to the Railyards by the new boulevard, the first hosing units are expected to be completed sometime in 2018.

The new 20,000-seat soccer stadium could be built as soon as 2018 or 2019 in hopes of attracting a MLS pro soccer team.

The Kaiser Permanente major medical campus is expected to take six to nine years to open.

The proposed Superior Court building at the Railyards does not yet have a firm timeframe for construction.

In the short term, the city of Sacramento is expecting to finish their rehabilitation of the train station that sits at the entry of the railyard some time this winter. The $34 million revitalization of the block-long former station will mark the start of the process to attract retail and office tenants, as well as establish a new Amtrak station.

 “We are seeing a lot of momentum,” said Sacramento city official John Dangberg who oversaw the downtown arena. “But it still takes time for markets like Sacramento to mature.”

While we’d love to see that maturity come to fruition in the Railyards sooner than later, patience will be a virtue as the project marches on towards its epic finale, that will surely reenergize Sacramento.

Will Sacramento soon be known for THIS iconic building?

There is the Empire State Building in New York City, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and even the Transamerica Building in San Francisco. In fact, most major cities have an iconic architectural marvel that comes to define them. Will Sacramento be getting its very own architectural marvel?

Sacramento’s signature building could soon be gracing the city skyline, as a new project downtown is in the works – and it’s not the new King’s arena.

A proposed new tower on Capitol Mall and 3^rd Street, now site of the infamous eyesore “hole in the ground” city block, would rise a statuesque 30 stories above the city streets, a modern complex with glass facing, open pedestrian walkways, landscaped terraces and balconies. It would include a mix of office and retail space, restaurants and café, and 100 luxury apartments.

This may sound familiar, as the same site was home to another ambitious project almost ten years ago– developer John Saca’s duel Towers, which fell apart infamously along with the real estate crash. The site has sat vacant and in disrepair ever since, with concrete pylons “like gravestones” the only remnants of its demise.

But now, with the new King’s Golden 1 Center and other development projects revitalizing downtown, the 420-foot single tower could become a reality. Last week, Los Angeles developer CIM Group released a rendering of what the tower could look like – and it is stunning. The building would instantly be in the running for the tallest building in Sacramento (plans have not been finalized yet, but right now the building would only be the second tallest in the city, just a few feet shorter than the nearby Wells Fargo tower) and help Sacramento’s horizon rival that of any city in the country.

Designed by renowned global architectural firm Gensler, the building would feature a seventh-floor outdoor landscaped terrace that would be open to the public and provide spectacular views of the Capitol and Sacramento River. Two more landscaped terraces will adorn the tower further up, probably one for office tenants and the other for apartment residents. The building would also have parking for 1,260 cars on the ground floor, lower floors devoted to retail and modern office space you might see at tech firms, with open floor plans and high ceilings. In fact, offices are expected to take up about two-thirds of the 1.1 million square feet of the building.

Although the architectural drawings that were just released are reason for grand optimism, CIM Group and city officials preach patience, as construction probably wouldn’t begin until 2018 even under the best circumstances.

“This is a very preliminary vision,” said Avi Shemesh, co-founder of CIM Group. In partnership with CalPERS on the project, they still don’t even have a target price tag, yet alone a feasible budget. Not coincidentally, CalPERS was a partner on Saca’s Towers a decade ago.

“We’ve waited since 2007,” said CalPERS chief investment officer Ted Eliopoulos, who mandated funding be pulled from Saca’s Towers for cost overruns in the then-failing economy. “We’ve been patient. The economic conditions in Sacramento are improving. ... There’s a window opening.”

Reportedly, Shemesh is hesitant to fund and commit to a project that isn’t fully occupied. But bolstered by the Golden One Center only a block away slated to open this October, Shemesh thinks that “there are a lot of stars that are aligned here.”

But before we start penciling in the epic ultra-modern building into Sacramento’s skyline, the project still needs building permits and vetting in the city’s entitlement process. Attracting an anchor office tenant that could commit to 400,000 of square feet of space is probably the keystone that would allow construction to begin.

“While it’s not as pie-in-the-sky as the previous project, this is a beautiful project,” said City Councilman Steve Hansen. “This is a realistic project we can get built.”

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What do you think about the proposed design? And what should we name it?