Elk Grove places a bet on Old Town: Will the business district shape a new era for city?
Brett Tate and Brett Honore sat in a corner of their new taproom and restaurant in Elk Grove’s historic Old Town district, each sipping one of their brewery’s signature beers.
Co-owners of popular Turlock-based Dust Bowl Brewing Co., their new Old Town Tap Room inside a century-old wine grape storehouse marked a first foray into the Sacramento-area market — and a bet on Elk Grove’s oldest neighborhood.
“It felt like it was the right space for us,” Tate said. “(W)hen you talk about the city right now, there’s a concerted effort to put in the infrastructure — they put their money where their thoughts are.”
Elk Grove is laying a bet of its own: That its Old Town, the original blocks on the eastern end of Elk Grove Boulevard, can be where people from across this fast-growing city of 180,000 can gather, celebrate, dine and shop.
Elk Grove’s historic Old Town district is in the midst of a revival. A new Old Town Plaza and pavilion that opened last summer and streetscape plans for the boulevard on the horizon are part of that push.
Elk Grove’s grand plans
Plans to bring new energy to the historic corridor have been years in the making, but have gathered steam more recently as Elk Grove hopes to capitalize on what Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen calls the city’s “legacy moment’: the flurry of projects either open, in the ground or on the drawing board across Elk Grove that leaders here hope will transform the bedroom community into a regional destination.
Elk Grove debuted its 28-acre central-city park, The Preserve at District 56, in October. The green space adjoins the city’s recently opened District 56 complex of community, senior and aquatic centers. Officials in recent days announced construction will begin later in 2022 on Kubota Tractor Co’s new Elk Grove regional headquarters at Grant Line and Waterman roads, anchor of the city’s new industrial park planned for the site.
Elk Grove and the Sacramento Zoological Society are months into exclusive talks to relocate the 94-year-old Sacramento Zoo a few miles to the southwest at Kammerer Road and Lotz Parkway near Highway 99 and near where construction crews continue their work on the Sky River Casino, set to open late this year.
Meantime, Elk Grove is asking residents to envision what a new-era Old Town might look like, addressing attendant issues of walkability, bikeability and liveability; identity and culture; noise and traffic.
“We’re excited to have all the changes happening,” said Jason Brennan, music director at School of Rock Elk Grove. Five years ago, the Old Town music school moved into a renovated hall dating back to the city’s early days.
Today, Brennan says the Elk Grove site is among the largest School of Rock campuses in the country. “We’re excited about the plaza, the taproom. Everything seems to be very positive for the area,” he said.
History meets now
Elk Grove’s small-town, mom-and-pop roots are best embodied on this stretch of Elk Grove Boulevard from Elk Grove Florin Road east to Waterman Road with its blocks of historic buildings dating back to the city’s earliest days in the 1800s, and separated by the Union Pacific railroad tracks that cut through the old town.
The building that once housed Sacramento County’s first free library branch is now a Grange hall and still stands just down the boulevard from where The Red Door boutique welcomes antiques hunters inside the old Toronto Hotel. Look up, the hotel’s sign is still there, embedded in the bricks. Families and friends sit down for scaloppini or chicken marsala across the street at Brick House Restaurant & Lounge or grab a stool for a cold one at neighborhood bar Bob’s Club.
Kids here watch every holiday season as the city’s firefighters pluck Santa to safety from the roof of Elk Grove Lock & Safe so St. Nick can kick off the annual Dickens Street Faire.
Born-and-bred Elk Grove residents still name check Old Town to prove their hometown bonafides. Ask Kyle Larson, Elk Grove native, Pleasant Grove High School alum and NASCAR champion, who greeted the hundreds who packed his homecoming rally at Old Town Plaza in November:
“Elk Grove is my home, my parents still live here, Happy Garden is still my favorite restaurant,” Larson said to cheering fans, a shout-out to the longstanding Chinese restaurant and Old Town mainstay.
Boutique owner Erica Jordan is tapping into the blocks’ homey atmosphere. Jordan had owned a business for years in Stockton before taking a years-long break to raise her family. Jordan opened TrendE (say “trendy”) on Elk Grove Boulevard in September, drawn, she said, by Old Town’s small-town vibe, Elk Grove’s family-friendly ethos and what she saw as a pent-up demand for local shopping and entertainment set apart from franchises and retail chains.
“After everyone’s been in (pandemic) shutdown mode, they’re excited to support something local,” Jordan said. “I love local and small — that’s always been my thing — and I could tell there was a bit of a turnaround with the (Old Town) plaza.
“I reached out to a couple of neighbor boutiques — it was September and we weren’t out of the clear (of the pandemic), but the energy was right,” she continued.
Jordan moved into the storefront, a former fabric shop, later that month.
“People want to shop local. They want to park and go to a gathering or park and spend the day on the same street. It’s a whole culture, having a downtown, having a destination for a day,” she said. “People I talked to would say ‘I never came to Old Town,’ but with Dust Bowl open, I’m seeing a lot of younger people, I’m seeing a huge 30s demographic that’s shopping the shops.”
The culture that Jordan suggests is one Elk Grove has worked for years to cultivate in Old Town.
The Old Town special planning area was created in 1985 by Sacramento County to protect and preserve the more than 40 buildings that form the district and date back to the 1800s. It also established zoning regulations and design standards, along with a public review process guiding new development. The city has updated and amended the plan at various times since 2005.
Investment in the district has followed apace: $6.3 million in streetscape and facade improvements back in 2005 that gave the corridor the look it has today. The purchase in 2012 of the five acres at Elk Grove Boulevard and Railroad Street that is now Old Town Plaza. The 2021 plaza expansion to include the open air pavilion and some 25,000 square feet of walkways and a performance stage to host small-scale concerts and other events.
Meantime, sewer, drainage, gas and electrical, telecommunications and other infrastructure improvements underneath Railroad Street support the Dust Bowl taproom and prepare for future development.
Farther east on Elk Grove Boulevard and Waterman Road, the city has plans for a new library at the site of a former Rite Aid, relocating from its present site at Elk Grove Boulevard and Elk Grove Florin Road.
The ‘downtown’ trend
Communities often look to the past to create a new sense of community. Look up and down the Sacramento region, you’ll find: Plumas Street in Yuba City. Historic Downtown Woodland. Old Town Roseville’s refurbished theaters, its Opera House Saloon and Vernon Street Square. Folsom Historic District’s lively collection of restaurants, shops and nightclubs. Old Sacramento’s perennial tourists’ attraction. Downtown Lodi’s School Street, with its wine tasting rooms and small shops, restaurants and bars.
Elk Grove in recent years has been known as much for its rooftops (the city remains one of the region’s hottest real estate markets) and for its family-friendly reputation. Elk Grove last year opened its 100th city park to the public.
But plans for a new, central downtown are also in the works. Project Elevate’s retail, entertainment and dining hub would sit on 20 acres at Elk Grove and Big Horn boulevards alongside the city’s District 56.
“Project Elevate has the potential to be a crown jewel of the city,” Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen told The Bee in November. “We don’t have a downtown, so this is centrally connected from the east and the west side.”
And residents are finding Old Town and the plaza. Hundreds crowded the pavilion on a Monday afternoon in November to greet hometown NASCAR champion Larson. Days later, Old Town welcomed the annual Dickens Street Faire, postponed a year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
But it’s the opening of popular craft brewer Dust Bowl Brewing’s new restaurant and taproom that is raising city leaders’ hopes that the historic district will become a bigger draw for not only Elk Grove residents and visitors, but other establishments that want to make Old Town their address.
Ranell Burch and her husband, David Burch, live near Old Town and were among the first customers on Dust Bowl’s opening day on a chilly Saturday in Elk Grove, enjoying their quaffs and the ambiance that co-owner Tate labels “industrial chic.”
Ranell Burch said the words that Old Town businesses and city leaders want to hear.
“We’re really excited to have this close by,” she said, “We’ll be walking over.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
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