Major development near downtown Sacramento finally takes off after decades of delays

Sacramento is a city of someday, maybe.

The downtown Railyards will be finished and a new soccer stadium will be built. A high-rise apartment tower will open on Capitol Mall. The riverfront will be developed and the light rail system will expand. Someday. Maybe.

For 60 acres north of downtown, someday has finally arrived.

After decades of stalled plans and incremental steps, construction crews have begun working on a major new phase of the Township 9 housing development wedged between Richards Boulevard and the American River.

By the middle of next year, the first of 372 garden-style apartments will open. The site’s developer and owner, 29th Street Capital, plans to submit an application with the city next month for a Hyatt Caption hotel that will serve as the neighborhood’s entertainment and dining center.

When Township 9 is finished, it will have roughly 2,400 residential units, nearly 1 million square feet of office space and retail centers.

The neighborhood sits in the River District, across Richards Boulevard from a sprawling complex of state office towers that, when completed next year, will have space for more than 5,000 workers. Two significant apartment buildings are under construction along Seventh Street in the Railyards, and the $300 million Mirasol Village, likely the region’s largest affordable housing community, is rising four blocks away.

“All of these things that were like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great?’ They’re now becoming a reality,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said Tuesday at a ceremonial groundbreaking at Township 9. “These parts of town, like Township 9 and the River District, where some people have said, ‘Come on, it’s too rough, there are too many challenges, it’s too difficult of a social condition’ – people who believe and people who persevere see what is possible.”

Township 9’s struggles have been symbolic of Sacramento’s broader challenge to redevelop much of its urban core.

Canneries and other packing companies operated on the site for more than 60 years until the last cannery closed in 1993. A developer purchased the land in 2000 and submitted plans with the city a few years later to turn it into a neighborhood of parks, townhomes and mid-rise apartment buildings. A light rail station opened near the development’s entrance in 2012 and an affordable housing apartment building was finished in 2015.

A recession and a sluggish housing market contributed to the rest of the project being delayed and 29th Street Capital bought the property out of receivership in 2018.

Rachel Bardis, senior vice president of development for 29th Street Capital, said the neighborhood is another step in expanding the region’s urban core. Residents will have a short commute into downtown, while also having direct access to the American River, a rarity in Sacramento.

Even after the years of delays, Bardis said she “can’t imagine another site being more successful.” The new neighborhood will appeal to young professionals and empty-nesters, Bardis said, adding she would like to add more affordable housing to the plans.

“We would love to see a wide range to where it fits any walk of life,” she said.

This story was originally published May 10, 2023 at 5:00 AM.