Inside the $47 million plan to redevelop the Old Sacramento waterfront

West Sacramento scored a riverfront success recently when it opened the Barn, an elegant indoor-outdoor venue that attracts hundreds nightly for pizza, beer, music and conviviality.

That success wasn’t lost on leaders across the river in downtown Sacramento, notably Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who had promised when running for mayor that he would enliven the waterfront on his side of the river.

On Tuesday, after more than a year of work, the Sacramento mayor and his team will show the City Council and the public its own concept for redefining a key section of the city’s riverfront, a series of venues in Old Sacramento that will borrow a bit from the Barn’s vibe, but amp it up several notches.

“I want something at least as iconic. More iconic,” Steinberg said. “I love the Barn, but this is expansive. This is multiple venues and a whole experience.”

His group’s plan includes three elevated gathering spots near the waterfront that give Old Sacramento visitors sweeping views of the city’s namesake – but often hidden – Sacramento River.

One will be an elevated walkway and observation deck called The Trestle overlooking the river near the riverfront Embarcadero. Another is a rooftop gathering spot on the Sacramento History Museum. A third will be a food hall with a second-story open space under a curving wooden roof that echos the ambiance of the Barn.

The plan includes an open-air performance space for up to 5,000, a children’s play area, including a “splash pad,” several large history boards or screens, and possibly pipes that shoot steam reminiscent of locomotives.

Steinberg said the proposed venues will make Old Sacramento more family-friendly and more attractive to young Sacramentans interested in lively gathering places. The city waterfront planning group is led by Richard Rich, a former developer and creative worker for Disney.

Old Sacramento entertainment plan’s cost

The project would be built with up to $47 million in revenue the city has collected through bonding against future hotel taxes. That $350 million bonding program also provided funds for the recent renovation of Memorial Auditorium, as well as the major reconstruction underway of the downtown Convention Center and modernization and expansion of the Community Center Theater next door.

The city charges hotel guests a 12-percent hotel tax, or transient occupancy tax, for each night’s stay in a hotel or other vacation rentals, such as Airbnb. Visit Sacramento and the city also recently added a secondary hotel guest fee of 1 percent. That money will go toward creating a third-floor ballroom at the new convention center, which is connected to a planned convention hotel. That fee frees up hotel tax for the waterfront project, city officials said.

The mayor will seek council approval Tuesday to spend some of the bond money on more detailed designs, engineering and environmental review for the waterfront project, with construction potentially starting in 2021 and completion of the first project elements in 2022 and 2023.

“For me, this is a signature part of my agenda,” Steinberg said this week. “Breaking through on the waterfront was going to be a big piece of my first term priorities. People talk about it all the time: ‘Why can’t we break through to the waterfront? Why don’t we have a waterfront that is the pride of our city and a model for other cities?’”

Places to gather on Sacramento River

The mayor said he also wants to create places for people to congregate on the docks area at water level, but city attorneys say hotel tax money may not be used for that under city law. Steinberg said he would look for other funds to extend the development down to the river itself.

City officials say the Old Sacramento district does not get the visitation from local residents that city officials want it to. That’s in part because the historic district is walled off from the rest of the city by Interstate 5. But it’s also because the city has not, until now, had money to invest in upgrading the district, Steinberg said.

The project may face a hurdle. Steinberg said his team wants to move the existing excursion railroad tracks in Old Sacramento a few dozen yards to the east, adjacent to Front Street, to open up space to build the new venues that will overlook the water.

“The rail spur runs right through where we want to create the venue,” Steinberg said. “We want to maintain the rail character of Old Sacramento, but I don’t want to sacrifice the potential of creating an incredible venue for people. We can have both.”

Cheryl Marcell, head of the state Railroad Museum Foundation, said her group is on board with that concept. But the tracks will need to be realigned in a way that will require compromises on both sides, she said. “It’s math and engineering to see how we can make that work. We are hopeful we can get there.”

A city staff report says the old schoolhouse near the Embarcadero in Old Sacramento may have to be moved to accommodate a new train alignment.