City to fix Old Sacramento deck after safety issues forced restaurant closure
A deteriorating waterfront dining deck in Old Sacramento, which led to the closure of a beloved restaurant, will be fixed this year.
The decision, which has been called overdue, came in a unanimous vote Tuesday night by the Sacramento City Council. The city approved spending roughly $3 million to replace the deck at 1110 Front Street, which was previously leased to the Rio City Cafe.
Work is expected to begin in May and finish by October.
“We are where we are, but I will just say that I have heard so many comments from people that were deeply disappointed that the city did not find a way to address the deck in a timely manner,” said Councilmember Roger Dickinson.
Such a restoration had been discussed for years, but the calls were amplified following a 2019 study that deemed the 30-year-old deck unsafe. City officials ordered the deck closed in April 2024 for those safety reasons and did not offer plans to fix it.
“During those 30 years, this has been exposed to sun, wind, rain, moisture and deteriorated significantly,” said James Christensen, a facilities manager for Sacramento’s Department of Public Works, on Tuesday.
Rio City Cafe, which leased the property from the city for 30 years, closed later that year despite a last-minute effort from then-Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg to come to an agreement with the restaurant to remain open. The former restaurant’s general manager Jimmy Gayaldo estimated the deck made up about 70% of the cafe’s business.
“They (the city) were supposed to fix it this year,” Gayaldo previously told The Sacramento Bee. “Due to their budget shortfall, they told us that we were no longer going to get our deck fixed.”
The city will release a “Request for Expressions of Interest” to select a new restaurant and operator for the space this month, said spokesperson Jennifer Singer. The submission deadline will be six weeks after issuance.
The deck is a slice of the estimated $1.4 billion in undeferred maintenance projects needed across Sacramento over the next five years, according to last year’s city budget. Christensen expects the new deck to last “at least 30 years.”
“You can’t go back in time,” Dickinson said. “Hopefully, there are some lessons here for us as we look at other circumstances in the future.”
Funding for the project will come from state grants for safety and pedestrian improvements, per a recent staff report. Last November, the City Council approved a multi-million plan to revitalize Old Sacramento’s waterfront.
Mayor Kevin McCarty said on Tuesday that it is essential to continue improving this area, particularly with this week’s arrival of professional baseball.
“We don’t activate our river as much as we should,” McCarty said.
