Developer applies to replace historic Arden Way bank with Shake Shack and more
The next steps are being taken by developers to demolish an old bank building in Sacramento to make way for a Shake Shack.
The developer, MSD-DV Arden, LLC, this week filed paperwork to the city of Sacramento to turn the old Home Savings and Loan building, which has stood vacant for years at 1950 Arden Way near the intersection with Exposition Boulevard, into a pair of drive-thru restaurants, a retail building and a parking lot on the three-acre site.
One of the restaurants is planned to be Shake Shack, which would mark Sacramento’s second location following the popular store in the midtown Ice Blocks. It would be the first with a drive-thru. The Sacramento Business Journal was first to report of the application being filed.
California Secretary of State records show MSD-DV Arden as an LLC incorporated in 2021, with a registered principal address in Montgomery, Alabama, matching that of a real estate firm called Net Lease Alliance.
The old building and mosaic murals on the outside and inside were at the center of discussion for the Sacramento City Council and community members last year. The council voted 5-4 against giving the building a historical designation which would have preserved it, while local architectural historians argued the building could have been used for a hospital, grocery store, school or data center.
However, no businesses showed serious interest in occupying the building at that time.
“My fear is with this designation (as a landmark), we will have a vacant building for the next 10 years,” said former Councilmember Shoun Thao, who represented the area at the time, in an August 2024 meeting. “I really want to look at this and say, ‘Yes, let’s preserve this building,’ but I know from a rational point of view that we might not have the investment into preserving the building or keeping it ready to be used for the next couple years.”
Those against preserving the vacant building noted it had been overtaken by homeless occupants and would have required millions of dollars to restore after the building had been flooded and damaged. However, the council determined any new project would have to include the preservation of the murals.
According to planning documents from MSD-DV Arden, the “restored murals of the tile mosaics on the former bank building” would be relocated to the intersection of Arden and Exposition.
The building was designed by California artist Millard Sheets, who became prominent for painting scenes with watercolor before Home Savings and Loan contracted him to design their buildings throughout Southern California in the 1950s.
Sheets designed many buildings through California with large mosaic murals to highlight local culture. The building on Arden Way was the only known building with Sheets’ mosaics in Sacramento and was considered architecturally significant because of its New Formalist style, which was popular throughout the area in the mid-20th century.
