Arena, housing and AI: Rancho Cordova’s mayor talks city growth in Q&A
Rancho Cordova’s “up and coming,” the city’s mayor says.
Garrett Gatewood, a tech entrepreneur who was appointed to the City Council in 2017 and serves as the mayor in 2026 as part of the city’s rotation system, called Rancho Cordova a “bootstraps city” and said the area was becoming the “epicenter” of growth and tech in the region.
Rancho Cordova’s arena project, dubbed Downtown Dova, is likely to break ground this summer, he said. While plans for a mascot have been scrapped, a new logo is coming, and art will adorn the upcoming Zinfandel Bicycle and Pedestrian Overcrossing. Crime is down in three categories: robberies are down 12%, burglaries are down 12%, and property crime is down 30%, a city spokesperson said.
Gatewood spoke with The Sacramento Bee to discuss the growth of the city and his priorities and plans for his term as mayor. His responses were edited for length and clarity.
Question: How did you get started in local politics?
Answer: I was a member of the chamber of commerce in Rancho Cordova, and one of my friends was Dan Skoglund, and he was sitting on City Council, and Dan passed away. God, rest his soul.
When he passed away, I was part of the Chamber of Commerce. We were feeling like our voices weren’t being heard. We have no problem helping out the community. We just want to make sure our voices are heard. We don’t want to pass some taxes and not have a voice in it. We drew straws (on who would run for the appointment), and only one person drew the short straw. That would be me. It’s been an amazing adventure. I wouldn’t trade it in for the world. Everyone should serve on city council or do some type of public involvement.
Q: A big project that’s planned in Rancho Cordova is Downtown Dova, with the stadium, later housing, shopping, restaurants, hotel, card room and the city’s first movie theater and a bowling alley. How do you think this will benefit the city?
A: This is our first chance to have actual full entertainment for my citizens. It’s the trademark most important project, next to the AI ecosystem we’re building, because what it’s going to do is put us on the map as having a 7,500 person stadium. No one has that in the area. So we’re that great middle ground. They’re going to try to have 200 to 300 events a year. We’re going to have a professional soccer team. We’re going to have MMA fighting, we’re going to have boxing. We’re now on the map. We’re not a city that you’ve never heard of before.
(Developer Joshua Wood) is talking about having churches involved. He’s talking about being a place for us to have our graduations, and he’s going to be a community partner, which is a lot different than other people that don’t really have buy-in in the city. Me and him have talked for years about how amazing it would be if we could attract someone to build something. Instead of doing that, he really went out on his own. Such a benefit, such a blessing. That had to be God stepping in, because this is going to change our city forever.
Q: You mentioned the AI ecosystem. Can you explain more about what that is?
A: The AI and robotics ecosystem. AI is, of course, artificial intelligence. An ecosystem is something that basically feeds its own self to help out and let everything grow. If you have a good ecosystem, you grow, and the system grows, and the communities all benefit each other. We’re building that in Rancho Cordova.
So what we’re doing is we’re building everything from the scientists that are going to do the AI ecosystem work, the workers, the educators, and the businesses that are going to take the employees to help generate revenue for the community in the form of sales tax and jobs and build amazing citizens that are then going to live in the city, that are going to have the kids to go to the school, and this is that kind of ecosystem. Now the state colleges are showing up, the city colleges are showing up, the school district is showing up. Let’s train kids, because I have a lot of blue collar kids and a lot of kids that are lower socioeconomic, and I’m just looking for jobs, K to career.
We’re going to build the intelligence of robots. It’s going to have manufacturing. We’re going to build the robots or the battery systems that are going to power your houses, which is going to make it so not only does your bill go down, but it stabilizes power throughout the region.
We’re trying to figure out better ways to make it so it’s easier (for businesses). Because it’s only going to help out my community. Because we know if you’re hiring, you’re going to try to hire closest to home. We just approved 12,000 more homes in total over in the White Rock area. Rancho Cordova, when it’s fully built out, will be about 275,000 homes.
Q: Rancho Cordova was one of the fastest growing cities in the state last year. What’s the plan for housing?
A: We want to have every type of housing. In Rancho Cordova, we’re doing everything from affordable to apartments to individual and retirement housing, and we even have mental (care) and advanced care housing. This is where you live and die is Rancho Cordova. Once you build that ecosphere that we have, why would you want to leave? We’re going to have professional entertainment. We’re going to have a professional sports team. We have an airport that’s landing in our city. We have everything you’d want.
Q: Does Rancho Cordova have a lot of AI data centers? What’s the benefit for the city?
A: The rough number is about seven. Here’s the benefits of data centers, besides the place that you go to do your calculations, it’s where most businesses hold their servers and environments. They’re the technology you need to run the ecosystem that you’re building. What they can turn into with proper contracts is also a way for a city to earn money on the power and the other ideas that are built in that.
We’re trying to make what’s going to be best for the community. If they thought we were getting overwhelmed, they would step in and protect us. The same thing is, if they feel like they’re being hurt or there’s some law or something that’s hurting them and not allowing them to be successful, we’re going to step up and see how we can get that done. Do you need employees? Do you need help with power? Do you need help with education? What can we do to help you sell your product? Because in the end, it’s just another successful business in Rancho Cordova growing. And what that does is gives opportunities for Rancho Cordova citizens to have jobs and gain revenue from every sale that happens in Rancho.
Q: We’ve talked a lot about AI businesses and bigger businesses, but there’s also a lot of small businesses in Rancho Cordova. Can you tell me more about the support systems the city has in place for small businesses?
A: We fund the Chamber of Commerce because we understand the mission that a city isn’t built on big business alone. It’s built on small businesses. So we build programs to help not only uplift people, but we have invested in our chamber of commerce so they can always be the second step. We have a program that goes and finds minority owned small businesses that are trying out, gives them money and then educates them. They’re an advocate.
We do a blight program where we help fix up the buildings. So if you come into a building, you’re renting a space, we’ll help you clean it up. We’re going up and down Folsom Boulevard, trying to help buy out parts of the property and then sell it back at cost, because we want those businesses to go in that area, because we care about it. We spent $42 million to improve Folsom Boulevard.
I want to hear from all (businesses). I don’t care what size you are, because you should never feel above anybody being a mayor or council member of a city. These are all my citizens. You should be able to approach me and be like, “hey, I really need help with this.” Or, “this is really cool.” Or, even better, “I saw this thing. Do you think we can do it in Rancho?” Absolutely. We’re willing to try it. We’re not averse to failure. We’ll try and fail all day long, as long as in the end, we know we’re getting some place that is going to help out the community.
Q: Is there anything I didn’t ask you about that you think readers or residents should know?
A: I think what people need to know is right now is the best time for you to get up and move to our city, because you want to get in at the basement level when stuff is getting ready to happen. You should take into account that we are bringing all the high-end technology into our city. I feel like we are up and coming. We are the epicenter. I think this is the chance to get here early, get in a house where it’s affordable, and come into our city. Come try it out. Come to our events. Get a taste for the city. You will feel at home here.
This story was originally published February 21, 2026 at 7:00 AM.
