West Sacramento to buy land near Sutter Health Park. Could it help MLB expansion?
The West Sacramento City Council on Wednesday will review the city’s pending purchase of 2.9 acres at 860 and 870 Riske Lane. The city has agreed to purchase the site for $3.2 million and is entering escrow, according to West Sacramento City Manager Aaron Laurel.
“This property is really the last industrial holdout in the Bridge District,” Laurel said. “The Bridge District’s been a longstanding effort of the city to improve and create a really vibrant urban area and along our riverfront.”
The acquisition could help the city widen Fifth Street, and the staff report for Wednesday’s meeting notes another possibility: “a strategic opportunity” for West Sacramento to “explore MLB expansion opportunities.” The land is just down from Sutter Health Park, where the Athletics currently play, ahead of the team’s planned move to Las Vegas.
What is currently on the property
The land was listed on LoopNet in mid-March for $4.95 million. The site has been home to Sacramento Stucco Co. and includes a 71,600-square-foot warehouse, according to the listing.
“We’ve had it on our radar for many years, primarily because Fifth Street, in its current configuration, is not at the width that is ultimately planned,” Laurel said. “And so part of the strategy with this acquisition is to lock in the property that we need to expand Fifth Street and also put in future roads in the Bridge District that will connect it to places to the west as well.”
West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero said in a phone interview that the land was “an investment opportunity” but that it also offered good opportunity for transportation purchases.
“I think the connectivity of keeping the entire city safe, getting people out from the south, getting them north and out of the city safely has always been a priority,” Guerrero said. “And any opportunity we can manage to address that, which is this one in particular, I think you see that we will work on that quickly.”
She said that Major League Baseball hadn’t indicated that the streets near Sutter Health Park need to be wider “but that is a factor.”
The staff report lists three recommended actions for the council:
- Finding the acquisition exempt from California Environmental Quality Act analysis.
- Appropriating $3.2 million from the city’s Bridge District Infrastructure Financing District funding, with Laurel saying that the land will be acquired without the use of any general fund dollars.
- Giving the city manager authority “to take any and all actions necessary to complete the” purchase.
The land is near Fifth Street, though it carries addresses from Riske Lane. That street, now a stub of road that connects Fifth Street and Delta Lane, was once the main artery on the eastern side of the Bridge District.
What has been happening in the Bridge District and nearby
Longtime Sacramento architect David Mogavero said that there are many the development possibilities in and near the Bridge District.
“It’s proximate to downtown,” said Mogavero, whose firm has done a few projects in the area, including a 200-plus unit site north of the ballpark and across Tower Bridge Gateway.
“It’s walking distance to 140,000 jobs. You got the riverfront, which is a wonderful asset. And you have the remnants … of a wonderfully visionary concept for the future of the city that was formulated 20-some years ago.”
Mogavero credited former longtime West Sacramento mayor and now state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon with the visionary work.
“That whole Tower Bridge Gateway was basically a freeway, and he got the transportation money to modify it so that it was more surficial, more pedestrian-friendly,” Mogavero said.
Guerrero said the area had become a regional destination.
“We have a lot of pride in what we’ve accomplished in the last few years out in Bridge District,” Guerrero said.
This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 11:52 AM.
