Here’s the first project slated for the Aggie Square development in Sacramento

UC Davis is building a $60 million rehabilitation hospital on its Sacramento campus for stroke and brain trauma patients, the first step in the Aggie Square technology and innovation development planned for the area, officials announced Wednesday.

The 40-bed hospital on Broadway, near Stockton Boulevard, will create 200 jobs and will bring in “pioneers, practitioners and patients all in the same space,” said UC Davis Chancellor Gary May.

May and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced in April that the city and UC Davis would work together to build Aggie Square on the medical center campus. The project site has a total of 25 acres, which one day could include 1 million square feet of research space, parks, entertainment venues and housing.

Steinberg and other local officials noted Wednesday they were pleasantly surprised by how quickly the project was already taking shape.

“Somebody asked me what Aggie Square is going to look like 20 years from now,” the mayor said. “Twenty years? No, it’s not going to take 20 years. This announcement today demonstrates that if we continue at the pace we have begun and we are serious about putting real capital into the development of Aggie Square, it will be far less than 20 years where we see thousands of jobs and where we see the fulfillment of the vision we laid out together.”

This year’s state budget included $2.8 million for the planning of Aggie Square. Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, advocated for that funding.

This story was originally published August 8, 2018 at 10:51 AM.