New state office tower is tallest built in Sacramento in over 10 years. Get a look inside

By Wes Venteicher and Renée C. Byer

Updated March 15, 2021 11:50 AM

The newest addition to downtown Sacramento’s skyline is a $520 million, 21-story glass tower that, when it opens this summer, will provide enough office space to house thousands of state workers. But when those workers will start to fill their cubicles at the California Natural Resources Agency’s new P Street headquarters is another matter.

Lisa Lien-Mager, spokeswoman for the agency, said Natural Resources will wait for direction from the Department of Human Resources before it begins populating the headquarters.

More telling, perhaps, is the fact that the new building will serve as a laboratory of sorts for the state’s foray into permanent, post-pandemic teleworking.

Originally designed for about 3,200 workers, the building has been organized to allow employees to share space so workers can rotate between staying home and coming into the office. Criticized a year ago for not having a telework strategy in place, the state is now embracing the concept.

“Over the past year of remote work, it’s allowed us to move light years ahead in our understanding of how work can happen,” Lien-Mager said. “This can be home to upwards of 4,400 employees now.”

That means an additional 1,200 state workers will leave their current digs and relocate to the P Street tower, setting off a round of musical chairs among downtown buildings.

At 339 feet, the new headquarters building is the tallest built in Sacramento since the 25-story Bank of the West tower was completed in 2009 on Capitol Mall. It will house a number of agency departments, including Cal Fire, State Parks, Water Resources and Fish and Wildlife.