CalPERS failed to fill Sacramento’s ‘hole in the ground’ — other than with public money

CalPERS, the owner of an infamous hole in the ground at the top of the Capitol Mall for the past 16 years, has finally decided to punt and sell this disgrace.

Since 2007, the pension plan has partnered with two development outfits, CIM Group and, later, Hines, to fill this gaping wound, at 301 Capitol Mall, to no effect.

Without getting too deep in the weeds already populating this undeveloped eyesore, CalPERS has already invested $71.8 million in the project and written off $50 million. And it could get worse.

Back in 2017, CalPERS chief executive Marcie Frost gamely showed The Bee’s editorial board really lovely renderings of what the fund hoped to build there. What we got, again, is nothing — the Seinfeld Development, if you will.

Now, five years later, she has changed her tune.

“What we found through numerous market cycles and numerous ideas is there is not a development project there that fulfills the risk return that we would fundamentally have,” Frost icily observed.

Visit the infamous “hole in the ground” today and you’ll see a bunch of weeds, cement blocks and a deteriorating fence. For nearly two decades, CalPERS has essentially left this toilet seat up for all of us to observe.

Now what? Well, the fund has asked Hines, the Houston-based developer, to find a broker this month.

But CalPERS once had big plans for this life-sucking black hole. Fifty-three-story twin towers! Just one 33-story tower! And now — ta-da! — no real plan other than to hire a real estate broker.

Maybe we should make this ditch a park? A hub for food trucks? A fishing pond? A memorial to CalPERS’ sloth and overreach with a reflecting pool? A dog playground? A rat playground? Anything. Please. Something.

Dick Tuck, the legendary late political strategist and onetime state Senate candidate, had a slogan about the Los Angeles River: “Either fill it up or paint it blue.”

CalPERS hasn’t filled up the hole other than with public money. It hasn’t painted it blue, either — or red or chartreuse. Why not throw in some shopping carts to get the full Los Angeles River effect?

Downtown Sacramento is fraught with problems that only the most talented urban planners and politicians could overcome. Along with homeless camps and other blight mere steps from the Capitol, the recent shooting at 10th and K streets has become a sad reminder of Mike Tyson’s axiom: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

A Nashville-based developer, Southern Land Co., is planning a 32-story building adjacent to the hole, and that’s good news. So is the opening of The Frederic, a new apartment building nearby.

Besieged Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg put on his now very-well-practiced 301 Capitol Mall game face and said he’s “excited to get engaged on the possibilities for this important piece of property at the entrance to our city.”

We’ve been excited and engaged by the possibilities for nearly a generation. It’s time to do something. Meanwhile, would it kill you to make it more presentable? You know, in case it doesn’t work out.

Let’s get out of the gravitational pull of the hole and this pathetic excuse for government. Downtown has been punched in the face enough.