Raley Field area getting new look; first up are lofts.
Sacramento Bee, July 2004

When Raley Field opened in 2000, West Sacramento leaders hoped the gleaming new baseball stadium would enliven the industrial neighborhood around it, luring housing, restaurants, shops and office buildings.

Little happened, however. While fans flock to the stadium, sipping microbrews on the lawn, a vista of worn metal buildings, empty lots and concrete storage silos await them outside the gates.

But these remnants of industry soon will get some decidedly upscale neighbors — the first portents of change in the landscape surrounding the River Cats venue.

Regis Homes, known for its pioneering urban developments, recently received city approval to build about 130 loft-style, detached town houses just across Riske Lane from the southwest corner of the stadium.

The converted warehouse look of steel, stucco and red brick will be unlike anything built in fast-growing West Sacramento. The closest thing that exists are the 10 work/live lofts Regis built near the foot of the I street Bridge as part of its Metro Place residential development.

“What we’re trying to do is modernize a warehouse kind of look,” said Bob Holmes, vice president for residential development at Regis Homes.

The company also plans to build another 60 or 70 more-traditional single-family homes on the site, akin to those in two of its previous urban developments; metro Square in Sacramento and Metro Place in West Sacramento. This project also would include 16 apartments.

Holmes said he expects homes at ironworks to be under construction by next year.

Demand for housing within walking distance of downtown Sacramento is on the rise, he said.

“Our suburban compatriots have been so successful, they’ve clogged the freeways,’ he said. “People are now deciding that being a mile from work in a vibrant urban core is something they want to do. It was one thing when you could spend 20 minutes on the freeway and be downtown. It’s another when it’s an hours, or an hour and a half.”

West Sacramento officials are thrilled to see something happening in the 188-acre industrial area known as the Triangle. It has been 11 years since the city council approved grand plans to create a new downtown on a portion of waterfront bounded by the Sacramento River, state Highway 275 and Business 80.

Ironworks is “a fantastic project,” said West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon. “It’s a model of what large-scale urban infill projects can look like.”

While Regis’ development is the most prominent, other developers who own land in the Triangle are also laying plans to build.

West Sacramento’s prominent Ramos family, in partnership with architect Dean Unger and the Clark family, is working with two potential tenants for an 80,000-square-foot office building, which would be just south of the ballpark.

“We’re very much trying to be the first commercial project to come out of the ground in the Triangle,” said Dan Ramos, vice president of Ramco Enterprises. He said the partners hope to break ground by the beginning of 2005.

A few blocks to the west, on the waterfront, a partnership of Sacramento’s Friedman family and the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians recently submitted a plan to build 1,800 housing units, 1.5 million square feet of office space and 200,000 square feet of retail shops.

“My expectation is the project is going to take a minimum of 10 years to build, and the first development will commence in the next 18 months to 2 years,” said Mark Friedman, who is managing the project.

Friedman, whose family is primarily known for suburban shopping centers, recently has gained significant urban development credentials. He and a group of partners converted a former auto dealership at 16th and J Streets in Sacramento into a successful mixed-use complex of restaurants, offices and luxury lofts.

Significant obstacles remain to major redevelopment in the Triangle, including a railroad spur that runs along the waterfront to serve RMC Pacific Materials, a bulk cement facility.

The city is negotiating with the company to move it to a 25-acre parcel optioned by the city in the Port of Sacramento’s industrial area, which offers both rail service and access to the shipping channel. If the company moved, the rail line no longer would be needed.

Most of the Triangle also lacks the streets, sewers, parks and other infrastructure needed to serve large-scale development. These are expected to cost about $70 million, Friedman said. It’s not clear who would pay.

“Very little exists currently,” he said. “What we’re doing is transforming an industrial site into an extension of the downtown.”

---Mary Lynne Vellinga