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"For Sale By Owner" Sheraton going to developers Taylor, CIM
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
It seems David Taylor is the golden child of Downtown Sacramento development these days. During a time when grandiose projects like John Saca's Towers and Craig Nassi's Aura Condos hit the skids, Taylor's U.S. Bank Tower at 6th & Capitol Mall seems to be the only highrise project that has come out of the ground in the last two years on the grid. We've seen some smaller but key successes in the L Street Lofts and 1801 L (both by Sotiris Kolokotronis) as well as the 1600 H Lofts (from Habitat's Jeff Kraft), but the big buildings that define a city's skyline are a sore subject for Sacramento.
It's almost no surprise, then, that the City of Sacramento is fast-tracking sale of the city-owned Sheraton Grand Hotel (and garage) to David Taylor and his partner in the transaction, CIM Group. In addition to the U.S. Bank Tower, Taylor has built projects that include the New City Hall expansion and 1201 K Street. CIM Group of Southern California was made famous locally through their heavily subsidized (to the tune of $16 million) 800 J project and are CalPERS' new partner in the former Towers site at 300 Capitol Mall. Yes, it's an incestuous bunch.
The Ayes have it
Taylor has applied pressure to the city to give the final okay to the deal, quietly warning that the current offer could go away if no resolution is achieved. And, in the face of such pressure, the City Council voted 8-1 to approve the deal (with Kevin McCarty the lone dissenting vote)—despite concern from interim city Treasurer Tom Berke, who's concerned that the deal is being fast-tracked without thorough analysis.
No, the surprise of this deal isn't so much that the city is selling in a slumping real estate market (nevermind the old saying about buying low and selling high). The surprise is that the city has agreed to earmark half of the roughly $40 million profit from the $130 million sale for future Taylor/CIM projects. According to The Bee, those sites could include the former Montgomery Wards at 9th and K, 601 Capitol Mall (land that Taylor owns and that was originally slated for the 39-story Aura Condos that developer Craig Nassi was working on), and the former Towers site that CIM and CalPERS control.
Charity, thy name is David Taylor?
Taylor appeared briefly at the Tuesday City Council meeting to say that the Sheraton sale keeps downtown development alive.
To see what a few SacBee.com readers think, click here.
Labels: 13th and J, CIM Group, City Council, City of Sacramento, David Taylor, development, Sheraton Grand Hotel, The Sacramento Bee
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posted by Rob McQuade @ 2:02 PM,
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A Tale of Two Towers on Capitol Mall
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Even before work stopped on the Towers site in January and John Saca confirmed in February that the developer had defaulted on a $22 million loan, a lot of people had their doubts about Sacramento being able to sustain a project of this magnitude. As new obstacles popped up and CalPERS proved to be less than willing to negotiate a buyout, the storm cloud darkened.Late in March a letter from Saca to the future homeowners at the Towers confirmed what had been hinted at: a new equity partner was being sought (most likely to replace CalPERS). The letter also included an addendum that restated the contract dates to be effective May 1. The team handling the sales is now chasing those addenda down.
Saca will probably release a statement in the next couple days to stave off the media's requests for updates and all the swirling rumors that pop up in the space between official announcements. In that expected statement: John Saca and his partners have secured a new equity partner to replace CalPERS, the Deutsche Bank funding remains in place, and the project will move forward. Keep your ears to the ground...
Links
Labels: 3rd and Capitol, condos, development, downtown, highrise, John Saca, Towers, Towers on Capitol Mall
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posted by Rob McQuade @ 12:19 PM,
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Newton Booth & LJUrban: Sustainability in Motion
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Sacramento has many walkable urbane neighborhoods, but in Midtown--the granddaddy of walkability in the region--the core issue becomes preserving local history and the fabric of the community while meeting the needs of growth, sustainability, and quality of life.
More and more people are returning to some of Sacramento's oldest neighbors, choosing livability over square footage and lively variety over, well, shades of beige. Certainly the trend towards larger and larger homes over the past decades has been driven by market "wants", but we're now seeing a generation--my generation--that feels fewer ties to the Leave-It-To-Beaver suburban vision and more of a desire to steer clear of the grinding car-based existence of its parents.
And smart developers are paying attention.In the Newton Booth neighborhood (the southeast section of Midtown adjacent to Poverty Ridge), local eco-urban and sustainability-minded developer LJUrban has been hammering out the details and working through the approval process on what is shaping up to be the next generation of projects that the wildly popular Metro Square on the north side of Midtown helped lead the way toward.
Not Just the Color of Money
A lot of people talk about going "green" but what does being or going green entail? The ideals are relatively straightforward: conserving energy, preserving natural resources, improving sustainability, and maintaining open space.
Developers are finding more ways to do this. Open space is conserved by building a smaller "footprint" (the built-up portion of land) and adding height to achieve similar space. Energy is conserved at the structural level in attached housing and common walls use fewer resources, improved photovoltaic cells make harnessing solar energy cheaper and easier so that fewer coal- and gas-powered energy sources are needed, and more energy-efficient appliances are being installed with the understanding that a up-front cost is mitigated by the energy savings over time.
Unlike in paved-over areas--you know, those areas covered entirely by roads and buildings--new projects are being built to allow water to return to the ground through openings and in greenbelts instead of running off to streams and rivers where it is lost. While I don't know exactly what the LJUrban crew has in mind, I'm willing to bet at least a few of these features will be a part of the Newton Booth project.
Why? Because it's the right thing to do. ♦
» You can visit the LJUrban website here ››.
» As always, you can email Rob here.
Labels: 27th-and-V, development, LJUrban, Metro_Square, Midtown, Newton_Booth, sustainability, walkability
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posted by Rob McQuade @ 9:41 AM,
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A house without an address
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
If all goes well, you might see a 92-year-old house drive by you in the coming months. (Suddenly pedicabs and horse-drawn carriages don't seem so strange, eh?)
Super-swell and ultra-eco-urban local developer LJUrban ›› is looking for a home for, well, a home. The house in question, built in 1915 by A.G. Tremoureaux for J. Johnson, sits near the corner of 27th & V Streets in the Midtown neighborhood of Newton Booth."But why," you ask, "is the house being moved?"
LJUrban is in the planning and pre-construction phase of an especially exciting multi-unit attached housing project in Newton Booth (our neighbors across the street, David Mogavero and Craig Stradley of Mogavero Notestine Associates ›› architects, have been getting their hands dirty with the LJUrban crew on this and other projects). Rather than simply demolishing the structure--something that has happened all too many times in the central city--Levi Benkert and his amazing team are doing what they can to preserve the neighborhood "chi" by saving what others would dismiss as an old, unremarkable structure.
Thanks, LJUrbanites! ♦
» You can visit the LJUrban website here ›› and Mogavero Notestine Associates here ››.
» You can find out more about the Newton Booth project here ›› or join LJUrban's email mailing list here ››.
» As always, you can email Rob here.
Labels: 2710_V_St, 27th-and-V, David_Mogavero, development, LJUrban, Midtown, Mogavero, Newton_Booth
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posted by Rob McQuade @ 5:10 PM,
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Did the Towers see their own shadow?
Thursday, January 11, 2007
I just caught a teaser before the news this evening: a local highrise development has halted construction in the face of unpaid bills and liens. John Saca has stopped construction--and apparently paying bills--for work done on the Towers on Capitol Mall at 3rd & Capitol Mall.
Current news stories:
- "Construction Halted on Towers Project" ›› - KCRA.com ›› (1/12/07)
- "Towers project on hold" ›› - The Sacramento Bee ›› (1/12/07)
- "Towers Project Construction Stopped" ›› - News10.net ›› (1/11/07)
» You can visit the Towers on Capitol Mall website here ››.
» As always, you can email Rob here.
Labels: 3rd-and-Capitol, development, downtown, highrise, John_Saca, Towers
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posted by Rob McQuade @ 9:49 PM,
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Giannoni and partners purchase Crystal site
A reliable source--Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo--announced this morning at the 2007 State of Downtown breakfast the purchase of the Crystal Cream & Butter Co. site at 10th & D near the railyards by Sacramento developer Anthony Giannoni and partners.
Tony Giannoni is probably best known for several recent and current projects including Meridian Plaza at 14th & L, the Marriott and hotel condos nearing completion at 15th & L, and Meridian II to be built at 15th & K. He has been a vocal supporter of a downtown arena that would take up a portion of Downtown Plaza at 7th & K.
No plans have been announced yet for the site at 10th & D.
Update: Here is an aerial view of the Crystal site area with an overlay of the property owned by Crystal Cream & Butter Co. based upon current tax records. Additional property may be held by the company using other entities, and the specific parcels being sold to Giannoni and partners has not been disclosed. ♦
» As always, you can email Rob here.
Labels: 10th-and-D, 14th-and-L, 15th-and-K, 15th-and-L, 7th-and-K, development, downtown, Heather_Fargo, Meridian_II, Meridian_Plaza, real_estate, State_of_Downtown_2007, Tony_Giannoni
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posted by Rob McQuade @ 10:36 AM,
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Sacramento's Central City development pipeline
Saturday, January 6, 2007
I traded the grid for salty bay area air for the day as I write from unseasonably sunny Berkeley, California.
With all the development going on or slated for the downtown area, it can be hard to wrap one's brain around it.
In the December community workshop, the City of Sacramento showcased an update to the Urban Design Plan. Included in the update were several great renderings of the city now and in various development scenarios. While doing a little catching up on things that were neglected during the holidays, I stumbled across the plan update I'd downloaded and decided to include an image from it...
Below is one of several images from the presentation (you can view or download the entire presentation here) that clearly shows current development and pipeline projects for downtown--and the railyards.
Whether or not some of these projects will be built remains to be seen--and will probably be largely determined by the success of projects currently under construction as well as the direction of building costs and the real estate market.
Missing from the images are Midtown projects like Sotiris Kolokotronis' L Street Lofts currently under construction. ♦
» You can visit the City of Sacramento's website here ›› and the Downtown Urban Design Workshop here ››.
» You can view or download the Sacramento Urban Design Plan Update from the community workshop conducted by the city here ››.
» As always, you can email Rob here.
Labels: development, downtown, Urban_Design_Plan
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posted by Rob McQuade @ 12:05 PM,
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