Slick marketing materials for development in the Downtown Railyards are circulating, and if the finished product lives up to the public relations excitement, Sacramento will take a big leap forward on the cool city front.
When I was a reporter for the Bee long ago, I traveled to a half-dozen cities that turned abandoned railyards into attractive places to live and gather. I wrote about our city’s interest in doing the same.
Developers Phil Angelides and Angelo Tsakopoulos were poised to buy the acreage behind the Sacramento Valley Station at Fourth and I streets. The deal fell through. Not much happened in the railyards over the next several decades.
Now we’re on the cusp of something that could transform the city. If I’m exaggerating, it’s not by much.
With the $1 billion, 118-acre Kaiser Permanente medical center and soccer stadium under construction, the first residential project completed, costly infrastructure built and a key part of a new entertainment district underway, the Railyards’ moment of glory is finally here.
“The Railyards isn’t about creating a new Downtown, it’s about adding an urban district that provides a connective hub between Downtown, Old Sacramento and the riverfront,” says Henry de Vere White of Sutter Properties Group, which handles retail leasing for the project’s main commercial areas.
“Historically, this site was the city’s economic engine, the place where rail, labor and commerce converged and fueled growth across the region. Over time, that activity was fragmented by infrastructure, change in commerce, time and disinvestment.
“This project restores that role in a modern context. The Railyards becomes an urban district that brings together living, dining, entertainment, health care and business in a walkable environment. By reactivating the historic heart of the rail yards, it revives a hub of activity that once drove regional expansion and allows it to do so again for the next generation.”
For the movie “One Battle After Another,” director and writer Paul Thomas Anderson filmed scenes Downtown because he appreciated the “brutalist architecture” and lack of strong sense of place. Locations were ambiguous in the story. The city wasn’t identified.
It’s a little unfair, but aside from two rivers and the Capitol, Downtown could be anywhere. The Railyards, projected to be built out over the next 10 to 12 years, can give the core a new identity, even if it winds up hurting an already depressed Downtown.
Like the historic atmosphere at Seattle’s Pike Place Market, the heart of the early development in the Railyards is a repurposed industrial building. The rail hub’s old Paint Shop is being transformed into a retail and entertainment venue with much of the historic ambiance preserved.
De Vere White said the 47,000-square-foot entertainment venue, scheduled to open in 2027, will host more than 120 concerts and cultural events annually and become “one of the most powerful foot-traffic generators in the region.”
I asked how the concert venue will compete with or complement the new successful entertainment site Channel 24 in Midtown. He thinks Sacramento can support both.
“We see Channel 24 as additive, not competitive,” he says. “Cities with strong cultural identities support multiple venues of different sizes, formats and programming styles. The Paint Shop is a large-format destination venue anchored within a broader entertainment district, while Channel 24 offers a more intimate Midtown experience.
“Together, they signal that Sacramento has reached a point where the market can support multiple live music ecosystems. That’s a positive marker of growth for artists, operators and audiences.”
I hope he’s right. Sacramento needs the Railyards to work. It won’t happen overnight, but the early ingredients for success are falling into place after decades of dormancy.
“The Railyards has always held enormous potential,” de Vere White says, “but projects of this scale require alignment—vision, capital, infrastructure and timing. That alignment is finally here and the time is now.”
Gary Delsohn can be reached at gdelsohn@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
