With state employees working remotely, Downtown needs a boost. Our business district always depended on state workers for daytime vitality. Despite recent progress, Downtown continues to suffer.
Like any big idea, it’s hard to say if this one will ever happen. But Sacramento State University’s compelling proposal for a mixed-use campus on Capitol Mall excites some smart, influential people.
“Downtown is flat on its back,” West Sac developer Mark Friedman tells me. “The daytime population is 40% less than what it was pre-COVID.”
California is the only U.S. location where state employees haven’t been sent back to the office, he notes.
Friedman says, “The one thing that would immediately make a difference would be to have 5,000 students Downtown every hour of the day bringing their energy and enthusiasm to the core of the city.
“All that energy would make Downtown safer and more appealing. I think this is the best idea anyone has put forward for Downtown, and it would be great for the university and its students and for the community overall.”
The proposal stems from an idea that called for three state office buildings along Capitol Mall at Seventh and Eighth streets to transform into affordable housing. Sacramento needs affordable housing, but the conversion plan died when the state rejected developer requests for more public money.
That’s when Luke Wood, Sac State’s ambitious president, reached out to state officials with a proposal to build student housing, classrooms, research facilities, retail and related attractions on a 5-acre site along the mall.
Phased in over a decade, the project would capitalize on its proximity to the Capitol and Sac State’s public affairs programs. It would provide much-needed student housing options.
“Sac State is out of real estate,” Michelle Willard, the university’s head of external relations, tells me. “We’re landlocked by a river and a train, and we are the state capital university. This proposal gives us a unique opportunity for our students to learn and study in the urban core Downtown right next to the Capitol.”
Arizona State University is cited as a model for city-campus partnerships. It’s easy to see why.
Since the early 2000s, the downtown Phoenix campus is credited with creating more than 24,000 jobs and almost $1.8 billion in economic activity. It’s a hub of entrepreneurial and intellectual activity for students, faculty, staff and public.
Sac State is working with the state Department of General Services to determine the project’s feasibility. The university has exclusive rights to figure out how to make it happen and pay for it. Sac State hired global real estate development firm JLL to help assess the feasibility.
The Arizona State campus was funded in part by a voter-approved bond. Funding will be key to whether Sac State moves forward. But the plan is generating support from local officials.
The state Legislature approved Senate Bill 516 by state Sen. Angelique Ashby, who served on City Council and is a Downtown advocate. Her new law makes it easier for the city or county to create an “enhanced infrastructure financing district” to help raise project funds by borrowing against future tax revenues.
It will take more than a Senate bill to make Sac State’s plans a reality. But partnerships with commercial interests drawn to strong student markets, housing developers or bonds floated by the state university system all make sense.
“It will be challenging but not impossible,” Ashby says. “They said we couldn’t get Golden 1 Center built Downtown, but we did. This makes sense on so many levels.
“With a dedicated school of public affairs Downtown so close to the Capitol, where students could be exposed to so many valuable career opportunities and with affordable housing for thousands of students, this would be an incredible investment in our students and in our future. I am going to do everything in my power to help make it happen.”
Gary Delsohn can be reached at gdelsohn@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
