Sacramento Proposals of Times Past

[daverave]

I'm a noob at posting images in forums so bear with me. My first attempt at an ImageShack linkage.


Bet you can figure out where this is!

[innov8]

Looks like a Benvenuti proposal behind the Hotel Berry. Was this proposed in the last 80's and why did it fail?

[daverave]

Originally Posted by innov8

Looks like a Benvenuti proposal behind the Hotel Berry. Was this proposed in the last 80's and why did it fail?

Nicely done! It's on the Greyhound terminal site and was done in 1989 and failed as the construction economy went into its most recent recession (before the current one.) That and Benvenuti would never have pulled it off anyway, IMHO. He just wanted a pretty picture to try and get investors excited. The third through ninth floors were all parking.

[innov8]

Yeah, Benvenuti had about 7 or 8 towers proposed back then and this looked
like one of them... when I have some time, I'll try to find some of the others
he had in the works from the late 80's. Do you have any others Daverave?

[daverave]

Originally Posted by innov8

Yeah, Benvenuti had about 7 or 8 towers proposed back then and this looked
like one of them... when I have some time, I'll try to find some of the others
he had in the works from the late 80's. Do you have any others Daverave?

Nope, this is the only one he let me do.
It was fun although I knew it would never go anywhere. Actually it's my favorite project type: all design, no CDs, no risk, except for the risk of not getting paid. I recall it took a looong time to get the money from him.

[innov8]

The Towers on Capitol Mall

One of Sacramento's most ambitious and largest construction project
proposals since Centrage in the late 80's early 90's.

Developer: Saca Development
Architect: Mulvanny G2
53-Stories 615 ft, 834 Condo Units, 65K Two Levels Retail
2.1 Million Square Foot
230 Rooms Intercontinental Hotel
1,140 parking stalls above grade
11-story podium
10K The Spa at La Borgata
40K California Family Fitness Gym
Original cost to build: $400 million
Expected final costs to build between $600 and $700 million
Cost overruns estimated at least $70 million
City of Sacramento taxpayer subsidy $11 million
Deutche Bank's loan $480 million
CalPERS investment fund $100 million
$21 million to buy land
383 pre-sold condo units
Condo price range from mid-$350s to $4 million
2,900 piles 70 feet into the ground
Proposed Oct. 2004 and died Jan. 2007

Proposed on October 2004 the Towers on Capitol Mall was expected to be built
at 3rd and Capitol Mall. Towering 22 stories over Sacramento’s current
tallest, the Wells Fargo Building, it seemed like downtown's housing market
was ready to go vertical. If built, it would have be Sacramento’s first
high-rise to use a "performance-based" concrete design. The Towers drew
more than 4,000 pre-qualified potential buyers from an interest list of 17,000.
In the first sales event for the Towers Saca invited 250 to put a deposit
down and sold 280 units, making nearly $2 million in one weekend. Many of
the piles hit solid ground at different depths, leaving a hodgepodge of
different length piles sticking out the ground. Saca previously told The Bee
these piles would have to be sawed off -- an unexpected expense. Saca
was very close to meeting the Deutsche Bank requirement that he presale
400 units and had collected non-refundable deposits on 383 units as of
November 2006 since sales began, there were 27 cancellations.

The project stopped construction in January 2007 when a former contractor
and the buildings' architect filed liens against John Saca for $7.3 million in
unpaid bills. Saca’s efforts to reconstruct a workable budget and secure his
construction financing failed. Skyrocketing construction costs were also to
blame for the shutdown.

Mayor Heather Fargo expressed reservations about whether the western end
of Capitol Mall was right for such lofty structures.

[innov8]

Capitol Plaza
Northeast corner of 15th & L Street of the current Marriot Residence Inn
Was to be Stagen Hotel
13 stories 177ft
240 rooms
190 underground parking spaces
266,000 sf
Proposed 1989 Died 1991

[innov8]

The Jibboom Street Power Station project
Proposed Feb. 2006 and died Oct. 2006
Developer: D.R. Horton
Architect: Mogavero Notestine Associates
Owner: City of Sacramento
# Of Units/Density: Total Units: 203 / Units/Acre: 81
15-story condominium tower
Along the Sacramento River just north of Old Sacramento
Cost to build $130 million
295 condos
400 Parking spaces
1,400 civic amphitheater
Major park component
Subsidy for rehabilitation of Power Station Building
Subsidy for parking structure
City owned amphitheater









The former power plant was built in 1912 and has not been used for nearly
half that time. The building’s oil-fired turbines ran until 1954, when the
facility was closed. Shortly thereafter it reopened as a junk yard. The State
closed the junkyard in 1965 after it acquired the site as part of the
construction of I-5. Cost of renovating the power plant in 2000 was
estimated at $6.5 million and the cost has surly risen since then. The cost
would have been much higher if the State and Federal Government hadn’t
already spent $5.2 million to clean up the former Superfund site. Much of
the money to clean up the site was recouped from former customers of the
junkyard which caused the contamination with lead, copper, zinc and low
levels of polychlorinated biphenyls.



The Library Lofts project
Proposed Feb. 2006 and died Oct. 2006
Developer: D.R. Horton
Architect: Mogavero Notestine Associates
Owner: City of Sacramento
# Of Units/Density: Total Units: 295 / Units/Acre: 227
On I Street between 7th and 8th
21-story condominium tower
Cost to build $120 million
450-space parking garage
295 condos
40,000 sf office space
5,000 sf ground-floor stores.

[Ryan@CU]

I'm glad to know that whenever I feel like I'm not depressed enough I can always come to this thread.

[sactown916]

If all of these building’s were built what would our skyline look like today_can any one put that together

[innov8]

Originally Posted by sactown916

If all of these building’s were built what would our skyline look like today_can any one put that together

I guess if someone had the time they could work up something in Google Sketchup? http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=140789




Capitol Towers
September 1988
$300 million development
Four 26-story Office/Residential/Retail/Hotel towers
7th & O Street
1.4 million square feet
200,000 sf office tower
70,000 sf retail
3,000 parking spaces
250 room hotel tower
200 unite apartment
Proposed by an east coast family: The Scheuer Family Trust
Construction was expected to start in 1990 with a new tower built every two years.

As part of the project, the trust would have given $100,000 to community
housing groups to spend as needed on city housing projects. The project
got the typical objections by current residents in the Capitol Towers as well
as City planners concerned with traffic problems with other developments
planned near by. The Proposed California Capitol Center on R Street was also
in the planning stages and also had plans for both office and hotel at a cost
of $250 million. The Capitol Towers proposal failed due to not landing a big
state office tenant which would have qualify the project for a loan to start construction.




As recent as March 2008, a Los Angeles based developer proposed five
residential towers ranging from 15 to 33 stories and 1,646 housing units.
Financing for the newest proposal was to come from the financial giant AIG Inc.

The complex is now 93 percent leased with rents from $875 for a studio to
$2,165 three bedroom unit.

[arod74]

Originally Posted by Ryan@CU

I'm glad to know that whenever I feel like I'm not depressed enough I can always come to this thread.

Too funny Ryan. I get the same type of vibe on those occassions when I reminisce about girls past that I had a chance with and somehow botched the opportunity. Ugghh the heartache. Let's see you turn that into a thread innov8

[econgrad]

Originally Posted by arod74

Too funny Ryan. I get the same type of vibe on those occassions when I reminisce about girls past that I had a chance with and somehow botched the opportunity. Ugghh the heartache. Let's see you turn that into a thread innov8

Its an interesting thread, and depressing to me as well. I wish we were posting more stories of progress...

[innov8]

Originally Posted by arod74

Too funny Ryan. I get the same type of vibe on those occassions when I reminisce about girls past that I had a chance with and somehow botched the opportunity. Ugghh the heartache. Let's see you turn that into a thread innov8

Botched opportunities... that's for sure. Both R Street and the corner of
15th & K saw a total of five major towers fall due to the city changing the
rules with height and zoning requirements while the developers were in the
entitlement process. I'll dig up some info and rendering to post later.

[innov8]

K Street Towers
8th and K Street
2 300 foot buildings
Developers John Saca, Mo Mohanna, and John Lambeth
Architect Kwan Henmi
600 loft style condos
17,730 sf ground floor retail
Proposed 2005 and died 2007

[innov8]

Back in 2005-2006 the County invited a limited number of architects to
compete for a significant site on I Street between 7th & 6th street in
downtown Sacramento. The Library Lofts ended up winning the Counties
support for the location. At the time, the county thought residential was a
good direction - only to have DR Horton pull out soon after.

With this proposal 700i, a proposed substation at the base would have gave the
Sacramento Police Department a presence in the Central Business District
and an approachable identity for the department. The generous public plaza
provides large pubic art for people to enjoy. I really dig this design and shape,
it's to bad it never saw the light of day.

700i
Dreyfuss & Blackford Architects

[ltsmotorsport]

Damn, that was a really nice looking proposal; hadn't seen it before. I almost wish it was chosen instead

[innov8]

April 20, 1986

This one would have been sweet across from Cal Expo. This one also did
not get off the ground fast enough before the market collapsed.
Below is a photo of what's there now, Kaiser Hospital.

[wburg]

I still think the Expo/Arden area is a great place for a "second downtown" of high-rise projects--something like Century City in Los Angeles. Consolidate all those parking lots into one parking structure, put up a couple towers, add residential mid-rise/high rise nearer the freeway (and thus nearer to the dramatic views of the river) and a fixed-rail transit loop up Expo and down Arden to link it to Light Rail and downtown. Think of it a bit like Century City.

To contribute, here's a drawing from an early 20th century plan for a civic center around Plaza Park (now Cesar Chavez Plaza) from 1916 that never got built:

[TWAK]

what about the proposed freeways?