Sacramento: 301 Capitol Mall: A New Plan for The Towers Site

[mechanico]

Originally Posted by enigma99a

Lastest towers newsletter states that 47 remain in Phase 4. Which was the same as the last update. Very interesting

If sales are still slow in January or Febuary then we can say there is a problem. Slow sales in December .

[joninsac]

Originally Posted by mechanico

If sales are still slow in January or Febuary then we can say there is a problem.

While we'd all like to see brisk sales at The Towers, I don't think you can say there's a problem if Deutsche Bank has decided to give Saca the money he needs anyway without actually selling half of the units first.

[Majin]

^^ Is that offical? I haven't seen an article stating that yet.

[joninsac]

^From the Sac Biz Journal article posted by Los Lobo on page 54 of this thread -

Saca said he has received leeway from the construction lender on the project, Deutsche Bank, which originally wanted more than half of the approximately 800 condo units to be sold before funding the loan. About a dozen units still needed to be sold to reach that mark, but sales were close enough that the bank was willing to restructure the loan and relax requirements, he said.

[TowerDistrict]

Home sales are always slow through the winter months.

[Majin]

Originally Posted by joninsac

^From the Sac Biz Journal article posted by Los Lobo on page 54 of this thread -

Saca said he has received leeway from the construction lender on the project, Deutsche Bank, which originally wanted more than half of the approximately 800 condo units to be sold before funding the loan. About a dozen units still needed to be sold to reach that mark, but sales were close enough that the bank was willing to restructure the loan and relax requirements, he said.

Didn't catch that. That's great.

Now only if Aura will join the party...

It's still hard to believe we haven't heard anything from this project...

[Phillip]

Originally Posted by joninsac

^From the Sac Biz Journal article posted by Los Lobo on page 54 of this thread -

Saca said he has received leeway from the construction lender on the project, Deutsche Bank, which originally wanted more than half of the approximately 800 condo units to be sold before funding the loan. About a dozen units still needed to be sold to reach that mark, but sales were close enough that the bank was willing to restructure the loan and relax requirements, he said.

If Deutsche Bank relaxed their 50% presold requirement that's great news for Saca. Has anyone from Deutsche Bank confirmed Saca's statement, which was made over two weeks ago now?

[joninsac]

Originally Posted by Phillip

If Deutsche Bank relaxed their 50% presold requirement that's great news for Saca. Has anyone from Deutsche Bank confirmed Saca's statement, which was made over two weeks ago now?

If you need to hear it directly from Deutsche Bank, just call them and ask.

[innov8]

Phillip, you never fail to amaze me

I'm glad you enjoyed the SD & LA photos

[SacUrbnPlnr]

Originally Posted by Majin

Didn't catch that. That's great.

Now only if Aura will join the party...

It's still hard to believe we haven't heard anything from this project...

-------------------
The latest word from Aura's sales manager is that Mr. Nassi has picked up his building permits (at least those needed to excavate and construct the foundation) and is scrambling to start ground breaking before the end of the year, as promised. However, she believes that early January is more realistic. The construction manager's best estimate is an 18 - 20 month construction timeframe, which could mean occupancy by late summer of 2008. Time will tell.

A future Aura resident.

[foxmtbr]

^ Thanks for the update!

[snfenoc]

My company had a Christmas lunch today at Pyramid (By the way, Pyramid's Amberweizen is the best beer I've ever had. The Snow Cap is awesome and the IPA is also damn good - if you like hoppy beers). After the lunch, I needed to walk the buzz off, so I went down to the Crapitol Mall construction sites. The Towers capped off my trip. Standing on the top floor of the urine-soaked DTP garage and staring at the ever-growing, muddy Lake Saca, I could not help but think..."Why the $%&* aren't they done with pile driving yet!!" They are STILL driving piles!!!! It seems like every time I go to the site there are 30-40 piles on reserve. They started in late July or early August. It has been nearly 4.5 months. I thought it would take 3 months. Are they going to finish while I'm still in my 20's????

****Note I am 26****

I hate to be a little bitch, but damn. When are they going to be finished????

[brandon12]

have patience young man...Rome was not built in a day. Although I'd be lying if I said I wasn't eager for this thing to start coming out of the ground. Given their progress thus far, does anyone care to venture an educated guess as to when it will begin to go verticle? I say April Fools Day. Any of those folks out there with construction backgrounds, please give us your best estimates. Oh, and I'm fully expecting to get some doomsday, sarcastic, and/or pessimistic predictions, but hopefully a few others will be peppered in with reasonable and serious responses. So forumers, what do you say?

[foxmtbr]

Oh, I'd venture to guess there should be at least some steel by the end of January...

?

[snfenoc]

I think they need to have a foundation before they have steel rising. At this rate, foxmtbr, you will be able to vote before they get to the foundation.

Please note I am not being pessimistic. I'm just being impatient. I'm pretty sure "they" said it would take only 3 months to finish the pile driving.

[SACMPH]

Originally Posted by foxmtbr

Oh, I'd venture to guess there should be at least some steel by the end of January...

?

I don't recall - the details were presented a year or two ago - but aren't The Towers going to be entirely concrete?

[innov8]

Originally Posted by snfenoc

Please note I am not being pessimistic. I'm just being impatient. I'm pretty sure "they" said it would take only 3 months to finish the pile driving.

Saca said it would take six months... and back in July and I think I also mentioned
that I talked to some of the pile driver guys working at the site and
they said it would continue into December.

Back when Saca said it would take six months Construction Guy said that
was crazy... three months tops is what CG said

The Towers will be built with cast-in-place concrete which means the
concrete parts have embedded steel cables and after the cement dries, the
cables are pulled like a rubber band and tightened. The same method was
used for the Plaza Lofts on J and 9th.

I think April is a good bet Brandon... a lot of digging has to be done around
the piles before concrete is poured for the foundation, and bad weather
will slow things down.

Before any rebar goes in for the foundation, a tremendous amount of digging
will need to happen around the piles. This picture below was taken of the
Marriott foundation at L and 15th Streets about a year ago. Expect to see a lot
of this in places where piles are grouped together. At the Marriott they only
dug down about 5 feet or so for a 15 story building... so for the Towers as
has been reported, 15 feet of foundation sounds about right.



Hey snfenoc, since when did you start drinking beer?

[snfenoc]

Originally Posted by innov8

Hey snfenoc, since when did you start drinking beer?

Since the Liberals took power and the Kings began sucking, I decided to take up drinking. Actually, I've always enjoyed a good beer every now and then, but we have such draconian drunk driving laws in this state, I try to be very careful - I only have a drink if I have time to walk it off before getting in my car.

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by snfenoc

."Why the $%&* aren't they done with pile driving yet!!" They are STILL driving piles!!!! It seems like every time I go to the site there are 30-40 piles on reserve. They started in late July or early August. It has been nearly 4.5 months. I thought it would take 3 months. Are they going to finish while I'm still in my 20's????

Originally Posted by snfenoc

Please note I am not being pessimistic. I'm just being impatient. I'm pretty sure "they" said it would take only 3 months to finish the pile driving.

"They" said six months, not three months......

Recall if you will, what I posted during the demolition of the former Sacramento Union building..... During a planning commission meeting Saca's project manager said that pile driving would take up to six months to complete....


Let's take a walk down memory lane with Construction Guy

Originally Posted by urban_encounter

November 3rd 2005: The towers are expecting to be driving piles for 6 months, though I suspect half that time for 621 and 601 CM.

Construction Guy's response.....

Originally Posted by Construction Guy

November 4th 2005: Who told you guys it was going to take 6months for pile driving?? That's insane. Once the pile driving company gets into full production, it shouldn't take more than about 6 weeks to drive all the piles needed for both towers.

My reponse to Construction Guy...

Originally Posted by urban_encounter

November 5th 2005: Six weeks for both towers? I hate to break it to you, but it took six weeks to drive piles for the 15 story Marriott and there weren't many piles driven for that project. If memory serves me correctly it was Saca's project manager that mentioned the time frame during the planning commission meeting. I'll concede that it's possible I misunderstood, but there were other forumers who were present who can correct me if I'm wrong. But one thing I can guarantee, is that they wont be done driving piles in six weeks.

Now six months may still be a stretch, though it's looking increasingly more likely. But anyone who thought they were going to be finished in six weeks (given the number of piles that needed to be driven), were only kidding themselves.

To Saca's credit they've been working full time with two pile drivers and in some cases late into the evening and on weekends, to complete pile driving. So I guess that 6 month time frame was nearly spot on, because it's not due to a lack of effort or construction activity on the site.

This is just a massive project for Sacramento and would be considered a massive project in any city. It's going to take more time to see it constructed than people are used to around Sacramento.

[brandon12]

just noticed that since the last time I checked the sacbee homes for sale website, a 1,400sf 2/2 on the 43rd floor is now listed as "sales pending" with a list price of $1.3M That's good to see. That's almost $1K/sf.