Sacramento Development News

[enigma99a]

Sorry, my bad I didn't notice

[Kerfloozles]

Hey everyone... Sorry, a little off topic here...

I've been enjoying reading all your postings these last few weeks. I went ahead and posted some pics of Sacramento in the "Rate our Skylines" section. Go ahead and vote!

Thanks.

[brotolive]

I saw a small article in the Bee last week about the possibility of putting a fleet of street cars into use on a loop from downtown to West Sac. Has anybody heard of this? More info?

[slugpower]

Hello all! This being my first post, I want to say hello!

There is a Capital Area Street Car Summit coming up on September the 23rd in the Grand Sheraton Hotel.

Here are the summit goals:

Educate the Community about streetcars, the types of streetcars are used for transit and the various ways streetcars may be best used in a community (tourism, commute, economic development, etc).

Present the hurdles, opportunities and benefits that have been experienced in other jurisdictions.

Discuss some of the elements of streetcar system construction (vehicle types, construction of guideways, stations, etc).

Present information regarding redevelopment benefits that have been experienced in other cities.

Discuss funding options (federal, public/private and volunteers).

Suggest possible uses of streetcars in our region (Downtown, Old Sacramento, Point West, West Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, Folsom, CSUS, UC Davis Med. Center, etc).


The summit is free, you just need to register. Check out the full details at www.sacrt.com/cass.stm

[ltsmotorsport]

I would really like the street cars to come back. It would be a good compliment to the bus system.

Maybe then after that, they could move RT to subway under the central city, like it should be.

[sugit]

Streetcars would kick ass...

"Maybe then after that, they could move RT to subway under the central city, like it should be."

Subway in Sac? Let's take it one step at a time there....

[ltsmotorsport]

Maybe, but I think they should put that on the 20 year plan. The more I think about it, the more I like it. Now financing is another story.

[enigma99a]

bring on the subway

[ValiBoi]

Hi I'm new to this site and wow i never knew that much people we're intrested in the same thing i am. I am glad i found this site i read the forums for Sacramento and it's a great start for the capitol of the golden state

[enigma99a]

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/foru...php?forumid=42 Is also a place you can also check

[ltsmotorsport]

Yeah, there's really a TON of info over at SSP.

[slugpower]

Here's the highlights of the text from today's front page article from the Bee about the federal transportation money that was approved. Looks like Sacramento fared quite nicely.

"In the Sacramento area, the big ticket item in the transportation bill is some $71.6 million to widen Interstate 80 from the Sacramento-Placer County line to Highway 65, bringing congestion relief to one of the fastest-growing areas in the country."

"In addition to authorizing light-rail extensions to Natomas and the airport, and from Meadowview Road to Cosumnes River College, the bill provides some $16 million to get those projects moving, authorizes an undefined street-car program for downtown Sacramento and gives the green light to extending Amtrak rail service to Auburn.

For downtown Sacramento, said Mayor Heather Fargo, the highway bill is especially welcome. The measure provides $8.4 million for work to connect Richards Boulevard to downtown around the old railyard near Interstate 5, opening up a 1,500-acre industrial area for city expansion, Fargo said.

"This will be a very important connection to get people from one point to another and allow development there," she said.

With the money, Fargo said the intermodal center providing bus, light-rail and Amtrak connections in a new facility making use of the historic train station, will become a central hub for the railyard development. The intermodal center will receive about $5.9 million.

"This bill is a big deal for us," said Fargo, calling Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer "our champion" in securing the provisions.

Other projects in the bill are:

* $3.2 million for Watt Avenue improvements from Keifer Road to Fair Oaks Boulevard.

* $6.6 million for Folsom Boulevard improvements between Rod Beaudry Drive and Sunrise Boulevard.

* $5 million to the Sacramento Area Council of Governments to improve air quality.

* $2.4 million for a Lincoln bypass on Highway 65.

* $1 million for a Harbor Boulevard interchange at Interstate 80 in West Sacramento.

* $1.67 million to improve the Yolo bus administration and maintenance facilities in Woodland.

* $1.6 million to replace the Winters Bridge over Putah Creek in Yolo County."

So it looks like the street cars are a step closer to becoming reality, as well as a new light rail line. Plus, that Richards Blvd. expansion should open up the old railyards to new developement.

It looks like these are going to be the golden years for Sacramento!

[pistola916]

What do you guys think about the A's moving here?

[sugit]

Speaking of the A's......Raley Field could easly fit 35K with a second deck and outfeild bleachers. I would love to have them here, and it makes a lot of sense, but I just do not see it happening. I hope I'm wrong though...

http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports...14158476c.html

Marcos Bretón: Perfectly logical to move the A's here

Stuck in traffic on a gorgeous Bay Area afternoon, it became crystal clear why the A's belong in Sacramento.
Because A's fans have to be bribed to see baseball's hottest team.


Because if not for cheap grub - for $1 hot dogs and root beer floats - and if not for $1 tickets, you wouldn't have seen 15,000 ticketless people show up at the Coliseum for Wednesday's stirring A's win over Cleveland in extra innings.
You would have seen about 25,000 fans, give or take, which is about the A's average this season, down from last year and one of the lowest attendance figures in Major League Baseball.

Indeed, it could be called pathetic how the A's can't simply be great and draw fans. Or it could be called embarrassing how they can win 38 of 52 games, including 11 of the past 14, and still draw less than mediocre slugs such as tonight's A's opponent, the Detroit Tigers.

"I have no idea how many fans we will have (tonight), and that's the tough thing," said A's general manager Billy Beane.

"You should know."

Yes, you should. But the A's can't take anything for granted, though they are the toast of baseball and are playing .700 ball on the wings of Rich Harden, Barry Zito, Dan Johnson and Bobby Crosby.

For them, outdrawing the woeful Colorado Rockies is considered a victory.

There are many reasons for this, but let's not lose the point: Sacramento could do much better.

Sacramento could provide the land for a stadium that the A's will never find in Oakland or in Contra Costa County.

Sacramento is far enough away from the Bay Area for the A's to finally climb out from under the Giants' shadow but close enough to maintain their sense of history in Northern California.

Sacramento is as rabid about its sports as the Bay Area is blasé about the A's. A simple "celebrity" softball game at Raley Field as part of the recent Triple-A All Star game festivities drew a stunning 14,414 people on a steaming Monday night a few weeks back.

Yes, there was also a Triple-A home run derby that night, but the point is: Can you imagine the local drawing power for big-league baseball?

The A's would sell out nightly, particularly given new A's owner Lew Wolff's hope for an intimate new stadium seating 35,000 or so.

Build it here, Lew, they will come.

A month ago, the University of the Pacific's Business Forecasting Center told The Bee's Andrew McIntosh the Sacramento region's economy will more than double in the next quarter century. The four-county area - Sacramento, Yolo, Placer and El Dorado - will grow to 3.5 million residents.

Personal incomes will rise above the state average, the local professional and business sector will add 13,500 jobs in the next 2 1/2 years, and by 2030, the region's gross economic product will soar from $84 billion to $200 billion.

Why not get in on the ground floor of all that? Why not be like "The Jeffersons" and "move on up," and out of a horrible stadium, a depressed economy in Oakland and a dysfunctional political climate that will never generate a stadium in the East Bay. Ever.

Of course, Beane - also a minority owner in the team - will entertain no such discussions right now. He, Wolff and the rest of A's ownership say they are "committed" to the Bay Area. They have to say that.

But Beane also knows too well how his team is boxed into a relative corner of obscurity in the crowded Bay Area sports scene.

"Our biggest days are always when we have dollar (promotions)," Beane said. "The fact of the matter is, our venue is old. It's outdated."

Yes, the Coliseum is a hole where even 40,000-plus crowds seem smaller in a cavernous space. Compare the number of A's games on Fox Sports Net to those of the Giants. It's not even close. Meanwhile, the A's seemingly switch radio stations every year. Currently they are on KFRC, which plays religious music. That's pretty sad for a four-time world champion.

For their part, the Giants, who haven't won a title in 51 years and have not won one in 47 years in San Francisco, are on KNBR, a 24-hour sports titan that can be heard throughout the West.

"The Giants have a radio station that reaches Utah, so what team (is the Bay Area) going to get into?" asked Tyler Bleszinski, who runs athleticsnation.com, a popular A's blog. "If you're a Sacramento A's fan, you live out in the cold."

Time to embrace a bold idea: The A's should move to Sacramento, where it's always warm.

[slugpower]

From Wednesday's Business Journal:

A local citizens group says Sacramento City Council members have illegally held secret meetings to review competing proposals for redeveloping a portion of the K Street Mall downtown.

The group, which calls itself Sacramento Citizens for Property Justice, sent a letter Tuesday addressed to Mayor Heather Fargo and other council members demanding that secret meetings to discuss the proposals be stopped and that recommendations resulting from these meetings be ignored by the council.

The challenge involves proposals to redevelop the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street. The City Council issued a request for proposals in January, and the city is now reviewing proposals from two development groups.

One of the proposals is from Evergreen Co. Properties, which includes K Street property owners. The competing proposal, from Zeiden Properties, would require the city to use its eminent domain power to force property owners to sell, according to the citizens group.

The City Council directed its downtown review committee, composed of four council members, to review the proposals. The committee met behind closed doors, with no public input, and then presented its recommendation to the council, according to the citizens group.

The group also alleges that the committee members contacted other members of the council to develop a "collective concurrence" on which proposal to back before making their recommendation.

California's open meetings law, known as the Brown Act, requires that meetings of local government be held in public, with some exceptions. The group contends that meetings of the downtown review committee, which comprises a majority of council members, qualifies as a meeting of local government, especially since the committee also consulted other members of the council.

In their letter, drafted by Sacramento attorney Kelly Smith, the group demands that the city ignore any recommendation of the downtown review committee and conduct all future deliberations regarding K Street redevelopment in public.

[slugpower]

It's a week old article, but it looks to spur on the time it takes to start construction on some of the planned projects in Sacramento. As another plus, it looks like the Parthenon building is still going forward (I'm a fan of it).
Sorry for the length of the article, but you have to sign up to read it, so I wanted to just quote it below.


http://www.bizjournals.com/sacrament...y5.html?page=1

Architect Ed Kado stopped at the front counter of the city of Sacramento's development services office early this month and dropped off an application for a 29-story experiment.

The $100 million project at 500 Capitol Mall is planned by Kado's employer, Tsakopoulos Investments, headed by George Tsakopoulos and his son Angelo G. Tsakopoulos. When Kado dropped the application at the counter, it became the first high-rise project that would enter the "Matrix" -- a system for processing development applications. The department's new director, Ray Kerridge, is developing the Matrix to streamline processing and answer long and persistent criticism about delays and confusion in the city's system for handling such projects.

Angelo G. Tsakopoulos said he has talked with Kerridge and was impressed by his experience and determination. "Normally, I'd be skeptical about being a test subject," he said. "But I feel comfortable about being the first major project to start in this process."

The proposal is also notable because the design includes a likeness of the Athenian Parthenon atop the Capitol Mall building. The Parthenon, a 2,450-year-old temple of Athena, remains one of the world's most sophisticated feats of architecture. The Tsakopouloses included it to honor their Greek ancestry. The Capitol Mall version would house a restaurant and banquet hall with views. It's likely to be controversial with the city's design review officials and some of the public.

Because 500 Capitol Mall would be a landmark project, and is the first high-rise office tower to enter the Matrix as a new application, the Business Journal will be tracking it with this series of stories. The idea is to see if Kerridge's crew and the willing developers can make the Matrix work.

Whether it works is of great concern to the city, the Tsakopouloses and the many developers who work with the department. The city usually handles the largest volume of development applications in the region, or close to it -- around $1 billion worth annually.

But the city's development application process has been given very poor grades by developers. Sacramento's development processing has regularly ranked at or near the bottom in the Business Journal's annual survey of the industry. Developers complained that their applications were bounced around and sometimes lost within a confusing system that took far too long.

Kerridge was hired away from Portland. Ore., to improve the process.

He took over the department in January and has dubbed the new process the "Matrix," but not after the movie of that name nor even after the dictionary definition of "matrix" as an environment in which something thrives. MATRIX is the city's acronym for "Multi-discipline Action Team for Responsiveness and Innovative Execution of the Development Review Process."

Backers and builders hope the dictionary meaning also applies. It doesn't yet.

Kado meets the Matrix
On that first day, Kado didn't notice anything new about the system, and with good reason; the Matrix hadn't yet reached the front counter. The staff at the counter took his application and routinely routed it in the old way -- sending it to the many divisions that would be involved in the project's review. The "circulation" process typically takes 30 days.

"They never mentioned the new process," Kado said on July 14, a week after he dropped off the application. "So far, it seems business as usual."

Having heard something about how the Matrix is supposed to work, he expected that a team leader would be assigned to shepherd the project through the process. But he'd heard nothing about it from the department by the 14th. The only contact he had with the department was an e-mail and call from associate planner Erik deKok, who told Kado the project could require an environmental impact report.

"I asked deKok if he was the designated person," Kado said. "He said he wasn't. He mentioned that they are trying to adopt a new system. I'm waiting to hear from them to get together for a meeting."

Bill Thomas, the department's operation manager, explained that the Matrix is not slated to officially start until Aug. 22 and staff at the counter were not aware that this test case was coming. By the 14th, however, Thomas had been told about the application and had appointed a team leader, Willie Harris, to shepherd the project. Thomas gave Harris the nod to contact Kado, getting the Matrix in place a bit early.

"I got a call from Willie Harris," Kado said on July 18th, a Monday. "We'll meet and he'll come over to my office. I was surprised. That's never happened. We'll go over the application, then he'll set up a meeting with staff people."

Back in the old days ...
Kado said it was very different under the old system. He would not, for instance, have received a call from the department. "I'd be calling them after two weeks," he said. "I'd get some kind of run-around and would call again the following week. Then four to six weeks later, I'd call again. They'd say they can't find the application. This is pretty good. They've got this guy to lead the thing."

Said Thomas, "Under the old way, they would submit plans and they'd fall into limbo, not knowing when they'd come out the other end. We want Matrix to be seamless, predictable."

Harris expects he will have regular meetings with Kado. "We'll sit down and develop a partnership," he said. "We're not looking to be confrontational."

When Thomas gave the go-ahead, Harris began putting together the team of 31 staff members from various divisions and departments whose review and approval are needed for the project. The team will tackle the application "concurrently," said Thomas. That's different from the old "sequential" process, in which an application would move from one staff person to another, possibly being sent to the developer repeatedly with questions.

Altogether, the department is forming nine such teams, each to handle a different type of development.

Thomas pointed to a chart showing how the old, sequential process recently dealt with a local homeowner's application for a minor addition to his house. It took five months to get the application approved. "It's because the application was not looked at holistically, but sequentially," Thomas said. "I told the planners I'd buy them all dinner if they could compress that process to 14 days."

Big wheel churning
He described the concurrent review process as like a wheel, in which a team leader like Harris is the hub and the staff are spokes, all answering to Harris in short order on the issues that must be dealt with. Harris will be the department's main contact for Kado. But when needed, Harris' team will meet with members of Kado's team to settle issues quickly.

The new process should save considerable time on 500 Capitol Mall, especially in the early, design stage, Thomas explained.

Typically, a high-rise application moves through three stages -- 15 months of design by the architect; 14 months of approvals by the department; and 24 months of construction. The planning and approvals stage thus takes 29 months. Thomas aims to cut five months off that, mostly by working with the developer and architect in the first stage. Ideally, of course, the Matrix would start working with a project when the private architect started, but that was not possible in this case, he added.

One tool the Matrix will use to cut time is the "rolling review," meaning the parts of a high-rise could be reviewed by individual staff members, as soon as possible. Under the old system, all parts of the design would be submitted at once, with little or no pre-examination by city staff.

"They design a little, we review a little," Thomas said. "That's compared to the traditional scenario, where the owner can spend months in design to have us tell them they can't build it."

For instance, permits for demolition, the foundation and underground utilities can be reviewed and given the nod by staff well before the project goes to the Planning Commission for approval. Some element might be altered by the commission's decision, but these early moves toward construction are otherwise ready to go as soon as commission approval is given, he explained.

Rolling review can be done all through a project, with the architect's team and the city team maintaining a dialogue all along.

A developer in Portland once told him the cooperative, friendly process was like working with Andy Griffith's Mayberry, Thomas said.

Watching the Matrix closely is the city's Development Oversight Commission, a city-appointed group of industry figures that advises city officials on improvements to the process. "I'm intrigued to see how well it works," said developer Brian Holloway, the group's past chairman. "It's very important that it works, because it's an opportunity to get projects to move faster and with less confusion."

[slugpower]

Court ruling muddles K Street plan
By Mary Lynne Vellinga -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, August 1, 2005
Story appeared on Page A1 of The Bee
Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here.

The prospect of an expensive eminent domain fight with a major downtown property owner is complicating efforts by the city of Sacramento to spruce up the dilapidated K Street Mall.
A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain has made the situation stickier. And it doesn't help that the developer in question, Moe Mohanna, recently starred as a champion of private property rights at a Capitol press conference.

Mohanna and a competing developer have rival proposals for the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street. An ad hoc committee of four Sacramento council members is expected to make its recommendations to the council by mid-August.


If the city chooses a proposal from Joe Zeiden, owner of the Southern California-based Z Gallerie furniture chain, it faces years in court fighting Mohanna, who controls much of the property in the two blocks and vows not to sell willingly.
Not only would he fight the city in court, Mohanna said, but also he would retaliate by making downtown's main streets look even more blighted.

"If that happens, I'll be boarding up all the other properties I have," said the Iranian immigrant. "What do you want me to do? After 30 years they take my property. This is not what I expected from America."

Mohanna has joined with developer John Saca to propose a retail and condominium project using only those properties controlled by him or his partners.

Zeiden's rival proposal would encompass the entire 700 block of K Street and half of the 800 block. It would require the condemnation of up to 14 properties, many owned by Mohanna. Such an effort could cost the city millions in acquisition costs and years in court.

Eminent domain has always been a difficult issue for politicians sensitive to public opinion. But council members have grown more skittish since the recent Supreme Court eminent domain ruling.

On its face, the decision in Kelo v. the City of New London, Conn., strengthened the hand of local governments. The court upheld an action by New London to demolish houses to build a commercial center.

But far from empowering cities around the country, the court's action has instead ignited a backlash against eminent domain, giving property rights activists an issue to rally around.

"You'd think the (Supreme Court) decision would have settled the law, but it's turned eminent domain into more of a political issue," said Councilman Steve Cohn.

"The result has been a political movement in a number of states, including California, to restrict the use of eminent domain," Cohn said.

Mohanna supports this movement. In mid-July, he appeared at a Capitol press conference held by state Sen. Tom McClintock, who proposes a ballot measure that would ban the use of eminent domain for any private development.

In an interview, Mohanna asserted it is "un-American" for local governments to condemn private property so that another developer can build on it.

"Where I come from, the government does these types of things, but not in America," he said.

Even before the City Council committee has chosen a plan, one property rights group is threatening to sue the city over its decision-making process on the K Street Mall.

A new group calling itself Sacramento Citizens for Property Justice sent the city a letter accusing it of violating the state's open-meetings law by allowing the four-person committee to deliberate in closed session.

Harvey Zall, spokesman for the group, said he views the use of eminent domain to award property to a private developer as an "abuse" of government power.

City leaders said they're confident the city is on solid legal ground by allowing the committee to deliberate in secret.

"I don't think there's a lot of substance to the accusation, at least not based on what our attorneys have told us," said Mayor Heather Fargo.

The accusation, she said, "isn't diverting us from focusing on the issue at hand."

That issue is the K Street Mall. City leaders have for years expressed frustration about the continued decline of the 700 and 800 blocks of the pedestrian thoroughfare, the entrance to Downtown Plaza. The two blocks are pocked with empty and collapsed buildings.

City leaders also are seeking to redevelop the 1000 block of K Street, much of which the city already acquired.

Earlier this year, the city issued a request for development proposals. It received only one for the 1000 block, from a group led by developer David Taylor. But Zeiden and a group affiliated with Mohanna submitted rival plans for the 700 and 800 blocks.

The plan submitted by Mohanna and developers the Evergreen Co. and Hank Fisher Properties called for a large-scale housing and retail development that would have extended all the way to L Street and replaced the Greyhound bus terminal with a Nugget Market.

But Danny Benvenuti, who owns the Greyhound building, emerged with his own proposal for an office and apartment tower on his property. He said he would help Greyhound move elsewhere, something the city has long sought.

Mohanna then joined forces with John Saca, a local shopping center developer who is working on several planned high-rise condominium projects downtown.

Their new plan proposes to cut the K Street buildings controlled by Mohanna and his partners in half, maintaining retail along K Street but erecting high-rise condominiums on the rear portions.

Cohn said he likes the fact that Saca and Mohanna are proposing about 300 units of housing.

"There's definitely some merit to the proposal," Cohn said. "The problem they've had is that they're now with their third (development) partner. It's made it a little difficult to evaluate what exactly their proposal is and who their partners are."

Mohanna has been a landowner on the street for decades, and has continued to accumulate properties. In recent years, city leaders have begun openly criticizing him for failing to make significant improvements.

But Mohanna said the time for big action has only just arrived. And he wants to be part of it.

"It has taken me 30 years to assemble these properties," he said. "First you have to assemble them, then you can propose a big project."

Zeiden came to K Street about two years ago to do his own project. His family-owned retail chain has a store in the Downtown Plaza, but would like to move it out onto the street with other new stores such as those it has in six other cities.

But Zeiden managed to buy only two properties, a record store in the 700 block and a furniture store in the 800 block. He now wants the city's help to make his project happen.

Zeiden said he could move quickly by restoring existing historic buildings and putting up historic-looking structures where buildings have fallen down.

"If you walked down the street in 1925 - that's kind of what it would look like," he said.

He touts letters of interest from such retailers as Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters and Sur la Table. He proposes to put a modest amount of housing in the second and third stories of the buildings.

Zeiden said his project would cost about $35 million - money he already has lined up.

But his proposal comes with an expensive catch. The city would have to assemble the remaining land for him and pay for it - a cost that Mohanna estimated would run at least $25 million.

State law has long given cities the right to exercise eminent domain to acquire land in areas defined as "blighted." These powers have been used on the new Central Library and the apartment complex under construction at Ninth and J streets.

"We've got some very good examples of how we've used (eminent domain) judiciously, and we wouldn't use it any other way," Fargo said.

Cohn said he and other members of the ad hoc committee, which also includes Fargo, Rob Fong and Ray Tretheway, have been pressuring Zeiden and members of the Mohanna group to join forces to avoid a legal battle.

"Eminent domain isn't something you want to go through. It's really a last resort," Cohn said.

[slugpower]

Sorry for all of the posts...but I keep on finding all of these great articles that I want to share. But finally, the trade center is moving along!


Bob Shallit: Rumors flying of big trade center deal
By Bob Shallit -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, August 1, 2005
Story appeared in Business section, Page D1

Details remain fuzzy. But a long-rumored world trade center could soon be taking root on land east of Sacramento International Airport.
Several sources report that a global investment group is close to completing the purchase of part or all of the 1,800-acre Metro Air Park project owned by megadeveloper Buzz Oates and numerous other property owners.


The deal could be completed as early as this week. If that happens, the air park would become a center where merchants from around the world display their wares.
Such a center has been the subject of scuttlebutt for several months. But principals were sworn to secrecy.

Now, some are confirming the bare outlines of the center concept and saying it's far more real than similar proposals floated in the past.

The talks have "gone much further than you typically go if it's just puff," says one person familiar with the project. "We're down to details."

Says another: "It has a 100 percent chance of happening."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Condo mania: Demand seems very deep for those high-rise condo projects being proposed downtown.
John Saca, planning twin 53-story towers at Third Street and Capitol Mall, recently held a sales event for 250 prequalified people and collected $10,000 deposits for 270 units.

But he could have sold more. About 4,000 people from his interest list had been prequalified to buy.

Why weren't more invited? "We only wanted to sell about 240 units," he says.

Another sale will be held this year for a similar number of units in the second tower.

He'll hold out about 200 for later sale, presumably at a higher price.

Meanwhile, Craig Nassi, proposing a 38-story condo tower at Sixth Street and Capitol Mall, reports he has taken $5,000 deposits from more buyers than he has available units.

Can both projects get built? Developer Scott Rasmussen, who is about to break ground on his own condo project near Pavilions shopping center, isn't betting against it.

"I'm blown away by how many people say, 'I want to live downtown,' " he says.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eyes on Sactown: Of the two competing condo projects, Nassi's still is getting the most attention outside Sacramento.
The project was highlighted in a recent Wall Street Journal story that examined economic growth in Sacramento, a place the writer calls "this sleepy capital city." The Saca proposal wasn't mentioned.

The San Francisco Chronicle also had a story on the Nassi project (with a brief Saca reference.) There's a nice - though perhaps immodest - quote in the piece from Nassi architect Daniel Libeskind, discussing his shift from high-profile projects like Freedom Tower in New York to high-rise abodes in places like Sacramento.

"Michelangelo built for popes and royalty - why shouldn't ordinary people have the right to live in a beautiful environment?" the architect asks.

Unfortunately, the Chron writer misspelled Nassi's name. Thankfully, he didn't call Sacramento sleepy.

[enigma99a]

Keep on posting news I wonder how the trade center will look.. Should be interesting.

[Dale]

I think it's slightly hysterical how, given the spectacular demand for highrise living, that media types are breathlessly posing questions like, 'Can both projects get built ?'

Sounds kind of quaint.