A Fledgling Multifamily Market

A combination of reuse and new construction projects will add an interesting mix of multifamily units in downtown Sacramento. In West Sacramento, construction is set to begin this summer on a $46 million project that will blend loft-style housing with single-family homes.

By Thomas York

Multifamily construction is reshaping the face of downtown Sacramento-and may make a similar impact on West Sacramento.

John Dangberg, outgoing executive director of the Capitol Area Development Authority, said as many as 700 multi-residential units-many of them lofts-are under construction in downtown Sacramento.

"For a number of years, we've been averaging about 50 to 100 units a year," Dangberg said. "All of sudden, we've seen an exponential explosion in the number of units under construction."

CADA is a real estate development arm of the state and the city of Sacramento.

Dangberg predicted about 700 units to start construction in 2006.

Projects already under construction include Fremont Mews, with 119 studio, one- and two-bedroom units and parking for 128 cars. The $24-million project-scheduled to be completed next month-consists of 90,000 sq. ft. on a 2.2-acre block of land owned by CADA. The site is bordered by 14th, 15th, P and Q streets. Citrus Heights-based J.R. Roberts is the general contractor and Portland, Ore.-based Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects is the architect.

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Another big downtown project, Capitol Lofts, in the old industrial district near downtown, features the transformation of an seven-story, 52,000-sq.-ft. warehouse into 119 lofts. Irvine-based Regis Homes and Emeryville-based Holliday Development are the owners/developers. David Baker and Partners Architects of San Francisco is the architect. The conversion is slated to begin early next year. A general contractor has not been selected.

"Nothing like this has been done before in Sacramento," said Kevin Brown, Holliday's marketing coordinator said. "It's a new project type that features a combination of new and old construction."

Fremont Mews consists of studio, one- and two-bedroom units and parking for 128 cars. The $24 million, 90,000-sq.-ft. project is scheduled to be completed next month. The 2.2-acre site is bordered by 14th, 15th, P and Q streets. Citrus Heights-based J.R. Roberts is the general contractor and Portland, Ore.-based Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects is the architect. Photo courtesy of J.R. Roberts.

Brown said Model T Fords were once stored at the warehouse before being shipped to dealers in the region.

The $47-million, seven-story Plaza Lofts development, a ground-up construction project on J Street between Eighth and Ninth streets, is the largest multifamily project under way downtown.

Rod Round, a principal at LPA Sacramento Inc., the project's architect, said lofts in Sacramento are "now in demand by white-collar professionals who want to be chic and by lobbyists and corporate executives from out of town who need to stay in Sacramento for three to four days because of legislative interface."

Carl C. Lubawy, LPA's studio leader, said the project's pre-cast concrete system allows for large amounts of glass to be used on all residential units. The precast beams and columns will feature various levels of sandblasting and reveals, creating a pattern that will coincide with the pattern of the glass.

"This frame system has been demonstrated through testing to have superior performance to a conventional cast-in-place concrete frame," said Mick Wilson of Culp and Tanner, the Sacramento-based structural engineering firm working on Plaza Lofts.

The Oakland office of Turner Construction Co., the general contractor, hired Sacramento-based Clark Pacific Construction to handle the pre-cast work.

When it is completed in December, the 353,000-sq.-ft., seven-story building will have 225 lofts perched above 21,000 sq. ft. of ground-floor retail/restaurant space and three levels of above-ground and subterranean parking, with 302 spaces.

CADA's Dangberg said the recent rise in loft construction and other types of high-density housing should continue at a steady pace.

For example, CADA has chosen local private developer Loftworks LLC, a partnership that includes local developer Mike Heller and Walsh & Forster Construction, to build 220 units of new housing on two sites along 16th Street, between N and P streets. The project is now in the preliminary stages of development, with groundbreaking set for early next year.

"If everything is being talked about comes to fruition, then we're going to see a significant amount of new construction in the coming years," Dangberg said. "

"West Sacramento has approved or is considering a number of different multifamily developments, as well as large-scale commercial and retail buildings.

Regis Homes is proceeding there with Ironworks at Triangle--123 detached three-story loft-type living units along with 65 traditional single-family homes and 15 rental units. Regis Construction will serve as the general contractor for the project, which breaks ground in July. Sacramento-based PHA is the architect.

The $46 million project will take about three years to complete, depending on how fast the new homes are sold when they come to market.