The New Look of North Natomas

By Thomas York

For decades, hundreds of acres of commercially zoned land in the city of Sacramento's North Natomas district have remained in farmers' hands. But these days, office and retail buildings are replacing row crops on tracts that run north from the junction of interstates 80 and 5 to Sacramento International Airport.

Rendering of the Library for North Natomas courtesy of Nacht & Lewis Architects.

In fact, during the next 15 years, as much as 21 million sq. ft. of office and retail space will be built on 1,700 acres of farmland, due in large part to the geographical closeness of North Natomas to Sacramento's downtown neighborhoods.

"The advantage to being in North Natomas is that we are five to 10 minutes from downtown," said David Smith, real estate manager for the Sacramento office of Opus West Corp., a Phoenix-based developer of retail malls and office parks.

Smith said it has taken Opus West several years to ready the site, which lies in the flood plane of the Sacramento River.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers upgraded levies to protect against a 150-year flood, a process that allowed all of the developments to take place.

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Meanwhile, various sites in and near North Natomas are being discussed as a potential new home for the Sacramento Kings. The National Basketball Association franchise plays in the 17-year-old Arco Arena, located northeast of North Natomas.

North Natomas' major projects that are under way or in the planning stages include:

• The 664,000-sq.-ft. Promenade at Natomas retail mall, which got under way in January. Opus West Corp. is the developer, general contractor and architect for the center, which will feature several big-box retailers such as Target and Sam's Club.
  
  
• The first in a series of private office buildings that will comprise the Opus Gateway office park. In May, Opus West plans to start building a 590,000-sq.-ft., $110-million commercial structure. Opus is self-performing the design and construction of the project, which is scheduled for completion in summer 2006.
  
  
• The $13.1 million Library for North Natomas will be constructed within the $57-million, 47-acre education complex. The 23,000-sq.-ft. library is a joint-use library that will serve the North Natomas community, as well as the students, faculty and staff of both the new Natomas Unified School Districts Inderkum High School and the new Los Rios Community College District's American River College Natomas Center.

"It's alive and kickin' again," said Brian Maytum, a principal of Sacramento-based Nacht & Lewis Architect, the library's architect.

Maytum said the approval of "a second round of state funding several months ago" put the project back in business. "The bottom line is that they want to open in early '07," he added.

Nacht & Lewis has completed construction documents. Next, the project faces some design revisions and approval from the Division of the State Architect. Maytum said a general contractor needs to be selected in "late fall" if the project is to meet its scheduled completion date.

"It's a very unusual library project," said Ann Marie Gold, director of Sacramento Public Library Authority. "We're looking at serving not only entire community college, but the local high school, and we also have to be sensitive to the needs of public. This is another way of sharing public resources."

Meanwhile, private developers are planning to start construction in May on the 2,000-acre Metro Air Park, which, over the next decade, would add 8.6 million sq. ft of industrial and commercial buildings near Sacramento International Airport.

Troy Estacio, a spokesman for Sacramento-based Buzz Oates Cos., one of the participants in the project, said general contractor Nordic Industries is now grading the site. Estacio said later this year developers will spend $25 million to build new roads and reconstruct existing roads. A general contractor has not been selected for this phase, scheduled for completion in fall 2006.