Sacramento city leaders met Tuesday morning at the Safe Credit Union Convention Center for the annual State of Downtown breakfast. This year’s event focused on “Downtown’s Next Decade,” the city’s planned direction for downtown over the next 10 years.
That direction included making the city more walkable, economic development, a renewed and expanded downtown district and enhanced safety measures.
For safety, officials mentioned hiring more security patrols to create a safer, more welcoming environment downtown for everyone.
Michael Ault, Executive Director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership said their vision is to make downtown the most stable, dynamic and opportunity-rich submarket in the Sacramento region.
“To achieve this, we must prioritize catalytic investment that supports our mixed income neighborhoods, higher educational anchors and workforce development,” Ault said.
Ault highlighted the DSP’s success at the event and future plans, mentioning that the partnership was renewed for a 10-year term and that their district has expanded from 66 blocks to 102 blocks. The DSP expansion includes the Railyards and the Crocker Art Museum.
“By expanding to these neighborhoods, we can deploy resources more effectively and deliver a more consistent downtown experience,” Ault said. “This expansion reflects a renewed commitment to downtown, signaling that we are thinking bigger, acting more strategically and planning for the long term.”
The DSP also highlighted its Dine Downtown program, which offers discounted three-course meals at participating restaurants and took place in January. The program generated $1 million in revenue in 10 days.
Visit Sacramento was presented with the J. Vance Stewart award for their contributions in bringing the Terra Madre America’s Food Festival to the city, an event that’s expected to happen every other year for the next 10 years.
Mayor Kevin McCarty spoke at the breakfast and mentioned two new developments that will be going into Old Sacramento’s Waterfront, taking over the former location of the Rio City Cafe, which closed in August 2024.
He announced that an undisclosed restaurant is in its final stages and a beer garden will be in a spot adjacent to the restaurant.
“We’re pleased to announce we’ve selected Biergarten, who’s been killing it in Midtown for over a decade, to activate an old section of the boardwalk that’s been unused for decades,” McCarty said.
McCarty told reporters after the event that he and Mayor of West Sacramento Martha Guerrero will launch a campaign in the spring for an MLB expansion. The Athletics will be playing in West Sacramento for the next two seasons.
According to McCarty, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the league is looking to add two teams and two cities by the time the A’s leave Sacramento and head to Las Vegas in 2028.
“This is a long-term campaign,” he said. “We have a couple of years to make this a reality.”
Also discussed at the State of Downtown was Sacramento State’s downtown campus. The campus received $50 million from Meta that will repurpose vacant state buildings into a mixed-use development.
“With a big assist from Governor Newsom and Meta, we are launching this exciting downtown campus,” McCarty said. “I’ve been at work trying to repurpose vacant state buildings for a while now, and I’m certain that this will be the game changer that will change downtown forever.”
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