Vacant state office buildings flank Capitol Mall on Friday, Jan. 30 after a news conference about a planned downtown campus for Sacramento State.
NATHANIEL LEVINE
nlevine@sacbee.com
Alongside a downtown public affairs college and an AI policy center, Sacramento State is contemplating building housing, hotels and a performing arts venue with capacity for smaller-scale sporting events.
The university put out the call Tuesday for consultants to design its planned downtown campus, which will see three mammoth state buildings redeveloped on Capitol Mall. The school in January secured a $50 million donation from Meta to fund the demolition and abatement.
Documents released as a request for qualifications show that school officials are contemplating building a parking structure, events center, “one or more hotels,” leasable office or lab space, and the performing arts venue, which would have rooftop views of the Capitol. University president Luke Wood told The Sacramento Bee last year that its downtown campus must include elements that generate revenues for the school, like event and office space.
Still, a university spokesperson stressed that the project may change during the master planning process.
“This is all in the infancy stage,” said Michelle Willard, Sacramento State’s chief of external relations.
The venue, Willard said, could host music shows and, potentially, boxing matches for Combat U, Sac State’s combat sports and martial arts program.
The documents mention housing for students and high-rise, multifamily housing for the general public. Willard said officials are hoping that an affordable student housing bond moving through the legislature will pass, and that the downtown campus could become a beneficiary.
Related Stories from Sacramento Bee
The Sacramento Bee
Annika Merrilees is a business reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously spent five years covering business and health care for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.