No one had used the old North Sacramento School for some time, this much was clear on a crisp February day.<\/p>\n
At a rear door, a man removed boarding to allow access to the building, which was constructed in stages between 1915 and 1947 and appears to have been vacant since 2010. Inside, the building was dark and required flashlights to tour. Signs of neglect included graffiti, water on the ground and multiple dead rodents.<\/p>\n
Ben Poh was leading the tour on behalf of Oakland-based Creative Development Partners, which purchased the property in August through a subsidiary company. Poh wasn\u2019t concerned about the building\u2019s current state.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like the neighborhood,\u201d Poh said. \u201cThe bones are good. It just needs a hand\u2026 in refreshing for another generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
At last, help seems to be coming for the old North Sacramento School, with early-stage site work underway and Creative Development Partners looking to turn the former school into a community center and build housing nearby.<\/p>\n
The exterior of the Old North Sacramento School earlier this month. A group hopes to restore the historic building to a community center. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com Getting buy-in from the community<\/p>\n
If the former North Sacramento School is turned into a community center, it wouldn\u2019t be the first time this kind of thing has happened in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
In midtown, the Sacramento Ballet practices at the E. Claire Raley Studio for the Performing Arts, or CLARA, a conversion of the old Fremont Primary School building that dates to 1921<\/a>. Then there\u2019s the former Curtis Park school that Gregg Lukenbill turned into the Sierra 2 Center for the Arts and Community before bringing the NBA\u2019s Kings to Sacramento in 1985.<\/p>\n Lukenbill stressed the importance of building community ties with these kinds of projects.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to create goodwill right out the gate, my advice would be to surveil the neighborhood in a predefined radius, maybe a mile or two and just get the neighbors input as to what they would like to see,\u201d Lukenbill said.<\/p>\n North Sacramento School neighbors Kim Scott and Jack Nielsen \u2013 who live in an adjacent artist collective built roughly 20 years ago on former school land and are part of the Old North Sacramento Community Association \u2013 helped bring the project forward.<\/p>\n \u201cThis site was identified by the neighborhood association who found the developer, who presented the opportunity, who\u2019s driving the conversation,\u201d said Hallie Chen, an architect and principal officer for Oakland-based CAHA Design, which is doing site work. \u201cThat is so rare for us.\u201d<\/p>\n The former school is located at 670 Dixieanne Ave., about a block off Del Paso Boulevard, the neighborhood\u2019s main throughfare.<\/p>\n The area has had its share of troubles. While the tour of the school was underway, firefighters were responding to a fire that destroyed a former Bank of America building nearby.<\/a><\/p>\n Still, the area has had success stories in recent years, such as Sammy\u2019s Restaurant, a legacy business that reopened in 2024 after being long-shuttered<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the restaurant following the tour of the school, which is a short walk away, Nielsen and Scott discussed their hopes for the project. Nielsen said his group\u2019s primary goal was the school\u2019s restoration. Scott said the building will have \u201ca heavy creative culture sort of vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d like people to feel like it\u2019s a power center for this neighborhood because it\u2019s been so underrepresented,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n Getting the building back into use<\/p>\n The North Sacramento School served as different things over the years: An elementary school, a venue for a 1960 city council candidate forum when North Sacramento was its own city<\/a>, a local theater.<\/p>\n One of the building\u2019s final uses came in January 2010 when it hosted a staging of \u201cThe Meeting,\u201d a play about Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X discussing their views on civil rights. By that point, the Fred K. Robinson Community Day School was located on site. State records indicate it closed in June 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n The building also served as headquarters for the North Sacramento School District until that district merged with others in 2008 to form Twin Rivers Unified School District.<\/p>\n \u201cOur understanding from the neighborhood association is that\u2026 had we been able to take over the building at an earlier point in its history, like after it was vacated by the school district, that it wouldn\u2019t have taken as much work,\u201d Chen said.<\/p>\n Initially after Liu\u2019s group became involved with the former school, he wanted to build the housing and then use the proceeds to finance renovation work on the school, a plan the community association resisted.<\/p>\n \u201cJeremy\u2019s plan was to do the housing first,\u201d Nielsen said. \u201cAnd we have put forth very firmly that any building with a housing component, that also had to progress with the school building itself. Otherwise there would be a good potential to have housing built and nothing happen with the school.\u201d<\/p>\n Liu said it was now looking like the housing and the school could be done simultaneously.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had been considering and are still considering working with a specific partner on the school portion and that would, if they were to come on board, that would allow us to really do both simultaneously,\u201d Liu said. \u201cSo that\u2019s kind of the goal right now.\u201d<\/p>\n City support for transforming North Sacramento School<\/p>\n Another thing that could be helping the project is support from different levels of the city of Sacramento.<\/p>\n Sean de Courcy, the city\u2019s preservation director, said the city helped Liu obtain a $26,450 grant through its Brownfields Program for environmental remediation work.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something, certainly, community doesn\u2019t want to see as an underutilized, vacant, sort of blighted site, especially being so close to the corridor that we\u2019re really trying to revitalize and bring a renaissance to,\u201d said Mikel Davila, a senior development project manager for the city.<\/p>\n The city voted unanimously in February 2024 to place the property on its local historic register, after it had also made the state and federal historic registers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe designation is a key tool in the City\u2019s economic, environmental and planning strategy,\u201d de Courcy said in a statement at the time<\/a>, noting that the building could be eligible as a landmark for tax credits and financial incentives.<\/p>\n The local designation came around the time that a prospective buyer of the building sought to demolish it, according to Bill Burg, president of Preservation Sacramento. Burg said the prospective buyer immediately dropped their bid after the building\u2019s placement on the local historic register.<\/p>\n Sacramento City Councilmember Roger Dickinson, who represents the district the former school is in, said he was bullish about the project and that he thought it was significant for different reasons, including what it meant historically.<\/p>\n \u201cThe opportunity to restore the building, bring it back to life, I think, is very meaningful to people, whether they are old or new, to North Sacramento,\u201d Dickinson said. \u201cIt\u2019s a real landmark.\u201d<\/p>\n For Liu, part of what drew him to North Sacramento is what\u2019s already there. Liu said the neighborhood\u2019s \u201clevel of leadership\u201d helped make it a place worth investing in.<\/p>\n Liu said his organization was excited for another reason, too.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just such a diversity of everybody in this neighborhood,\u201d Liu said. \u201cAnd I think those are just places we really need to make sure we\u2019re investing in.\u201d<\/p>\n Neighbors Jack Nielsen and Kim Scott, who serve as co-chairs of the Old North Sacramento Restoration Committee, pose for a portrait inside the Old North Sacramento School on Feb. 2. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
A boarded up door to the Old North Sacramento School is opened earlier this month. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
Graffiti marks the walls of the theater inside the Old North Sacramento School earlier this month. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
Graffiti marks the walls of the theater inside the Old North Sacramento School earlier this month. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
Water pools inside the Old North Sacramento School earlier this month HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
An empty hallway inside the Old North Sacramento School earlier this month. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
An image of the Virgin Mary hangs inside the Old North Sacramento School on Feb. 2. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
Neighbors Jack Nielsen and Kim Scott, who serve as co-chairs of the Old North Sacramento Restoration Committee, watch as a banner is adjusted outside the Old North Sacramento School on Feb. 2. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
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