What’s the future of Old Sacramento? Revitalization plans include a hotel and river overlook

A boutique hotel and a combination viewing deck and pedestrian bridge overlooking the Sacramento River are part of separate state and city plans to help boost visitors to Old Sacramento.

The area has had some tough years in terms of attracting a consistent stream of visitors, and the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help. The shutdown was the final death blow for some of the more than 120 restaurants, bars and merchants that line the cobblestone streets of the historical district that resembles Sacramento in the 1850s when the city flourished during the gold rush.

Today, more than 20% of the storefronts are vacant, though old favorites like the Rio City Cafe, the Stage Nine Entertainment Store and new businesses such as the recently opened Cerealism Cafe, featuring cereal-themed desserts, are prospering.

The planned hotel could help bring more visitors to to Old Sacramento by making it an overnight destination for the first time, said John Fraser, the capital area district superintendent for the California State Department of Parks and Recreation. The hotel would offer interpretive programs and house restaurants and retail stores.

The boutique hotel is planned to blend in with other gold rush era historical structures adding another layer to the Old Sacramento Historical Park, which makes up around one-third of the 28-acre historical district, Fraser said. The Old Sacramento State Historical Park currently includes the California State Railroad Museum, a train depot for excursion train rides and reconstructions of a cluster of early commercial structures. Sacramento was the western terminus of the first trans-continental railroad.

Fraser said the new building would be on the spot where a hotel stood during the gold rush days, the City Hotel, helping further recreate the feel of the early days of the city. “It would be another place where people could come and learn about the history of Old Sacramento,” he said.

The California Department of Parks and Recreation is expected to solicit bids from hotel developers in the first quarter of 2024. The 140- to 170- room hotel hotel would be no higher than four to five stories to fit in with other buildings in the state park. Fraser anticipates it could be ready by 2028 on a 1.5 acre site in front of the railroad museum that is now a lawn area.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg has said that a $26 million city plan would include a two-story viewing deck pedestrian bridge that would offer views of the Sacramento River.

“Old Sac and the waterfront will proudly light beams for decades to come,” the mayor said in a Feb. 21 speech, referring to the purple lasers the Sacramento Kings light after each winning game at their downtown arena.

The new structure would cross over the railroad tracks that separate Front Street in the main part of Old Sacramento to the Embarcadero walkway along the Sacramento River.

Opening up a view to the Sacramento River

The riverfront is mostly hidden now because three waterfront restaurants block the view from pedestrians: Rio City Cafe, Joe’s Crab Shack and the Delta King, a paddlewheel steamboat with a restaurant onboard.

“We have people come in our restaurant and say, ‘Where is the river? Isn’t there a river here?’“ said Janie Desmond Ison, owner of Steamers Restaurant, which sits across the street to an alleyway that leads to the river.

Desmond Ison said she points outside her restaurant on Front Street to the Embarcadero, just over a set of railroad tracks.

“Yeah, it’s right there,” she tells them.

Steinberg said the plan would also open up the two city public market buildings on Front Street with glass sides to give water views. A new children’s play area would also be installed.

City officials have not revealed full details of the plan which is expected to come to the city council for approval in the next several months. Still, Steinberg has made clear that Old Sacramento is key to the city’s future.

This is not the first time Old Sacramento was scheduled to get a makeover.

The historical district was earmarked for a $46 million rehab before the pandemic. Steinberg called Old Sacramento at the time “a tired part of town.” The Sacramento City Council approved a plan in December 2019.

The river-viewing pedestrian bridge was part of the remake. But it also included tearing down two city owned market buildings to create more pedestrian space for festivals and other events, and building several special events venues for convention attendees.

The revamp never happened despite the city council vote. The COVID-19 pandemic killed tourism in Sacramento. The city’s tourism tax on hotel rooms, the funding for the plan, dried up after empty hotel rooms became the norm.

Steinberg said hotel occupancy in Sacramento is back to pre-pandemic levels allowing the city to revive Old Sacramento rehab efforts. This time the money has been reduced, however, because Steinberg also wants millions directed to the construction of a new youth sports facility in South Sacramento.

Old Sacramento businesses hurt by pandemic

COVID-19 hit some Old Sacramento businesses particularly hard and business never fully recovered even after capacity restrictions were lifted.

Troy Paski, owner of Hoppy’s Railyard Kitchen & Hopgarden on Second Street in Old Sacramento, couldn’t wait for revitalization efforts. He closed in early January of this year after more than four years in business.

“That could be five, 10, 20 years off,” he said of the proposed redevelopment efforts. Even after the worst of the pandemic was over, business fluctuated depending on the season and the weather, he said.

Over the past year, foot traffic has returned in the evenings but the days remain quiet.

Paski said crime and safety concerns didn’t help business. He cited a July 2021 shooting in Old Sacramento that left two dead and four injured after a conflict between two groups.

The April 2022 shooting between rival gangs in nearby downtown Sacramento that left six dead and 12 injured — including three innocent women caught in the crossfire — also led to a decline in business as people stayed away from Old Sacramento, Paski said.

Another issue, Paski said, a shortage of restaurant workers also meant keeping his restaurant constantly staffed was difficult.

Despite some business closings, some signs show a new Old Sacramento rising. One example is that the area has become a home to emerging Sacramento artists.

Uncertain future for arts venue that anchored area

The nonprofit Atrium 916 has rented more than 3,000 square feet in the city-owned North Market building since July 2020 and offers for sale paintings, pottery, craft work, jewelry, handbags and clothes.

The space in the building had been vacant for years.

Gallery owner Shira Lane said she is excited to give local artists a space to sell their work and the public a chance to experience the art.

“Old Sacramento needs to have a greater presence of local artists and local creatives,” she said.

Visitors are also encouraged to make their own art or just relax at an outdoor cafe table and play a game of chess. Painting a canvas goes for $20, sculpting a clay magnet for $15. Refreshments of kombucha and a pot of tea are offered for $10.

Whether Atrium 916 will exist in the near future is unclear.

The art gallery is on a month-to-month lease with the city. Its market building was scheduled to be torn down under the city’s 2019 revamp of Old Sacramento. The current city plan announced by the mayor calls for a major revamp of the building with glass sides to offer river views.

City officials refused to release additional details, something that Lane is also waiting for.

“We don’t know at this time what the city is cooking up for the infrastructure plans in Old Sacramento but we hope Atrium 916 is included in the plan,” she said.

The rehab could also affect Dennis McBride and his Front Street Studios, which opened in July 2022. The

musician and artist subleases from Atrium 916 in the same city-owned market building.

McBride plays pop music throughout the day on his electric keyboard and guitar in his indoor-outdoor studio facing Front Street. He is surrounded by mostly abstract art paintings created by him and other local artists.

Some of his tunes are the 1930s standard “Georgia on My Mind,” Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” and “Ventura Highway” by America.

People passing by are invited to join him in a song or bring their own instrument. On Saturday night, McBride hosts a comedy open mic. On the first Saturday in April, more than 100 people watched a free show in which 23 comics each performed a five-minute routine.

McBride seems to be having too good a time to be worried about his future.

“When I got the opportunity to open this, I was like, man, it’s just wonderful,” he said.

McBride said he is able to run the venue because his rent is only $1,200 a month. He said so far profits have been thin. In December, he only made $100 selling artwork. McBride said his business partner, who he did not name, shares his vision of creating art and community, and is helping fund his venue.

Scott Ford, economic development director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, said Atrium 916 and Front Street Studios are positive examples of new businesses Old Sacramento needs to solicit.

“That’s a model we need more,” he said “It adds positive activity and gives locals a reason to come to Old Sacramento.

Ford’s Group helps manage Old Sacramento as part of a contract with the city of Sacramento. But Ford said city officials have not shared with him their plans for the North Market Building and the fate of Atrium 916 and Front Street Studios.

Other than one other tenant, a bar, most of the North Market Building remains empty and hasn’t seen tenants in years. A farmers market, one of the first uses after the city built the building in the 1990s, was scrapped because of a lack of business.

Ironically, the city built the market building blocking the waterfront view it is now hoping to bring back.

A second market building, also scheduled to be rehabbed, features several outdoor restaurants.

What happened to Gold Rush days?

Some merchants say the city has also hindered Old Sacramento’s success by inconsistent management.

On Labor Day weekend, Old Sacramento held Gold Rush Days from 1998 to 2014, but the formerly popular festival hasn’t been held since.

More than 100,000 people would attend the three-day festival that brought back the 1850s with historical reenactments.

City officials said in 2014 that using 3,000 gallons of water in a drought to clean the 200 tons of dirt used to turn the city into a scene out of the 1850s was wasteful.

“It was an unfortunate decision made by the city,” said Desmond Ison, owner of Steamers Cafe & Bakery. She has operated the Old Sacramento staple since 1994.

Desmond Ison said the event was her favorite festival because it brought history alive and helped make Old Sacramento a national draw for tourists.

“To me our guiding star should always be our place in history because that is what people want when they come here,” she said.

A key problem, Paski the former restaurant owner said, is that there is no agreement on what Old Sacramento should become.

“There’s no long-term vision for Old Sacramento,” he said. “It can’t decide what it wants to be.”

Paski said, on one hand, city officials profess that they want Old Sacramento to be family and pedestrian friendly.

Prior to his restaurant closing, he complained to city officials repeatedly without results about the loud, noisy classic cars and motorcycles with music blaring parading around Old Sacramento on weekend nights but nothing was done.

“The car and motorcycle owners don’t spend any money and they clog up the streets,” he said. “It’s like the Wild West.”

Not all merchants detest the car and motorcycle owners.

“I think a lot of that happens because Old Sacramento is the place to be,” said Troy Carlson, owner of Stage Nine Entertainment.

Carlson agrees it’s an issue, however, that does need to be worked on because it clogs traffic.

His shop features a wide variety of items related to animation, cartoons, movies, television and pop culture, and has been in business since 1991. It has also constantly expanded over the years, an example of a successful business that has prospered in Old Sacramento.

Carlson said Old Sacramento needs more stores that offer products that can’t be found elsewhere, offering a reason to visit.

“I don’t think we need a grandiose overhaul,” he said.

Instead, he said, the city needs to make strategic investments, offering incentives for unique stores that could prosper.

Carlson likes the city plans for the viewing deck and pedestrian walkway with Sacramento River views because it will offer something that can only be done in Old Sacramento.

“You want to have people say, you should go do ‘X’ because its really cool,” Carlson said.