Westfield Exiting Downtown Plaza (Finally !!) (Sacramento, Santa Monica: credit card, neighborhood, living in)

[Majin]

Originally Posted by sacramento916

If its up to me, push K street all the way down to downtown Sacramento, and turn the Downtown plaza into mixed use buildings all the way through.

So basically, you want this:



Me too!

[sacramento916]

Hell yes I want that. But I also know it aint gonna happen. There just isnt the population here to make it happen.

[wburg]

Originally Posted by sacramento916

If its up to me, push K street all the way down to downtown Sacramento, and turn the Downtown plaza into mixed use buildings all the way through.

K Street is in the middle of downtown Sacramento already--it just doesn't feel like it because, like all mall buildings, it is inward-facing and ignores the street. The buildings in Majin's shots address the street--and most are quite clearly not "pedestrian malls" because there are cars running down the street.

Turning the existing Westfield buildings into mixed-use buildings is problematic but I suppose it could be done if you got really creative with spaces and figured out how to add things like bathrooms and kitchens in an economical fashion. Having something that matches Tokyo shopping districts is unlikely--but something more like, well, this sort of thing, for example...now that's within the realm of possibility.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by sacramento916

Unless you are going to pack in a density of about 50,000 per sq mile into downtown Sacramento, no way you are going to have a Shibuya style district in Sactown.

Sacramento could do worse than Shibuya-ku or Motomachi Street in Yokohama. They were vibrant over 50 years ago when I lived there and still are. Sometimes "change" is highly over-rated.

[bluevelo]

If you want the K Street Mall to work, its very simple. Lock the place down with enough cops who are taser happy on the 'bangers, anything that *looks* like a banger, and keep the street people out of people's hair, and businesses will want to move back in. Of course, getting rid of the SROs needs to be done as well. Otherwise, we just have a mini ghetto that gets worse after the gov't workers go home at 5 and for the weekend.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by bluevelo

If you want the K Street Mall to work, its very simple. Lock the place down with enough cops who are taser happy on the 'bangers, anything that *looks* like a banger, and keep the street people out of people's hair, and businesses will want to move back in. Of course, getting rid of the SROs needs to be done as well. Otherwise, we just have a mini ghetto that gets worse after the gov't workers go home at 5 and for the weekend.

Oh my. A realist! You're so un-PC.

[sacramento916]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Sacramento could do worse than Shibuya-ku or Motomachi Street in Yokohama. They were vibrant over 50 years ago when I lived there and still are. Sometimes "change" is highly over-rated.

Well, it'll never happen in Sac because we don't have the population density. Japan has like 40% of America's total population packed into the size of California. We just dont have that here, which has pros and cons in that per capita we have more space and the cost of living is lower, but the cons are that our cities are nowhere as vibrant and exciting as Japan's.

[ryuns]

It's a pretty low bar, so we'll take the change. They're proudly brandishing it the acquisition on their website too, which is probably a good sign to have a small bit of reputation attached to it: Sacramento Downtown Plaza | JMA Ventures

I think the grid is, overall, a great place. But there are some sad and bewildering stretches, and I hope an improved DTP is in Sacramento's future.

(By the way, the rumored purchase price was some $22M. That's almost embarrassingly cheap. Hopefully it leaves them with enough coin to invest in the property.)

[sacramento916]

Originally Posted by ryuns

It's a pretty low bar, so we'll take the change. They're proudly brandishing it the acquisition on their website too, which is probably a good sign to have a small bit of reputation attached to it: Sacramento Downtown Plaza | JMA Ventures

I think the grid is, overall, a great place. But there are some sad and bewildering stretches, and I hope an improved DTP is in Sacramento's future.

(By the way, the rumored purchase price was some $22M. That's almost embarrassingly cheap. Hopefully it leaves them with enough coin to invest in the property.)

I cant see how any developer would take over a failing mall and not have plans to significantly invest in it because it is obvious that keeping it roughly in the same way it is, will not work. It would just be stupid business.

But I'll reserve my judgement until I see concrete plans as far as what they plan to do. So far, I haven't seen anything yet that seems solid. And $22M for a huge center in the heart of Downtown, that is just ridiculous honestly.

[wburg]

Put it this way--the city paid about $20 million for a half-block of K Street owned by Mo Mohanna, half of which was a recently burned down vacant lot, and around $60 million for the passenger depot/intermodal lot in the Railyards, a lot of comparable size, about 5 years ago.