Published: 1 years 312 days ago
Sacramento Bee: The decades-long effort to revitalize downtown Sacramento's K Street got a second wind Tuesday night.
The City Council voted 5-4 to negotiate with two development teams proposing to build more than 200 housing units, shops and restaurants along two downtrodden blocks of the K Street Mall.
The vote spurned a more elaborate proposal by developer Rubicon Partners to bring a year-round market similar to San Francisco's Ferry Building, a music venue and a 10-story housing complex to K Street. That plan faced at least a $50 million funding gap.
"We need to be more realistic," Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said.
By voting to negotiate with local developers D&S and David Taylor for a combined proposal for the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street, the city in essence agreed to hand the firms $42 million worth of downtown properties it has spent years acquiring.
Officials with both D&S and Taylor's firm told city officials they could complete their projects by 2012. In the end, that quick turnaround – along with proposals described as more modest than Rubicon's – pushed the council vote.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/13/2888769/council-votes-to-negotiate-with.html#ixzz0tddNZbhr
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