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Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Cal Expo considers development
by Suzanne Hurt, published on February 16, 2011 at 6:10 PM
Storyline: Cal Expo
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California Exposition and State Fairgrounds officials may get a closer look next month at the feasibility of redeveloping the fairgrounds.
Consultants have spent the last two months gathering more extensive information on what it would take to redevelop the site.
A team led by Andy Plescia of A. Plescia & Co. has been meeting with city and county officials, utility providers, developers and real estate brokers to determine what development might be possible, plus costs and changes needed to support that, according to an update released late Tuesday afternoon.
"This is really drilling down in a deeper level of detail into the feasibility of a redevelopment project," Cal Expo Deputy General Manager Brian May said.
The consultants – A. Plescia & Co., Gruen Gruen + Associates and RCH Group – are building on a preliminary development plan analysis released in September.
Cal Expo board members requested the analysis in response to a development team's proposal to move the fairgrounds to Arco Arena so the existing Cal Expo site could be privately developed to help finance an arena downtown. The Cal Expo board voted against the proposal from developers Gerry Kamilos and David Taylor.
The consultants recommended Cal Expo officials sell part of the fairgrounds land to finance new or updated fair facilities at the site.
They're scheduled to present updated information for the "Cal Expo Renewal Project" at the next Cal Expo board meeting, which will be held in March or April. The board is expected to decide whether and how to move forward with redeveloping the fairgrounds over the next two or three months. The consultants are also working on ways to finance redevelopment.
If the board decides to push ahead with redevelopment, the next steps would include marketing the land and soliciting offers on a national level, conducting environmental reviews and entering a sales agreement with the buyer, May said.
Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.
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In the current plan, they will be doing a piecemeil renovation of the current site over the course of a number of years as funds trickle in from property sales. The ongoing revovation may cause either shutting down the fair or reducing its exhibit hall availabilty.
Plus, the "great current location" touted by the Cal Expo board will now be sandwiched between development sites (along Ethan and along Bus 80).
Fairs should fun and whimsical, not industrial and impersonal. There is not a trace of taste anywhere in the place - other than in the ag exhibits, which save the day for a great many fairgoers.
Here's an idea: let's make an offer to the Danes to buy and transplant Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens. Maybe we can get them to build us a combination sports arena/Heineken brewery as part of the deal.
Some of us like this style and as a society we are basically destroying much of our architectural history in favor of creating copies of a past that are half invented. We so often choose to preserve the stuff that is painted pretty colors or reminds us of some place we used to visit.