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Community and business reaction to new Downtown Plaza ownership

by Melissa Corker, published on August 15, 2012 at 5:39 PM

Storyline: Politics

Community Tags business community downtown plaza jwa ventures mayor kevin johnson michael ault politics rob fong sacramento westfield

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When news broke that San Francisco-based JWA Ventures now owns Downtown Plaza, reaction in the Sacramento business community varied from excitement to skepticism.

Downtown Plaza has struggled in the current economic climate, but Sacramento business and development leaders are optimistic that the new owners can turn the tide for a property that is one of the largest tax generators in the city.

“They want to take a look at what exists and position the plaza as a traffic generator for the downtown,” Downtown Sacramento Partnership Executive Director Michael Ault said Wednesday. “They seem ready to reinvest in the city and make the center much more relevant than it has been.”

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson called the purchase by JWA Ventures an “unprecedented win for the city,” at a press conference Wednesday.

But not everyone who heard the news was quite so optimistic.

“JWA has their work cut out for them,” Tony Bizjak reported in The Sacramento Bee.

Here’s the buzz on the sale of Downtown Plaza in social media today:

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter @MelisaCorker.

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slpnsac

August 15, 2012 | 6:26 PM

If they try to market the new mall to the people out in the suburbs, it's going to fail. What they need to do is market it for the local citizens of Downtown Sacramento. Those are the people that will be using it week after week.

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Rhys02

August 15, 2012 | 7:18 PM

What local citizens? In the last 40 years CADA has built fewer housing units than San Diego and Portland did in a single year. In the last three years every housing development of more than 25 units has been subsidized housing. Perhaps if the City Council and KJ hadn't been wasting tens of millions of dollars trying to acquire land from bottom feeding property owners and focused on mid and high density market rate housing...the Plaza would not be dependent on folks driving in from the suburbs. That is the sole reason why Westfield had no problem spending $250M on the Galleria, but wanted massive subsidies to do anything in the Plaza.

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William Burg

August 16, 2012 | 8:24 AM

CADA only manages eleven square blocks, not the entire city, so comparing them to the entire city of Portland or San Diego isn't remotely equivalent. And they don't manage the area around Downtown Plaza, so why are you mentioning them at all? And if the city hadn't acquired land, where would this housing be built? Typically, to build housing, land to build it on is required!

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Mark

August 16, 2012 | 7:59 AM

Locals: Downtown, Midtown, Southside Park, Land Park, Curtis Park, East Sacramento, South Natomas, West Sacramento, Oak Park, Tahoe Park.

Agreed. Sacramento has done a piss poor job of repopulating it's core. A lot of that has to do with the nature of people 'running the show' around here and the amount of available cheap farmland on which to build suburban housing. The main reason Roseville's Galleria succeeded and Downtown Plaza did not is that it doesn't have any real competition in the typical mall category. Sacramento has the Arden Fair and Sunrise malls. If we didn't have the Arden Fair Mall, Downtown Plaza would be thriving, but we do so the owners are going to have to approach the downtown mall differently. That is something Westfield was unable or unwilling to do.

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William Burg

August 16, 2012 | 8:29 AM

Part of the problem is because they did such a great job of depopulating the core in the first place, and because the real estate development community was so focused on continuing that depopulation so they could build more suburbs. City government follows the tune of the people who elect them, and in Sacramento, that's the real estate development community. Until the big players in local real estate give up the idea that downtown is a place to visit and then drive home, and everyone should live in the suburbs, you aren't going to see much residential development downtown that isn't driven by public entities.

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Mark

August 16, 2012 | 9:11 AM

True. I've always thought that the arguement against downtown around here was akin to a person opening up a grocery store but refusing to stock it because he was afraid he'd have no customers.

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