Sacramento: 301 Capitol Mall: A New Plan for The Towers Site

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by sugit

Third release of tower condos for sale

Sacramento Business Journal - 2:59 PM PDT Wednesdayby Mike McCarthyStaff writer

Developer John Saca is going to release a third batch of condominiums in his 54-story Towers on Capitol Mall project Wednesday night, announcing it on the project's Website.

The first two releases brought deposits on 470 units of the 804 total, said Tony Ammirato, the broker with the Ryness Co. who is marketing the project.

This bunch will be around 50, with a starting price as low as $394,000 for a one-bedroom unit, although that is likely to be sold very fast. Most of the units will be well over $400,000.

Saca will continue to release units in small batches, mainly because it may be necessary to sell at higher prices later on to cover increased construction costs during the two years of construction, Ammirato said.

The next batch probably won't go on the market until late summer.

The units being offered Wednesday night will be a mix, placed on different floors, and with different square footages and views. The news that they are on the market will be sent to, among others, 19,000 people on the project's interest list, he said.

Amiratto's team plans to put banners on the construction site at 3rd and Capitol Mall.

I wonder how well sales are going, in terms of people converting their non refundables into hard deposits????

[WonderlandPark]

^^ in other words it is going to take a long ass time to sell the units so construction will start in '07 or later?

[ltsmotorsport]

I don't think so. They can easily start construction this summer and sell the rest of the units all through construction.

[urban_encounter]

Originally Posted by WonderlandPark

^^ in other words it is going to take a long ass time to sell the units so construction will start in '07 or later?

I don't think that's the case. Aura sold 80% in one weekend and is at about 90% presold (with approxiamtely 10% being held back until after construction begins.)


I would guess you would see the same thing with the Towers. The difference is Saca has 5,000 pre qualified for his project; so his pool of potential buyers is much deeper.


With CalPers on board this project will start this summer.

[innov8]

Yup, the plan was to sell 50% so as to get financing and the rest were
to be sold later to cover rising construction costs... like the article said.

[WonderlandPark]

Then he is well past 50%. 470 out of 804 sold. cool.

[urban_encounter]

Saca family buys Howe 'Bout Arden
By Jon Ortiz -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:50 pm PDT Wednesday, May 10, 2006



Howe 'Bout Arden, the Sacramento shopping center with the
punny name, has been purchased by Sacramento's Saca family
for $40 million. Brothers David and John Saca, with backing from
their father, Sacramento retail legend Tony Saca, bought the
168,500- square-foot neighborhood strip center from San Diego-based Rancho Arden LP.

The deal closed on Monday for the two-story property located
at the busy corner of Howe Avenue and Arden Way.

Nordstrom Rack anchors the center, which is less than 5 percent
vacant. David Saca said Wednesday that he and his brother plan
to update Howe 'Bout Arden's exterior and improve its parking.
"It's one of the area's premier corners," he said. "Now we're going
to make it one of the premier centers in town."

[Majin]

Improve its parking??????????????????

Oh god.

[innov8]

Sacramento Business Journal - May 12, 2006
*The words covered up are "going to be"*

[brandon12]

I found this on an on-line bulletin for the Portland Cement Association. Nothing Earth shattering...
=====================================

03.13.06

Sacramento Sheds Small-Town Status
Long dwarfed by the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego metro areas, California's capital of Sacramento shows signs of changing its rural image and its skyline with a cluster of high-rise buildings.

Groundbreaking is scheduled this spring for the Towers on Capitol Mall, which are 20 stories higher than Sacramento's current tallest building. The 53-story mixed-use development with twin towers will include a 230-room luxury hotel, 800 condo units, and 70,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space. The development team of John Saca and MulvannyG2 Architecture (Seattle) plan additional high-rise projects in Sacramento, including a 35-story retail/condo and 22-story retail/condo/loft complex.

Webcore Builders and Turner Construction will build the cast-in-place concrete structures, which feature post-tensioned floor systems and concrete shear walls. PCA's Attila Beres worked with structural designers Magnusson-Klemencic (Seattle), Miyamoto Intl. (Sacramento), and Shuhaibar Engineers (San Francisco), the firm conducting a peer review of the design.

[ltsmotorsport]

I love how people think Sac have a rural feeling. I might go with small city, but rural is more like my hometown; 5-10 acre parcels. Maybe it's just cause I grew up on the 50 side of things and had to travel 30 miles through development to get to downtown.

[TowerDistrict]

growing up in the bay area, i think this false notion comes from
Sacramento's location. Every major city on the west coast, is on
the coast - while this here cowtown is in the central valley.

the first time i had been to sacramento since i was a kid, i drove
through on business 80 and was blown away. it was like finding
a giant hidden city.

[bennywah]

I live in san diego, and the primary downtown areas and midtown areas feel larger in a sense, but overall, Sacramento has more of a mini L.a feel in terms of being a large metro area, You can drive from Oceanside to the border here in San Diego and its a lot less dense in development, than say driving from galt to rocklin in the sac area, and a lot more miles overall as well.

When I brought some friends to Sac one of the times I came to visit family, they were surprised by how large it was, and how it had a very midwest feel, and was defintely not this "cow town" they had heard of, and culturally Sacramento defintely has more to offer than San Diego, L.A and S.F are of course on a different level.

[Web]

Mooooooo

Probably due to proximity of the rice fields etc. (especially near the Intl Airport)

[innov8]

^ I think that article is referring to Sacramento Small-Town Status as in a skyline,
because for a city this large the skyline right now is not vary impressive.

Originally Posted by innov8

Sacramento Business Journal - May 12, 2006
*The words covered up are "going to be"*

This sounds like a marketing ploy. Aren’t the penthouses 6000 sf. already
and here they are saying that it's up to those with the penthouses on
whether or not the towers will be 54 story’s. A 12000 sf. penthouse is huge...
why not just through it in below so another 8 or 9 units can be made available.

[bennywah]

^
San Antonio is one of the 10 largest cities in the u.s in terms of population, as is san jose, and Sacramento has a more impressive skyline then them, maybe not a tall tall skyline, but unique buildings and driving in from the bay or the airport signifies a real city exsist, of course add in some 600 ft towers and some more 400 plus footers, and maybe a 700 plus and now you got a sigificant skyline

[brandon12]

Originally Posted by innov8

This sounds like a marketing ploy. Aren’t the penthouses 6000 sf. already
and here they are saying that it's up to those with the penthouses on
whether or not the towers will be 54 story’s. A 12000 sf. penthouse is huge...
why not just through it in below so another 8 or 9 units can be made available.

Actually, 6,000sf is 1/2 a floor. Not all the penthouse units are that large. I believe it was the Homebuilder (Dunmore?) who basically bought 6 adjoining units totalling 6,000sf for about $6M.

The way I interpreted it was that there needs to be some mechanical use on the 54th floor, but not enough to necessarily occupy the entire floor. So if you're on the 53rd floor, a few buyers may be able to punch through to the 54th floor. I could be way off though.

[Dieler]

Originally Posted by brandon12

The way I interpreted it was that there needs to be some mechanical use on the 54th floor, but not enough to necessarily occupy the entire floor. So if you're on the 53rd floor, a few buyers may be able to punch through to the 54th floor. I could be way off though.

I asked about this last Saturday during my signing. I was told that the penthouses can choose to divide their very high ceiling space with an additional floor, if they so choose.

So the height of the building does not change either way, just the number of "floors."

[Dieler]

Originally Posted by urban_encounter

I wonder how well sales are going, in terms of people converting their non refundables into hard deposits????

I asked about this last Saturday as well. I was told that they had "about 50" firm contracts, which was a little bit of a shock. I thought there would be a lot more than that.

They said that about 500 have soft deposits and they need 460 (I think, but might have been 470) to get going. I didn't ask but thought it must be a construction loan requirement.

The sales guy we were with said he thought people were just kind of not in a big hurry. I suppose that explains the notice they sent out telling all the holders of soft deposits to make an appointment to convert by May 12, or their deposit would be returned.

[foxmtbr]

Only 50? Yeah, that seems really low