As the River District Emerges, A Complicated Future Awaits

Most of Sacramento’s River District is still industrial, with decades-old warehouses and light industrial buildings along streets with relatively little foot traffic, other than people who don’t have homes. But there are signs of changes coming.

Like shoots through a crack in the sidewalk, though, there are signs of changes coming. Years of planning and then demolition has given way to several new multistory housing structures at Mirasol Village, southwest of where Richards Boulevard meets 12th Street. Similarly, the former state printing plant at Seventh Street and Richards Boulevard is gone, with dirt moving for what will be a $1 billion, four-building state office complex project.

Combined with planned projects and investor interest in other properties, the construction activity suggests the River District is turning the corner from an overlooked stepchild among urban core areas to an emerging neighborhood of new buildings alongside re-imagined older ones, and work/play/live options within blocks of each other.