Grower’s District Project Sees Leasing Success, No Timing for Construction

There’s not much visible construction for the ambitious Grower’s District project in Sacramento’s River District, but brokers say that shouldn’t be mistaken for a lack of progress.

By year’s end, Turton Commercial Real Estate brokers are on track to have leased nearly 30,000 square feet in an existing building at 200 N. 16th St., said Turton director Matt Axford.

“Sacramento didn’t have a really good place for artists,” he said, noting how rising property values affected former havens in areas like Midtown Sacramento. “We’d have to push them out of the urban core.”

Turton Commercial and developer/owner Bauen Capital decided to remedy that by creating speculative spaces within the existing, century-old industrial building at 200 N. 16th St. Each space is about 1,500 square feet with improvements artists need like a sink.

“We gave them a blank space at a screaming price,” Axford said.

Among the tenants who’ve signed leases are sign company Sacramento City Signs, furniture refurbishment company Better Couch LLC, and custom trading card and sneaker company Kickstradomis.

Many of those businesses are hosting regular events for people to see what they’re doing, Axford said. “There’s something usually going on every weekend.”

With the success of that initial round of leasing, the owners and brokers are contemplating the creation of another round of spec spaces in the building, totaling 10,000 to 30,000 square feet.

Turton Commercial brokers are also marketing a larger space within the Grower’s District footprint, an empty storefront at 211 N. 16th St. Ruland’s Used Office Furnishings was in that spot before Bauen Capital acquired it and other properties for the Grower’s District project more than four years ago.

Axford said the storefront space is being pitched for a sports concept tenant, like a pickleball or bocce ball center.

But even with some success in leasing, the Grower’s District is still facing challenges on other fronts. Axford and Turton Commercial President Ken Turton acknowledged encampments of people without housing are around the project footprint, with ebbs and flows in both how much space they spill into and how antisocial they are to others.

Grower’s District entitlements also call for a lot of housing in addition to the commercial space. The U-shaped building at 200 N. 16th St. is slated for 350 residential units across two vertical additions, while another 190 units are planned in ground-up buildings at 211 and 215 N. 16th St.

As with new urban residential projects elsewhere, the economics and lending environment don’t lend themselves to starting those components at the moment, Turton said.

If there’s an upside to that, it’s being able to market spaces for makers, artisans and similar small entrepreneurs in a spot where they’re not being disrupted by construction, Axford said.

“We’re not turning space away,” he said. “Now is the time to reach out.”