By admin 
Construction workers placed the final beam atop Kaiser Permanente’s planned hospital in Sacramento’s Railyards, Wednesday morning, a milestone for one of the most visible projects in the long-vacant district.
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When it opens in 2029, the hospital promises to become an anchor and the largest employer in the Railyards District, which emptied when railroad operators pulled out in the 1990s, required years of environmental cleanup, and has recently seen a wave of new development. The hospital project has risen from the ground in recent months. Work began on retail and entertainment venues to the south, in former train workshops. And infrastructure work continued at the site of Sacramento Republic FC’s planned soccer stadium, which broke ground last summer.
“It’s a renaissance period for Sacramento,” said Jay Robinson, the health system’s senior vice president and area manager.
On Wednesday, 18 months after workers broke ground on the hospital site, Kaiser staff, city employees and elected officials gathered across the street to watch the placement of the final beam.
“They are going to be the single-biggest employer in the Railyards, certainly in the first phase, and maybe forever,” said Denton Kelley, CEO of LDK Ventures, the master developer of the district.
The new Kaiser site will serve as a replacement for the health system’s existing hospital on Morse Avenue, which does not meet the seismic standards that will be required for California hospitals in the coming years, said Dr. Rick Vitangcol, physician-in-chief for Kaiser Sacramento.
The future of the Morse Avenue facility, Vitangcol acknowledged, remains a “multi-billion-dollar question.” The health system will likely have a strategy for it in the next 18 to 24 months.
Kaiser employees and local officials signed the new hospital’s final beam, before it was carried by forklift to the hospital site and lifted by a crane.
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“Every time this skyline changes, more people are going to see the future taking shape,” said Rep. Doris Matsui.
To the south, work was underway at “The Paint Shop,” LDK Ventures’ planned concert venue site. The A.J. apartment complex stood to the east. Behind it, workers labored at the future site of Sacramento Republic FC’s planned, 20,000-seat stadium.
The planned “Central Shops” retail plaza are scheduled to be completed by 2028, along with a retail building and the 3,600-seat concert venue, Kelley said. The Paint Shop will be larger than midtown’s Channel 24, which is considered a “mid-size” venue with a capacity of 2,150. But Kelley said he believes performers who typically play even larger crowds will come to The Paint Shop.
“A larger performer will play down for the right venue,” Kelley said. “And we think this venue will draw that kind of performer.”
Conversations about the Railyards hospital began about a decade ago, LDK and Kaiser officials said. Over the course of this year, the progress on the project, adjacent to downtown and visible from Interstate 5, has served as a visual cue of the recent momentum in the formerly vacant, 240-acre district.
As the crane lifted the beam over the hospital building a construction worker pushed it to the proper angle before the beam settled into place.
“Downtown and the Railyards — the momentum’s building again,” Kelley said. “We’ve needed that for the last five years.”
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