Dive Brief:
- On Thursday, Kaiser Permanente anounced it would be buying 18-acres of land in a shuttered downtown railyard in Sacramento to build a major new hospital.
- The hospital will be the anchor of a new development that will include retail, entertainment and housing, as well as offices and other businesses that will generate new jobs.
- Although Kaiser has not disclosed the cost of the new hospital or the price it paid for the land, the hospital will be one of Sacramento's largest construction job in years.
Dive Insight:
Development of the downtown railyard has been in the works for more than 20 years. City Council member Jeff Harris, whose district includes the railyard, told The Sacramento Bee the Kaiser project "opens a lot of doors to the development of the railyard. This helps move our vision forward to create dense housing downtown. ... If we can get jobs, and obviously hospitals create a lot of jobs, and have people living close to where they work, and if we can get entertainment in that same district, then that is the perfect trifecta of how to create a vibrant downtown."
This is not the first investment Kaiser has made to help revitalize downtown Sacramento. Last year, Kaiser bought a 195,000-square-foot building near the railyard, which it intends to use it as a medical office building.