The Sleep Train Arena site is going to look different in the future.
The Sacramento City Council approved a project for the area yesterday, turning it into a residential, commercial and retail space. It will have restaurants, parks, bike trails, a medical hospital, and campus, and is headed by the Sacramento Kings. Vice Mayor Angelique Ashby represents the Natomas area and has been working on making the project a reality for ten years. "We definitely need access to quality health care services, so adding a full-service hospital north of the river in our Sacramento region is a really big deal, adding 6,000 jobs in our community is also a big deal," said Ashby.
The current plans involve 30 acres of where Sleep Train currently sits to go toward the medical school and hospital, and the remaining 140 acres to be used for housing and commercial spaces. It's also reported that at least 10% of the acreage will also be used for affordable housing and give the opportunity for people to buy homes. Funding for the renovation project is still in the works, but some council members say getting it approved is the first step towards a financial plan, and the plans currently project over 80,000 jobs could be created from these plans over a decade.