As riverfront evolves, Old Sac stays involved

Old Sacramento is surrounded.

Development is proposed for the Docks to the south, The Rail-yards to the north, K Street mall to the east and West Sacramento’s waterfront development across the river.

The merchants and landowners of the historic district want to make sure Old Sacramento is a part of the changes taking place around it.

“We need to make sure that we are at the table and having some input for all the things that are happening around us,” said Terry Harvego, chairman of the Old Sacramento Business Association, as well as a director of Harvego Enterprises LLC.

The management of the Old Sacramento Business Association was taken over this year by the Downtown Sacramento Partnership. The partnership hired a business district manager for Old Sacramento five weeks ago, Katie Lovvorn, and last week held a retreat to focus on the immediate goals of the district.

The group determined advocacy would be it’s primary push, said Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

“We need to get out in front of the changes that are happening around the district,” he said.

The first priority is to make sure Old Sacramento is considered in all the projects going on around it, said Lovvorn, the new manager for the Old Sacramento Business Association.

Other issues high on the agenda include making sure the district is still accessible, creating a stronger mix of retailers and increasing marketing.

“From a tourism standpoint, it is one of our major attractions,” said Mike Testa, spokesman for the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau. The district is the area’s largest single tourism draw, with more than 5 million visitors annually. (Disneyland gets 7 million visitors, by comparison.) Tourism accounts for $2.4 billion annually in the local economy.

“We always push for product development, and our product is the city. Any time they can improve that product, it is good for the city, and it is good for selling the city,” Testa said.

The historic district’s property owners have been part of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership since it started in 1996, but Old Sacramento operated under management by the city and a merchants group that eventually became the Old Sacramento Business Association.

Five years ago, owners and merchants in the district created two nonprofit groups, one to manage events and marketing, and another to oversee historic educational programming. The two groups were headed by the same person, but the dual goals were too much work for a single person to manage. The business association joined with the downtown partnership this year to use the partnership’s management, marketing and support, and to begin advocating for the district.

Most of the merchants are too busy with their own businesses to attend meetings and planning sessions, and advocate for the district, Harvego said. There are also myriad viewpoints represented in the Old Sacramento Business Association, so whoever is speaking for the group really has to understand the wishes of the majority, Ault said.

Lovvorn faces plenty of challenges managing the business district in Old Sacramento. It has many private owners, as well as public owners such as California State Parks, the city of Sacramento and other state agencies. There is also a diverse mix of uses on the sliver of land between Interstate 5 and the Sacramento River.

The district has residences, office space, a state park, museums, restaurants, specialty shops, excursion companies, theaters, nightclubs, hotels and souvenir stores. That variety can cause friction. Events to draw locals sometimes bring more people to the stores and restaurants, and sometimes they don’t. Some of the food festivals don’t help the restaurants much because the food is served from stands on the streets. Some of the events close the streets, which limits the number of people who might visit stores or museums.

A manager has to listen to every one’s concerns and override some of them.

This story is from the Sacramento biz journal at http://sacramento.bizjournals.com