Another large apartment building is planned for Sacramento’s downtown Railyards

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t slowed Sacramento’s urban core building boom. But it has changed how some projects are taking shape.

Momentum in the long-vacant downtown Railyards, for instance, is picking up. A 345-unit residential building called the A.J. will begin leasing toward the end of this year.

Around that time, LDK Ventures is planning to begin construction on the Telegrapher, a 432-unit rental apartment complex. Josh Leachman, a vice president with LDK, said designing the Telegrapher during the pandemic “has allowed us to rethink how we might traditionally approach multifamily developments.”

That means “ample and engaging open space” and a wide range in the size of apartments, from 360-square-foot studios to 1,150-square-foot two-bedroom units. Floor plans “will more easily facilitate working from home,” Leachman said.

“The project recognizes how people work differently,” Leachman said. “There will be plenty of work spaces throughout the project, both inside and outside.”

The Telegrapher will sit along Fifth and Sixth streets in the Railyards. That’s near the Foundry, a pair of planned six-story office and retail buildings, so there’s still a fair amount of traditional office space in the works for Sacramento’s most significant urban infill development.

Two buildings will make up the Telegrapher, one five stories tall and the other seven.

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City leaders have focused on the 240-acre downtown Railyards for more than two decades. It seemed to finally receive the boost it needed in 2019 when Sacramento was awarded an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer – a franchise that would have played in a new Railyards stadium. But the expansion bid fell apart last year, along with the stadium plans.

The district, however, has moved along.

Construction is well underway on a 17-story Sacramento Superior Courthouse. And in addition to the Telegrapher and the A.J., a 150-unit affordable housing complex is being built in the Railyards called the Wong Center.