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For Immediate Release
Contact:
Leslie Valpey
916.329.4500
lvalpey@thomasent.com
Study Concludes Construction at The
Railyards will have a $9.4 Billion impact on
the Sacramento Region
Construction to Create Tens of Thousands
of New Jobs
– A new economic analysis of The Railyards redevelopment
project that examines the impacts attributed to construction at the
site concludes development of the 240-acre site at the Union Pacific
Railyards in downtown Sacramento will generate a significant positive
impact on the local economy over the next 15 years.
The economic impact analysis, conducted by the
Philadelphia-based Public Financial Management Group, projects a total
estimated economic impact of more than $9.4 billion and the employment
of 78,000 part-time and full-time workers to build the project between
now and 2021.
“The Railyards will re-energize the local economy
and benefit the entire downtown,” said Suheil J.Totah, vice president
of development for Thomas Enterprises. “As we work in partnership with
the city, we have a tremendous opportunity to create a lasting legacy
for the region.”
Further, the study estimates that at build-out
5,325 permanent part and full-time jobs will be created at The
Railyards. The economic benefits from the increased area
employment will correspond to approximately $5.4 billion in direct
economic benefit, $1.6 billion in indirect benefits, and $2.3 billion
in induced impact to the region for a total overall impact of $9.4
billion.
Overall, The Railyards will create a mixed-use
urban village featuring 10,000 housing units, retail, office space and
cultural and entertainment venues in a setting that celebrates the
region’s historic ties to the railroad. Major elements of the plan
include a sports and entertainment district, a performing arts center,
a meandering urban waterway, the preservation of seven notable historic
brick structures known as the Central Shops and a revitalized
riverfront.
“This project has great public benefit because of
the ratio of private versus public investment,” said Robert Gamble, PFM
senior managing consultant. “While we
project that the public sector will have to spend more than $550
million for
infrastructure to support the development, private investment in
construction alone is projected at about $4.5 billion. Over the life of
the project, that’s roughly an 8 to 1 ratio of private versus public
investment. Compared to other large scale redevelopment projects,
that’s a very good deal for taxpayers.”
In addition, the analysis indicates some proposed
new hotels in The Railyards, including a 500-room landmark hotel and
500 boutique hotel rooms which will result in additional economic
benefits of $58.7 million annually.
The economic impacts to the city and county of
Sacramento were modeled using the IMPLAN system, a program that uses
regional and national data of commodity flows from producers down to
final consumers to determine local economic impacts.
The program closely follows the input-output
accounting conventions set out by the United States Bureau of Economic
Analysis. This method uses multipliers which model the
ripple-effect of spending in an area on the local economy. The
multipliers look across a wide array of industries to allow the
examination of various impacts.
The study examines three types of impacts
including direct impacts, indirect impacts and induced impacts.
Direct impacts include money spent for commodities and labor to produce
a final product. Indirect impacts include money spent, for
example, to produce cement to build a structure. Induced impacts
are the successive rounds of increased household spending that result
from direct and indirect impacts.
In this case, the direct impacts represent the
estimated spending on construction to create The Railyards. The
project includes spending to produce residential, retail, hotel,
office, parking and cultural spaces along with the infrastructure
needed to support them.
Other economic benefits to the City and County not
captured in the study include property tax, sales tax and other
business tax receipts that will be generated as the urban development
progresses.
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