Business Groups Tout Golden 1 Center's Inaugural Year

Since it opened a year ago, Golden 1 Center has created more than 2,000 food and beverage jobs. And since construction crews broke ground on the building in 2014, downtown employment has gone up by 38 percent.

But there still aren't enough places for people to live downtown.

That's according to Michael Ault. He heads the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, a group that represents downtown property owners. Ault says Golden 1 Center has injected new life downtown.

"Some of that has brought some frustration,” says Ault.” And I will tell you, while we've got a lot of folks that want to come and be part of this revitalization of the core, we don't have enough housing downtown to be able to accommodate that."

Ault says developers need to be incentivized to build more housing downtown.

A new report from the Downtown Sacramento Partnership also shows that Golden 1 Center is quickly changing the landscape of downtown Sacramento. Since the venue opened a year ago office vacancy rates have dropped to a five year low and pedestrian traffic has increased nearly 10 percent.

But that changing landscape also includes much higher parking prices and restrictions. Parking revenue provides some of the bond money to pay for Golden 1 Center.

"Has parking costs increased, it has,” says Ault. “Is that inconsistent with any urban center that we're seeing that has dynamic urban uses, no it's not. We don't hear a ton about parking being an issue. People do or don't come downtown."

Data from the Greater Sacramento Economic Council show more than 1.6 million people attended an event at Golden 1 Center this past year. And they spent more than $71 million downtown.