Sacramento is mourning the passing of developer Ali Youssefi, whose work strove to reimagine the central city.
Youssefi built and championed projects that provided affordable, innovative housing for local creatives and lower-income residents. His family's company, CFY Development, notably opened the Warehouse Artists Lofts on R Street in 2015.
Youssefi, also a minority investor in the Sacramento Kings, also had a passion for downtown — its history, and how the city would grow and change. In 2010, for instance, he and partners embarked on the redevelopment of the 700 K Street block next to the Golden 1 Center, an ambitious project on a long-neglected strip.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg called Youssefi's passing "a terrible blow to our city."
"He was an embodiment of Sacramento values and was unfairly taken too early from this world,” the mayor wrote on Twitter.
Kings majority owner Vivek Ranadivé said that Youssefi “forever changed the landscape of the city and we are all better for having known him.”
“Ali’s generosity, kindness and warm spirit have left an indelible mark and I'm grateful to have called him a partner,” Ranadivé wrote in a statement.
Youssefi succumbed to cancer on Saturday. He was 35.
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