The renovation of downtown’s Hotel Berry officially broke ground Thursday morning, with projections that it will be completed as early as the end of the year.

The historic hotel at 729 L St. was built in 1929 and was one of several downtown hotels that served Sacramento until the proliferation of chain hotels following World War II made the older ones less marketable, said Michael Massie, housing development manager of Jamboree Housing, which is refurbishing the space.

The City Council approved the project last September.

Once completed, the hotel will have 104 affordable housing units.

Each of the 215-square-foot hotel rooms is being transformed into a studio apartment with kitchenette and a bathroom, said David Wood, project manager for Jamboree Housing, which is headquartered in Irvine.

La Shelle Dozier, executive director of the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, said the project is exciting, and “It’s part of our continuous commitment to SRO (single resident occupancy) housing in downtown.”

Dozier said that by using $10 million in redevelopment funding, the project qualified for $12 million in tax credits and other federal funding.

The total cost for the project comes in at just under $25 million, according to Jamboree Housing.

“We’re just very excited to be starting the renovation,” said Jamboree Housing President Laura Archuleta.

The Hotel Berry is the first downtown property Jamboree Housing has been involved with in Sacramento.

Though Thursday’s event was the official beginning of the renovation, much of the preparatory work has already been completed, Wood said.

An upper floor has been cleared of lead paint and asbestos, and piles of debris have been removed from the ground floor.

Existing fire suppression and electrical systems are up to current code, having been reworked in the 1990s, but a rooftop penthouse that was illegally built in the same decade needs to be torn off, Wood added.

The building will be mixed-use, with a mini mart on the ground floor. Also occupying ground-floor space will be a community room and an on-site, coin-operated laundromat.

An existing staircase will be relocated and replaced with a garbage chute, and the elevators will be reworked as well, Wood said.

To put project costs in perspective, Massie said the original construction price tag of the building in 1929 was about $300,000 (not adjusted for inflation) – the amount it currently costs to redo the elevators.

“We not only get to renovate a building that needs to be renovated, but we get to help some of the people that we want to help the most, that are the most difficult to reach,” said City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.