Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "suheil totah"

Money woes pile up for Railyards developer

2010-07-31T02:14:09Z

Thomas Enterprises' problems with financing the Railyards development have reached a critical point after the state of California began efforts to yank more than $70 million in funding from the project.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development has put the Georgia developer on notice that it's freezing disbursements because Thomas is in default on more than $187 million in private loans on the 244-acre project.

The state agency sent out a letter July 22 warning Thomas to pay the amount in arrears in order to bring the loans back into good standing and get the lender, Inland American Real Estate Trust of suburban Chicago, to end foreclosure actions within 30 days.

The letter was a 30-day pre-notice of default alerting Thomas Enterprises it is now in breach of contract with the state. Inland filed its default notices June 15.

Work on bridges for Fifth and Sixth streets continued Friday afternoon. However, the move could lead to at least a partial stop in development work at the historic railyards. Thomas already owes various companies more than $5 million for work done so far, said Thomas Enterprises Vice President Suheil Totah.

Next week, company officials will meet with construction contractors, engineers and other vendors to ask them to continue working on the project.

"This letter has now elevated the loan dispute from urgent to critical," Totah said. "Our hope is they would continue their work to allow time for this matter to be resolved."

The state had previously awarded four grants totaling $78 million in Proposition 1C money for development of the railyards. Of that, $50 million in infill grants was awarded directly to Thomas, and nearly $28 million in transit-oriented development grants were awarded to the city on behalf of the project. About $7 million has already been disbursed over the last six months, said Chris Westlake, deputy director of the state's Housing and Community Development department.

"We're concerned with the notice of default that was filed. Any existing liens or mortgages have to be current," he said. "Since these are state bond funds, we are very careful with how they are being utilized."

The letter notified Thomas it is in danger of defaulting on the first grant, which totals $30 million. For now, disbursements are simply being halted. That was the first notice sent out — how much they're in danger of losing has yet to be determined, Westlake said.

"It all depends on what happens with the foreclosure action by Inland," he said. "We have to reassess it at that time."

Thomas officials are worried they may lose additional funding as well.

"The loss of up to $80 million in state funding could have a ripple effect on some of the other funding," Totah said.

Thomas Enterprises has planned a $6 billion redevelopment of the historic Southern Pacific railyards that would add 12,000 residential units, 1.4 million square feet of retail, 2.3 million square feet of office, 500,000 square feet of mixed-use space and 46 acres of parks and open space. The Railyards would be centered around renovated historic railroad shops and a future regional transportation center adjacent to downtown.

The company and Inland have each proposed different options to resolve loan issues, but no agreement has been reached, according to Totah and an Inland official.

"Inland American continues to make its best effort to work with Thomas Enterprises, Inc., the developer of the Sacramento Railyards project, to address the current default status of the loans on the property," Inland spokesman Matt Tramel said in an e-mail.

"Inland American's continued intention with all parties, including the Department of Housing and Community Development and the city of Sacramento, is to work to promote the completion of all activities related to development at the Railyards project," he said.

The $30 million grant was awarded for interior roads and other infrastructure work — not for bridge work — as long as 15 percent of the housing Thomas builds there is affordable. A $17 million transit-oriented development grant is being used to build the Fifth Street bridge.

Work on the Sixth Street bridge is not yet in jeopardy, because the California Department of Transportation awarded that funding in the form of Proposition 1B transportation bond monies.

Sacramento city officials are disappointed over the latest development, but don't believe any grant monies awarded to the city are at risk, city Department of Transportation spokeswoman Linda Tucker wrote in an e-mail.

"None of our funding is in jeopardy as a result of what is going on between the state and Thomas Enterprises," she said. "We remain cautiously optimistic that the state will receive the necessary assurances from Thomas Enterprises within the time frame required so grant funding can continue. That's the indication we have from them."

If the loan dispute is not resolved and Inland sells the railyards land to another developer in a foreclosure sale, which would be expected in early October, state grants are not assumable by a new development company, said Westlake, adding that the state remains committed to the project.

"We want to get the housing built. Getting construction jobs going and keeping them going is critical to the state," he said. "However, we have to be prudent and careful with the large taxpayer dollars involved in the project."

Totah said he remains "optimistic" the company can overcome the current financial challenges. The potential of losing the property and all the work that has gone into the project over nearly a decade is "very alarming," he said.

"If this one is not overcome, it would have irreparable damage and would set the project back a long time," he said.

Photo of Suheil Totah of Thomas Enterprises by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Photos of railyards development by Kati Garner.

Railyards foreclosure process started

2010-06-16T03:22:59Z

A large national real estate investment company took the first step toward foreclosing on Sacramento's railyards Tuesday.

Inland American Real Estate Trust recorded a notice of default against S. Thomas Enterprises of Sacramento, LLC, after the developer missed its April 30 deadline to pay $185 million in loans used to buy the 244-acre property in 2006.

The effort to redevelop the former Union Pacific railyards is the biggest infill project currently underway in the country. The city is considering plans to build a new arena there.

With its parent company headquartered in a Chicago suburb, Inland is reported to be the nation's eighth largest real estate owner.

"Inland American has made its best effort to work with Thomas Enterprises, Inc., the developer of the Sacramento Railyards project, to address the current default status of the loans on the property," Inland spokesman Matt Tramel said in a prepared statement.

Infrastructure work, which has already started, is not expected to be impacted, according to Thomas Enterprises and Inland officials.

The two sides have been negotiating on an extension of the loan for months. They have not been able to agree on a new deadline, interest rates or fees, said Thomas Enterprises Vice President Suheil Totah, standing at the edge of the railyards Tuesday afternoon.

He declined to discuss specifics that led the lender to record the default notice with the Sacramento County Clerk/Recorder's Office, which has set the foreclosure process in motion.

Inland officials would not comment on whether negotiations would continue with Thomas. They did restate their intentions to not walk away from the railyards redevelopment project to city officials, who are trying to get Inland, state and federal officials together in the same room to discuss the situation.

“I have been in contact with top executives at Inland and they are fully committed to the railyards," Mayor Kevin Johnson said Tuesday in a prepared statement. "I look forward to working with our partners on the state and federal levels to make sure this project stays on track.”

Totah said the investment company has indicated its willingness to continue the relationship with Thomas, rather than pushing the Atlanta-based development company to find a new investor.

"The lender has expressed its interest in seeing things continue and is committed to this project," Totah said. "We hope to reach agreement on those final terms as soon as possible."

Thomas Enterprises now has 120 days to repay the loan or win an extension, or it will face foreclosure. Stan Thomas, the company's founder, and others at the Atlanta headquarters expect to resume those negotiations shortly. No date has been set, though.

"We expect things will be resolved within that time frame," Totah said.

Photo by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Mayor Johnson Criticizes Councilman McCarty's Press Conference

2010-04-14T05:16:58Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson criticized City Councilman Kevin McCarty Tuesday morning for holding a Friday press conference on the tax situation of the developers of the downtown railyards.

McCarty held a press conference Friday morning outside the Amtrak station on I Street. He announced that if Thomas Enterprises did not pay its taxes, the city should try to block as much as $47 million in state funding to the railyards. The company paid the property taxes that day, according to Suheil Totah, vice president of Thomas Enterprises.

Cynthia Gibbs, acting assistant tax collector, confirmed that the county received the payment from the company Tuesday.

"I don't feel that (holding the press conference) was the way to go about it," Johnson said during his Tuesday press conference. "There's ways we can do it that get the point across."

He said that the city should have been proactive and called the company to ask about the situation rather than hold a public press conference, "because you don't know the whole story."

Johnson stated that McCarty's press conference could endanger positive perceptions of Sacramento as a place to do business and as a business partner.

Senior Deputy City Attorney Sheryl Patterson said Friday that the city does not have the authority to block payments on amounts other than the $17 million from the California Transportation Commission's Proposition 1B funds.

"At the end of the day, we have to be very careful and smart with the way we go about these things," Johnson said.

Staff reporter Kathleen Haley contributed to this story. Agnus-Dei Farrant is an intern for The Sacramento Press.

Railyards developer pays back taxes

2010-04-10T04:50:55Z

The developer of the downtown Railyards paid Sacramento County about $218,000 in current and back taxes and penalties Friday, said Suheil Totah, vice president of Thomas Enterprises.

Funds were sent from the company's Atlanta headquarters to the county's assessor office via overnight mail, Totah said.

But Thomas Enterprises did not pay the property taxes in time to prevent city officials from publicly criticizing the company earlier Friday.

The city had moved to cut off state grant payments to the company, according to an April 9 letter from city officials to the state’s housing and development department.

A letter from Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said that as long as the taxes were unpaid, Sacramento would not sign off on funds to Thomas Enterprises from a $17 million state grant.

The company owed as much as $114,000 in back taxes that were not paid in December, according to the letter.

Now, Senior Deputy City Attorney Sheryl Patterson said Sacramento will be "back in business" with Thomas Enterprises after the city verifies Monday that the company has paid its taxes.

City Councilman Kevin McCarty held a press conference Friday morning to announce that if the company did not pay its taxes, the city should try to block as much as $47 million in state funding to the Railyards.

But Patterson said the city did not have the authority to block payments on amounts other than the $17 million from the grant.

The city could have written a letter asking the state’s Housing and Community Development Department to stop payments on additional state funds for the Railyards, she added.

Photo by Sacramento Press Staff Reporter Suzanne Hurt.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Task force spots flaws in arena proposals

2010-02-19T06:21:22Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson’s volunteer task force on Thursday continued its second session of challenging proposals presented by prospective developers of a new arena in Sacramento.

The 12-member task force heard presentations from Thomas Enterprises, the Kamilos Group, Natomas ESC Partners and Tripp Development. The prospective developers explained their financing plans, among other issues.

Task force member Mike Kvarme asked how much of Thomas Enterprises’ project financing would rely on obtaining federal funding.

“It’s a large part of it,” said Suheil Totah, vice president of Thomas Enterprises.

Totah also commented on the site’s location at the railyards in Downtown. Thomas Enterprises is developing the railyards.

“I think the NBA sees this as the right location in order to maximize funding for the actual team itself,” Totah said.

After the presentation from Thomas Enterprises, the Kamilos Group made its pitch to the task force. Gerry Kamilos’ proposal has the backing of the NBA, the Maloofs and developer David Taylor.

In Kamilos’ plan, the Downtown railyards will be the site of a 19,000-seat sports and entertainment arena. In a second part of the plan, a new fairgrounds would be built at Arco Arena and on nearby land.

John Moag, a consultant for the NBA working with Kamilos, last month explained a third part of the proposal. For that part, Kamilos' development team intends to purchase the California Exposition & State Fair from the state. A mixed-use residential development would be built at the Cal Expo site. Funds from the new development would help finance the arena Kamilos plans to build at the railyards Downtown, Moag said.

Taylor said he felt that the commitment from the NBA and the Maloof family was “huge.” The Maloofs own the Sacramento Kings.

But task force member Ron Tom said that many Natomas residents have told him they don’t want a new fairgrounds to be built in their neighborhood.

“Our team is very experienced with sitting and listening,” Kamilos said.

One piece of the project’s financing would come from people who own property at the Cal Expo property, Kamilos said. He explained that property owners at that location would pay an annual assessment.

The mechanism to assess the property owners at the Cal Expo property would require approval by the state Legislature.

Kamilos said there is a possibility that the legislation could go into a “spot bill,” which is a way to move legislation into an existing bill.

The Natomas ESC Partners followed Kamilos’ presentation with a pitch to create an arena next to the current Arco Arena site in Natomas.

Rick Millitello, an executive vice president for Skanska Builders, indicated that Magic Johnson’s company may work with Natomas ESC Partners on the project.

Skansa has been in a relationship with Magic Johnson Enterprises for more than two years, Millitello said. “Specifically, Magic helps bring us a more robust, diversity involvement into the projects that really helps our diversity program.”

On a separate note, Larry Kelley, a task force member and former owner of the Sacramento Kings, told ESC Partners that their financing plan involves millions of dollars in costs to the Maloofs that are not affordable. "I can just tell you, as a previous owner of the Kings, they're broke," Kelley said.

Tripp Development made the final presentation Thursday. Rick Tripp proposed to build a new complex Downtown that would be paid by funds from real estate agents and brokers. The real estate agents would dedicate their commissions to financing the complex, he said.

The agents would then be investors in the arena, Tripp said.

Task force member Chris Lehane complimented Tripp on thinking “out-of-the-box.”

Staff Reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this story. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Railyards lawsuits defeated

2009-11-17T04:56:56Z

Westfield Downtown Plaza and a citizens' group lost legal challenges against the Railyards development, developer Thomas Enterprises and the city announced Monday.

The lawsuits against the city of Sacramento, the city's Redevelopment Agency and developer Thomas Enterprises argued that the poject's two environmental impact reports (EIRs) were inadequate and did not comply with the California Environmental Quality Act known as CEQA. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly ruled in favor of the city and developer on all points raised by the Downtown Plaza and three people represented by attorney Bill Kopper.

Those individuals — Robert Castro Jr., Linda Powers and Chris Rich — filed one lawsuit as the group Sacramento Citizens Concerned About the Railyards, whose acronym is SCCARY. Two are members of labor unions, Kopper said.

"This is good news," Mayor Kevin Johnson said in a statement issued by the city and developer. "We can now focus on the task of creating jobs and developing an area that will play a vital role in making Sacramento a world-class city."

The plaintiffs are not satisfied with the ruling because 10 to 15 issues they raised were not addressed, Kopper said.

"There were many important issues in the case that we feel got short shrift by the court," he said. "I think it was a very cavalier attitude as to what the adverse impacts of the project will be because there is such a desire to advance the success of the Railyards."

For example, questions raised by the California Office of Historic Preservation and the State Water Resources Control Board in draft EIRs weren't answered in the final EIRs, he said. With an EIR stating that 192,000 vehicle trips eventually will be generated by the Railyards daily, the California Department of Transportation requested that the project's impact on the freeways circling the central city be considered, but that was "brushed aside," Kopper said.

The judge also ruled the city does not need to analyze downtown intersections one by one to determine if there should be widening or other improvements to prevent the gridlock predicted by a traffic study, he said.

The city approved the Railyards Specific Plan in December 2007 for the 244-acre site north of downtown between the Sacramento River and the Alkali Flat neighborhood.

The $6-billion project is expected to add more than 12,000 residential units, 2.3 million square feet of office space, 1.4 million square feet of retail, nearly 500,000 square feet of mixed-use space and 46 acres of parks and other open space, all centered around the city's future regional transportation center and a cultural hub in the historic Southern Pacific railroad shops.

Suheil Totah, vice president for Thomas Enterprises, called the decision "another important milestone" for the project.

"We're very pleased the judge found that everything was done in accordance with the law," Totah said by phone. "He found both EIRs did what they were supposed to do."

The Westfield Group could not be reached for comment.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Railyard shops cleanup, preservation underway

2009-11-11T06:25:04Z

Piles are growing at the city's old railyard.

Inside the long-abandoned Southern Pacific railroad shops, there are piles of metal, wood, debris and contaminated junk. Up on roofs, white-suited, specially trained abatement workers are pulling up roofing material and roofing adhesive containing asbestos. Outside one of the shops lies a makeshift salvage yard.

Georgia developer Thomas Enterprises and a contractor, Allied Environmental of Placerville, are three months into a $5 million cleanup of the historic "Central Shops," which will form the centerpiece of a 244-acre mixed-used district dubbed the Railyards.

The developers envision the shops as the cultural heart of a district that will include the future a regional transportation center and retail, office and residential use. The centerpiece will be an open-air market and adjacent plaza. There also has been talk of a $500 million arena/entertainment center, a performing arts center and even a new $500 million county courthouse.

During a tour of the shops Tuesday, Railyards Development Director Richard Rich said workers are setting aside everything connected to Sacramento's railroad history to be recycled and used in the district.

"We want to save every single piece of this," Rich said as he pointed to old metal lockers and train parts inside the former Paint Shop. "Part of our job is to retell the story of the railyards as we rebuild this and bring it back."

Very little remains from the 1930s or earlier, when the shops were the center of the locomotive industry on the West Coast and that industry drove the city, he said. For more railyard photos, go here.

The railroad company took most items of value long ago. Then, squatters and vandals carried off everything they could.

Still, workers have already dug up tons of gnarled, rusted iron during soil remediation. Rich said he would like to hire an artist to create a large sculpture from the salvaged iron. The sculpture would go in the future Market Plaza.

"That's a dream at this point," Rich said. "I don't know where we'd find the money."

Hundreds of heavy locomotive drive wheels and axles were found on the site, which lies next to the Sacramento Valley Station train depot. California State Parks gathered up most of them, and two drive wheels left with the developers may become sculptures. Thomas Enterprises is talking with the parks department about placing drive wheel sculptures at intersections throughout the district.

"I would like every single intersection that we do to have some calling card of rail history there," Rich said.

Central Pacific established the Sacramento railyard during the steam locomotive era. The company, which later became Southern Pacific, built the first shop in 1868 — before Sacramento gained fame as the western start of the first transcontinental railroad with the driving of the last spike on May 10, 1869.

In the 1930s, Southern Pacific slowly began abandoning the railyards. Rail traffic was down because of the Depression.

The company set up maintenance shops for newer diesel locomotives in more rural areas as Sacramento grew, and the shops began falling into disrepair. The shops officially closed in 1999, four years after Union Pacific bought Southern Pacific.

Now, eight Central Shops — seven brick and one metal — are all that remain of what was once at least 243 buildings. The developers are giving the metal Boiler Shop and the Erecting Shop, the largest and grandest, to state parks for its future Railroad Technology Museum. State parks will handle abatement of those.

The buildings' exteriors will be preserved following the Secretary of the Interior's guidelines for rehabbing historic buildings. Abatement work, Phase 1 of shop restoration, is expected to be completed by March.

On Tuesday, 50 workers worked on various abatement projects including removing the badly peeling lead-based interior paint, junk contaminated with heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyl or PCB, and asbestos sheetrock, floor tiles and pipe insulation. They're also removing extensive graffiti.

"Our job now is to clean these buildings so we can start to do the major work on the renovation," Rich said.

British Environmental Resources Management is providing construction management. The company initially was hired by Southern Pacific and has done all cleanup at the site for 20 years.

"Our primary challenge was to make sure we could abide by California environmental laws to take toxics out but not damage these historic buildings," Rich said. "It's something we have to watch very carefully."

Workers can't remove all the lead-based paint without damaging historic interior bricks. So remaining paint will be encapsulated in new paint, in a process created by the city's environmental office, he said.

The Railyards are the country's largest infill project. Most of the six shops are expected to be filled by restaurants, clubs, retail shops and small museums. Organizations have expressed interest in setting up museums for model railroads, carousels and blacksmithing in the 3,800-square-foot Blacksmith Shop.

The 56,000-square-foot Paint Shop will house an open-air market with Central Valley products including produce, cheese, wine, meat and fish -- similar to San Francisco's Ferry Building. It will be near the extended 5th Street.

An open space next to it, once a turntable that moved locomotives and train cars to the Paint Shop, will be turned into Market Plaza. Plans call for landscaping, water features, public art and a small outdoor performance area.

"That plaza is going to be the cultural living room of this region," Rich said.

On the other side of the plaza, clubs, restaurants and shops are expected to open in the Planing Mill, Car Shop and Machine Shop, where locomotives, passenger cars and flat cars once were built. The first building constructed on the site was a machine shop in 1868. Upper floors could contain art lofts and archive space.

Small shops and restaurants could go into the "Tower of Jewels," a three-story brick craphouse built in 1878. The plaster facade is peeling off the brick building, so the mortar on that and the rest of the brick buildings will be repointed.

The shops are expected to be ready for tenants in two or three years. The city has committed to building a 2,000-space parking garage east of the market. The garage will serve the regional transportation center and the Central Shops, said Suheil Totah, Thomas Enterprises vice president.

The county is considering the site for a new courthouse, said Totah, adding that Thomas Enterprises likes the idea of the city building an arena there as well.

Rich said he expects all electrical cables at the site will be underground. He said he hopes to use a line of old above-ground electrical poles to hold a 30-foot-high, 300-foot-long lighted landmark "Sacramento Railyards" sign.

That's just one of the efforts to preserve as much as possible. Restoring the historic buildings that once played such a large role in Sacramento is the key, Totah and Rich said.

"It would actually be cheaper to knock them down and rebuild them. But there's an ambiance you can't get with a new building," Rich said. "So they're priceless in that way."

Photos by Eric Whalen. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Railyards shops cleanup to start

2009-07-02T03:28:08Z

Cleanup of historic Southern Pacific railroad shops is expected to begin late this month as the next phase of the Sacramento Railyards project kicks into gear.

Hazardous materials including lead paint, asbestos, metals and other industrial toxins need to be removed from the shops, which were built starting in 1868. Georgia developer Thomas Enterprises has put the abatement project out to bid and expects to award the contract in the next few weeks, said Richard Rich, development director for the Railyards project.

In its heyday, Southern Pacific practically owned the town. The railyards drove Sacramento's economy, and nearly a third of all the city's residents worked there. The shops lay at the center of the railyards.

The Railyards project, the country's largest infill project, will not only double the size of downtown, but the mixed-use district is being designed to recapture the importance of the former railroad site. The Central Shops being redeveloped near the Sacramento Valley Rail Station depot are the key to that, Rich said.

"Right now, the depot is kind of in a forgotten corner of downtown," he said. ""That'll put enough urban fabric around the depot that it becomes the center of the city again."

On Monday, the city won $55.8 million in Proposition 1C infill redevelopment funds from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. About $30 million will go to the $6 billion Railyards project. The new funding brings the project's state public bond funding to $115-$120 million, although none of that has been received, said Thomas Enterprises Vice President Suheil Totah.

The Railyards project also won $20 million in federal stimulus money this year and another $8 million in federal funds for a freeway connection project. The city and developer are pursuing another $100 million in federal stimulus money to help fund the city's future intermodal transportation facility. Developments are expected soon on the city's bid to get National Enviromental Policy Act approval for the facility.

The city has committed funding to the project and promised to build a city parking garage there as well. Thomas Enterprises has invested $200 million in the project so far. Private investment is expected to total about $5 billion, Totah said.

Central Pacific originally established the railyards during the steam locomotive era. The company later became Southern Pacific. The 244-acre site grew to contain at least 243 buildings.

The shops and other buildings began falling into disrepair in the 1930s when the Depression brought reduced rail traffic.

About the same time, diesel locomotives began to gain favor over steam locomotives. The Sacramento Railyards had been set up to produce and repair steam locomotives. Some diesels were worked on there, but retooling the railyards for diesel proved too difficult.

In addition, Southern Pacific moved most of its maintenance work to rural areas like Roseville as Sacramento grew. The railyard shops officially closed in 1999, four years after Union Pacific bought Southern Pacific.

Seven brick shop buildings were all that remained when Thomas Enterprises bought the site for an undisclosed amount in December 2006. All seven will be preserved and rehabbed for adaptive reuse. The massive Boiler Shop and Erecting Shop will be used for the state's Railroad Technology Museum.

Thomas will rehab the other five shops. The 56,000 former Paint Shop will contain a public market selling Central Valley products including produce, cheese, wine, meat and fish — similar to San Francisco's Ferry Building — near an extended Fifth Street. Other former railyard shops will house restaurants, nightclubs and retail stores. In the center, a football field-sized plaza will be built to hold large city events, a farmers' market or small performances.

"These buildings, which will surround the public open space, will form the nucleus of the cultural district," Rich said.

Hazardous materials abatement work is the first step to rehabbing the shops. About 80 percent of the work will be to remove lead-based paint from interior brick. Ten percent will be to remove sheetrock, floor tiles and pipe insulation containing asbestos. The rest involves other contaminants including heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyl or PCB, he said.

The "significant" cost of abatement won't be known until crews get into the work. Thomas Enterprises tested methods to remove the paint without damaging the hard, fired surface of the brick. Nothing worked, said Rich.

"That put us in a difficult position of how to do it without damaging the brick," he said.

Standards set by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior dictate that the interiors of historic buildings that were originally covered with paint must likewise be covered with paint during rehab. Workers will gently scrape as much lead paint off the walls as possible and the brick will be encapsulated with lead-free paint, he said.

Thomas Enterprises broke ground on the infrastructure phase last winter. Initial grading of Railyards Boulevard and northern portions of Fifth and Sixth streets has been done. Extending Fifth and Sixth streets into the site will help connect the railyards with downtown, said Totah, adding that more infrastructure work will start once the developer gets the state funding it's been awarded.

Building construction is expected to start next year on 5th, 7th and Camille streets. Construction may include housing, mixed-use and office.