Our October meeting was our second in-person meeting since going dark due to COVID-19 back in March 2020.  And again we had a moderate turnout with some variation in attendees.  It still proved to be a great night with fellow ACEC member firm representatives reconnecting and reestablishing a cadence for socializing.  We are encourage by this reengagement of member reps and look forward to the November meeting and seeing more return to these events.

Our guest speaker for the evening was Ben van der Meer of the Sacramento Business Journal.  He spoke of the impact of COVID-19 on the local development community.  He highlighted the reduction in business of downtown Sacramento restaurants that led to some closures.

With most companies forced to have their employees work remotely from home or various destinations, most companies experienced an unforeseen benefit of increased efficiencies in services while maintaining quality.  The result is many companies tailoring their business practices for remote employment which is allowing these companies to reduce their office space footprint and overhead costs.  Ben described this remote employment practice as a force behind Bay Area residents relocating to far more affordable living areas in the San Joaquin Valley, which is driving up the cost of housing in the greater Sacramento area, which is beneficial to current home owner but a great disadvantage to want-to-be new home buys.  This rise in demand for house purchasing is driving a paradigm shift in home development as investors have created a market for developers to establish “build-to-rent” neighborhoods.  He noted a new development for a six-story, 137-unit urban housing project on the red-hot R Street Corridor in Sacramento (image below).

By: Howard Michael, Director