Today's grand opening was The Barn's maiden voyage as West Sacramento's open-air riverfront event venue. Once guests and community members filled this unique space on this warm summer morning—seated in the venue with a priceless panorama of the Sacramento riverfront and Downtown skyline with a refreshing delta breeze passing right through the belly of the structure—it became clear exactly what experience The Barn was built to bring about. At The Barn, you're connected to the River, you're connected to the City, and you're connected to the agriculture that surrounds you.
Mayor Christopher Cabaldon praised The Barn for "activating the riverfront" in an area where there once stood industrial buildings which walled the city off from the river. Cabaldon called The Barn "a tremendous amenity" for the community and a "major step forward to bringing the urban waterfront to life for our community and our region."
So, what is The Barn? The Barn is an event venue "designed to host concerts, festivals, and events that are going to attract the broadest possible audience to West Sacramento's new waterfront...and soon to be a culinary center with a beer garden," according to Cabaldon, which will be opening in this space next spring.
Fulcrum Property is the owner, developer, and visionary behind The Barn. Fulcrum President Mark Friedman spoke proudly at the inauguration. "I think it's absolutely spectacular," Friedman said of The Barn, "this was an incredibly complex building to build—there's not a single straight line anywhere on the façade...the fact that it's even standing at all is a tremendous tribute to the great builders at Brown Construction. They did an absolutely fantastic job."
Concluding his comments, Friedman announced the answer to another question on everyone's minds: what restaurant/bar/brewery will operate at The Barn? Friedman announced that San Leandro-based brewery Drake's Brewing Company will operate the restaurant and beer garden at The Barn. Drake's will begin build-out of the restaurant and dining space this fall and is slated to open as the permanent operator of The Barn in the spring of 2017.
Brown Construction President and CEO Ron Brown joined the esteemed lineup of speakers this morning sharing his gratitude for the amazing team of subcontractors who were willing to take on a project as challenging as The Barn. "We had many subcontractors not want to [bid] it, they were fearful of it, they didn't think it could be done, so we scoured the area and I'm happy to say that [The Barn] was 99% built by local and regional contractors," according to Brown. Ron went on to recognize the talented, patient, and creative team who managed the construction of The Barn from start to finish. The Brown Construction project team includes Project Executive Matt DeFazio, Project Manager Dan Kowaleski, and Project Superintendents Jerry Spain and Tim Elderd; each stood proudly in the audience today. "This building does not exist anywhere else in the world," says Brown, "so our guys had to build the tools to build the project." The Barn was the most unique and the most challenging project that Brown Construction has had the pleasure to build, and the team poured heart and soul into this project to accomplish what some are now calling a piece of public art.
West Sacramento Chamber of Commerce President Denice Seals described the building most poetically: "What I love about this piece of public art is that, once it draws you in, it shows you its underbelly, and it allows you to look up and marvel at the magic of engineering and architecture that created the ability for this piece to fly. And fly it does."
For a full schedule of events being held at The Barn, go to barn.thebridgedistrict.com
