Rancho Cordova Ditches Mills Crossing, Buys Vacant VSP Towers for New Hub

Rancho Cordova officials are moving ahead with plans for a new community center, and it will not be built where residents may have expected. Instead of rising at the long-planned Mills Crossing site along Folsom Boulevard, the city's next civic hub is headed to two vacant VSP Vision office buildings on International Drive, a shift that trades a from-scratch construction project for 154,000 square feet of existing corporate space.

The Rancho Cordova City Council has directed staff to move forward with plans for the buildings at 10845 and 10875 International Drive, and the city has signed a letter of intent to purchase them for $11.5 million, according to the City of Rancho Cordova. As reported by the Sacramento Bee, the price works out to about $75 per square foot, according to Micah Runner, and the property covers 15 acres that include six acres of green space and nearly 1,000 parking spaces.

Runner, describing the project, called it a place for arts, learning and innovation, and said, “It really is more than just a community center.” He also said purchasing existing buildings makes more financial sense than constructing new ones at Mills Crossing, adding that the city gets more square footage for the same value and price as Mills Crossing. Runner further noted the new site is more centrally located in the city, calling it a place for community gathering and bringing people together from all sides of the city.

What the New Hub Would Include

According to the Sacramento Bee's reporting, plans for the new community center include a 500-seat banquet hall, a 299-seat black box theater, an art gallery, a library, an outdoor event plaza and a commercial kitchen, along with meeting space for community groups. The buildings were constructed between 1998 and 2001 and will need upgrades to meet current building codes and modernization needs, according to a staff report cited in the same account.

The project carries a preliminary estimated budget of $90 million to $110 million, according to a presentation, the outlet reports. That budget covers property acquisition, building renovations, site improvements, and theater and banquet hall construction. The Rancho Cordova City Council is expected to review a purchase and sale agreement with VSP on September 8, 2026.

The two buildings had sat largely empty since Vision Service Plan put them on the market in 2022, after a large portion of the company's local workforce shifted to remote work. VSP previously occupied all five buildings on its Rancho Cordova campus and sold a separate building there in December 2023 while retaining two for its remaining operations, according to a listing from Duxre. City council records show officials authorized negotiators as early as February 2026 to pursue purchase terms for the International Drive properties alongside other commercial sites under consideration.

Mills Crossing Plans Scrapped for Civic Uses

The Mills Crossing civic center plans have been scrapped, though housing at that site near the intersection of Folsom Boulevard and La Loma Drive will still move forward, and commercial development discussions continue there as well. The original 10-acre project was conceived in 2019 as a public-private partnership with developers Griffin Swinerton and Related Housing, envisioning a 27,500-square-foot arts center, a 36,000-square-foot health clinic and a 9,600-square-foot event space alongside housing, per city records. The Folsom Boulevard Specific Plan, adopted in 2006 to revitalize a four-mile stretch between Bradshaw Road and Sunrise Boulevard, remains the guiding framework for that continued housing and retail development.

The city's current community center is located at Hagan Community Park, which offers a recreation center, picnic areas and sports facilities. That 80-acre park along the American River, managed in partnership with the Cordova Recreation & Park District, has long served as the city's primary regional hub for organized recreation.

The new center's library component addresses a longer-standing facility gap. The Rancho Cordova Branch Library was built in 1975 and last upgraded in 2010 and 2018, and it operates under the Sacramento Public Library Joint Powers Authority, which relies on member jurisdictions like Rancho Cordova to fund building replacements and expansions, according to city records.

How the City Plans to Pay for It

The project's funding is expected to draw on Rancho Cordova's Community Enhancement & Investment Fund, which supports major civic projects and is fed by Measure H, a half-cent local sales tax approved by 61% of voters in November 2014, along with Measure R, approved in 2020. Together, the two measures generate more than $25 million annually for local enhancement projects, according to city budget records.

The acquisition also lands amid a broader reckoning with suburban office vacancy along the Highway 50 corridor, where post-pandemic remote work has left swaths of Class A office space underused. Hoodline has reported that not every campus has struggled equally — nearby White Rock Corporate Campus has kept vacancies at roughly half the local average even as other properties sat empty.

Rancho Cordova's growth trajectory helps explain the push for more centralized civic space. California Department of Finance data cited by the city ranks Rancho Cordova as the fifth fastest-growing city in California among those with more than 30,000 residents as of early 2025, with population expanding from about 54,500 near its 2003 incorporation to more than 85,000 today; the city led the Sacramento region with 620 new home sales in 2024 and projects eventual buildout to 120,000 residents.

A Second Major Civic Project in the Works

The community center announcement comes as Rancho Cordova separately advances Downtown Dova, a 7,500-seat, $175 million sports and entertainment arena planned at the corner of Kilgore Road and Trade Center Drive. The 10,000-capacity venue is expected to become home to the Sacramento area's two Major Arena Soccer League expansion teams, with the council having approved a $940,000 subsidy in January 2026 to cover development review fees, as Hoodline reported in its arena groundbreaking coverage. The arena could later expand to include housing, hotels, retail, restaurants, a card room, a movie theater and a bowling alley.

If the purchase and sale agreement clears council review next month, the new community center is expected to open in spring 2029. The article was reported by Camryn Dadey for the Sacramento Bee, which first detailed the pending purchase agreement and its projected timeline.