Workforce housing project The Grace near Downtown Sacramento already 80% leased
By Ben van der Meer – Senior Reporter, Sacramento Business Journal
Jun 2, 2026
On the first day he had a permanent certificate of occupancy in hand, developer John Vignocchi was already greeting current and prospective tenants for The Grace near Downtown Sacramento.
A 45-unit workforce housing project at 620-628 15th St., The Grace is already 80% leased, owing to the need for workforce housing with rents affordable to people making 80% to 120% of area median income.
"Young people in their first job, just glad to have something affordable," said Vignocchi of Urban Capital LLC, describing tenants who've moved in under a temporary certificate of occupancy granted a couple weeks ago. "Sac State students, UC Davis med center employees."
Vignocchi said rents range from around $1,400 a month for the smaller studio units to $2,230 a month for a two-bedroom, live/work unit.
One of the live/work units, on the ground floor facing the northwest corner of 15th and G streets, will feature a small cottage bakery selling items out the door and also offering baking classes, Vignocchi said.
Originally, Grace was planned to have about 2,000 square feet for a new restaurant by N'Gina Guyton called La Rougarou. When that fell through, Vignocchi contemplated keeping it for another restaurant concept.
But he said fellow urban infill developer Bay Miry advised him not to, because there's a surplus of empty ground-floor commercial spaces already in Downtown and Midtown Sacramento. Urban Capital instead converted the planned restaurant space to four additional residential units.
Urban Capital has targeted workforce housing projects, with another, 132-unit Esperanza, opening this summer a few blocks to the west at 424-428 12th St.
Fewer market-rate apartment projects in Sacramento's urban core have gotten underway in recent years because of higher development costs and relatively flat rent growth.
But Vignocchi said there's still a shortage of housing overall, especially for more modest incomes. "Other than the price point and the square footages, that's what would be different," he said of projects like Grace.
Once the two Downtown Sacramento projects and a project in Davis wrap up, Urban Capital will be focusing on a recently announced project at 14th and R streets in Sacramento and another one at an earlier stage at 1630 I St. in Midtown Sacramento.
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