Sacramento tried to avoid Blue Diamond’s move for years

It’s a moment that Sacramento has sought to avoid for decades.

Blue Diamond Growers, the 115-year-old almond cooperative that made Sacramento the world’s almond capital and became an economic linchpin for the region, announced on Friday that it will close down its midtown plant over the next two years.

As early as the 1990s, city leaders worried that Blue Diamond would relocate its plant, potentially to Stanislaus County. They gave the company significant incentives to stay.

In 1995, Blue Diamond got a deal to receive some $20 million worth of incentives from governments in the region. Four years later, Sacramento gave the almond behemoth two blocks of C Street, from 17th and 19th streets, so it could connect parts of the plant.

Residents at the time complained that Sacramento politi