At street level, the news at 14th and R Streets in the Grid is a whole row of new dining establishments: The Shady Lady bar and restaurant on the corner, Magpie Catering, Top This yogurt shop and Burgers and Brew. And there's a fifth establishment that doesn't serve food: hair styling diva Marci Landgraf's return to the salon business, yet to be named. (See Colleen Belcher’s Sacramento Press story tomorrow on the downstairs restaurants, which either have opened or will open in the next week.)

But there's another story on the second story: 12 lofts being sold by D&S Development, now on their third group of lofts in the Grid. Bay Miry of D&S (son of David Miry, the D in D&S, the S being Steve Lebastchi) gave me a tour of the lofts the other afternoon - that is, of the six units that haven't already been sold.

The units are old-school lofts, carved out of what was originally the Perfection Baking Company, then the Wonderbread factory and finally, the Pamela Skinner Gallery. Somewhere along in there, legendary local artist Steve Vanoni called the space home.

Now, the units have been converted the way lofts used to be converted, before companies built whole buildings and designed the units to be “lofts.” In fact, the units were designed by Miry and his dad, painstakingly worked out foot by foot. They’re small, but on short acquaintance, they look like they would work.

Miry, a twenty-something Rio Americano High School graduate who went away to school to study political science but found himself drawn back to his hometown, showed off the place in the company of his girlfriend, Samantha Peterson, who lived in D&S’s I Lofts in Old Sac before being one of the first to buy a place on R Street. Why?

“They’re beautiful, they’re in the middle of town with all these restaurants and bars nearby,” she said, sitting out in front of Magpie Catering and eating a late lunch. As for why she’s bought a loft, she asked, rhetorically, “Do you know how long it takes to clean 500 square feet? 20 minutes.”

The places are small, but they’re priced right, which is why they’ve moved so quickly in a down market. With spaces ranging from 498 to 1002 square feet, and prices that range from $209,000 to $379,000, the lofts on R Street are priced well for people who want to be near the action but can’t afford other, tonier lofts.

As Miry points out, the mortgage on a 500 square foot, $209,000 loft is about the same as a reasonable apartment, “and that’s not counting the mortgage deduction or parking.” Indeed, each loft comes with one parking space in a gated, covered parking area directly behind the lofts.

The spaces are gorgeous, with high-end appliances, frosted glass enclosures for bathrooms, and some elevated sleeping areas. There’s a lot of exposed brick and massive iron I-beams, as well as recycled wood and fashionable metal braces and stair steps.

Plus, there’s a big open wooden deck on the north side of the lofts, overlooking light rail with views of downtown’s skyscrapers - a nice place for outside cocktails.