Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "downtown works"

Retail recruiter starts downtown

2010-05-05T02:40:50Z

Valerie Mamone-Werder walked K Street Mall on a wet morning last week.

Wrapped in a black trench coat, Downtown Sacramento Partnership's new retail recruiter didn't seem to notice the dark clouds bulging with the day's next rainstorm. She seemed too full of excitement.

"I love all these old buildings," Mamone-Werder said, standing near a corner of 10th and K streets.

She pointed out what's happening near that important spot: the sophisticated vibe The Cosmopolitan cabaret, café and nightclub have brought to a corner once inhabited by Woolworth's, and the work under way nearby to turn a former Hit or Miss clothing store into Dive Bar and Pizza Rock. She also discussed the potential for the empty space between the two businesses that once housed a Rite Aid and the vacant Roos-Atkins Building at 1001 K St., later renamed K Street West.

Mamone-Werder, a former Midtown boutique owner, started April 6 as the property-based improvement district's first retail recruiter. The move to create the position was recommended by Downtown Works, a Washington, D.C., retail consultancy firm that analyzed retail in the J-K-L corridor. The report indicated that downtown needs to improve retail to start thriving again.

Her job will be to help shrink the number of vacancies, upgrade the mix of retail, and support existing business owners within the 66-block business district. At the top of her list will be developing better relationships with business and property owners, developers and brokers.

"It's not just re-tenanting. It's about what we can do to help you as a business owner be more successful," said DSP Executive Director Michael Ault.

Mamone-Werder said her experience as a local retail business owner will allow her to help retail store owners. She has been at her job for a month, but she's lived in Sacramento for 22 years. She owned a women's clothing store called Blush Boutique at 2317 J St. for five years, until closing the store in April 2009.

"I understand what it's like to start from ground zero and build a business," she said.

Mamone-Werder plans to scout out successful retail districts in other areas to see what's working. She's visited Portland's Pearl District and will tour a thriving section of Nashville during a business recruiter's conference later this month.

Another part of her job will be to recruit entrepreneurial business owners with "independent" store models who want to locate in unique, sometimes historic buildings — rather than the kind of chains that set up the exact same store in a mass-saturation retail campaign. She will also help those business owners find space downtown.

She envisions more open-air markets selling fresh food, an independent bookstore, home accessory stores and a variety of unique clothing stores to appeal to various age groups, tastes and incomes. For instance, something like the Lizard Lounge, a Portland clothing store that is as much a hangout as it is a retailer, with a ping-pong table, couches and computers sharing space with clothes racks.

Mamone-Werder will also create an available property database that is more detailed and current than other real estate databases for downtown properties, including CoStar. She's finished viewing all the building exteriors in the district. She's begun meeting with business and property owners and brokers, and touring property interiors to collect more personalized information. She's also recruiting help with keeping the database up to date.

She's just starting to ask for everyone's help to make DSP's vision for downtown a reality.

"I feel like people are waiting for some big 'something' to happen," Mamone-Werder said. "And I don't know if that's going to happen, or if we all need to come together and just take a risk to make it happen."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter covering business and development for The Sacramento Press.

City staff: Cars on K good for business

2010-04-28T22:44:18Z

Now that city leaders have dedicated $2.7 million in funding to add cars to the K Street pedestrian mall, what exactly does the city hope to achieve from the effort? 

Mayor Kevin Johnson and city staffers have said that the move to include cars on K Street would be a boon for business and would also make the street safer. 

Johnson said at a Monday press conference that automobile traffic on K Street — banned since the late 1960s — would create numerous advantages for the city. “It increases visibility for all the retail...stimulates our activity in terms of K Street, and pedestrian malls are a thing of the past,” he said, adding that the cars would also improve public safety on the thoroughfare.

The city plans to make the area bordering Eighth and 12th streets on K Street ready for cars by mid-to-late 2011, said Denise Malvetti, a senior project manager for the city’s Economic Development Department. The estimated $2.7 million construction and design budget for the project comes from local transportation funds for economic development projects, she said.

Funds for the project do not come from the city’s general fund, an April 27 report from the city’s Economic Development and Transportation Departments noted.

The construction part of the project’s budget includes funding for new stop lights and for reprogramming existing stop lights, Malvetti said.

In making their argument for adding cars to K Street, city staffers are citing the work of Downtown Works, a consulting group that wrote a report on downtown issues for the city and the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

“Downtown Works strongly recommends the city of Sacramento follow the direction of dozens of other U.S. cities and re-open K Street to vehicular traffic which will both aid in the reconnection of the grid and enhance the retail viability,” the April 27 staff report states.

Eugene, Chicago and Louisville are some of the cities that have reversed course to add cars to their pedestrian malls, according to the report.

Councilman Steve Cohn said he backed the idea of including cars on K Street, but he raised concerns about an $800,000 portion of the budget that would have otherwise been spent on streets in his district.

Cohn’s concern translated into the following City Council decision: During the city’s budget process, the city will re-examine the project’s funding sources.

Transforming K Street into a pedestrian mall was “a mistake from the beginning,” Cohn said.

Also on Tuesday, K Street business leaders and local organizations that promote economic development spoke in favor of letting people drive their cars on K Street. These supporters included developer David Taylor; Kevin Greene, policy manager for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership; Mike Testa, vice president of communications and public affairs for the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau; Richard Lewis, executive producer of California Musical Theatre; and Sid Garcia-Heberger, operator of the Crest Theatre.

Greene said that cars on the street would boost public safety and be “a key step toward a greater retail viability.”

Downtown resident John Deeter was the lone speaker at the meeting who opposed the idea. He called K Street “a refuge” from cars.

Photo by Suzanne Hurt.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Downtown group creates economic development strategy

2009-12-17T03:31:20Z

The Downtown Sacramento Partnership on Wednesday identified its primary strategy to help drive downtown's economic development for 2010 and beyond.

The business group's board also voted to accept a study of the J-K-L corridor prepared by Downtown Works, a Washington, D.C. retail consultancy firm.

The full and final report was presented at the partnership's annual meeting, held Wednesday morning at the Citizen Hotel.

Within the next month or so, the business group will identify the "core" three to five strategies out of nearly 30 that were approved for 2010 through 2012.

"Probably the most important element that has come out of the study is to restate a concept that has long been considered an important element by the partnership, and that is to focus our efforts in order to maximize their impacts," said Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, in a prepared statement.

Long-term goals include improving people's ability to walk, bike, drive or take public transit throughout downtown and to reconnect the central city grid, with two-way traffic on K Street from Old Sacramento to Midtown, according to a strategy report.

The group's strategy would be to support the identification and improvement of important pedestrian corridors and to support two-way car traffic starting with at least four blocks on K Street Mall and whenever other opportunities present themselves.

K Street is currently closed to traffic or no longer exists in several places, including through the middle of Westfield Downtown Plaza and the Sacramento Convention Center.

Another strategy is to collaborate on the vision and schedule to develop critical downtown assets, including the Downtown Plaza, city-owned parcels in the 700 and 800 blocks of K Street, relocation and replacement of the Greyhound Bus terminal and a downtown sports and entertainment arena.

The partnership wants to encourage "more balanced" housing options to include units that would fit a range of budgets, rather than a majority of single-residency occupancy units as currently exists.

The strategy would include collaborating with the city to improve the process for putting housing in vacant or under-used upper floors of existing buildings.

The group proposes finding funding partners and working with the city to develop a retail recruitment program, which would involve hiring a retail recruiter and developing incentives such as loans and façade grants to bring new retailers to the target area, the J-K-L corridor.

The group also proposes initiating a study of downtown infrastructure including water, sewer, electrical and cable; a new focus on Old Sacramento; maintaining K Street streetscape improvements as a priority and other strategies.

"Given the findings, downtown offers a significant opportunity to the city to invest in enhancing our urban center, which will offer consumers a unique experience not rivaled by other jurisdictions in the region and ultimately bring more revenue to the general fund through increased sales," Ault said.

Report: J-K-L focus must be residents

2009-11-19T05:44:13Z

If you build it, they will come.

What's been said about baseball diamonds in Iowa is now being said for downtown Sacramento's future retail market, according to a retail consultancy firm that has just finished a study of the J-K-L corridor.

In this case, "they" represent 72 percent of the greater Sacramento area's 1.65 million population: "urban chic" Sacramentans who own homes in the central city; young, child-free metrorenters; "in style" suburbanites who love the gritty city; long-time residents and new homeowners living just outside the core; and connoisseurs who want the best of everything, said Scott Schuler with Downtown Works of Washington, D.C.

"You have got to draw people from the entire market. The number of people downtown is not enough," Schuler said Wednesday when the firm presented a draft report to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership board, Mayor Kevin Johnson and city employees. The figure is based on demographic and lifestyle data other companies have produced for Sacramento.

The news that Sacramento's historic retail core could thrive once more by catering to residents throughout the region was a surprise to those who have long thought the area should be developed to attract travelers and the most wealthy residents.

"That is enough to support downtown if we have the right kind of market," said DSP Chair Kipp Blewett. "The future of downtown is going to be in the renaissance of the urban core."

While visitors remain important to the economy, they spend much more on food and beverages than retail. In addition, visitors want to experience the real city, Schuler said.

"They want to go where residents go," he said. "You don't market to them."

The city has focused strongly on bringing more nightlife and entertainment to K Street Mall. But the area needs at least as many, and possibly more, day-time uses, said Midge McCauley, also with Downtown Works, which prepared the report for the DSP and the city.

Downtown Works studied groundfloor spaces on J, K and L streets between 7th and 12th streets, and on the sidestreets of 9th to 11th streets in that area. About 18,000 people live downtown in 700 single-residency occupancy hotels and 220 market-rate housing units. The area includes 700 single-residency occupancy units and 220 market-rate housing units. About 18,000 people are estimated to live within a one-mile radius of 9th and J streets — a number the consultants pointed out as too low to support retail in the J-K-L corridor. About 93,000 people work downtown, she said.

Out of 231 total spaces, 57, or 25 percent, are vacant. Many current storefronts are "shabby" and "dated." Sandwich board signs and dead plants, replaced with new landscaping only recently, pull the area down, McCauley said. Obstructed sight lines are another problem, said McCauley, who recommended removing ticket vending machines and ramps

Only 10 percent of the 174 that are occupied are dedicated to selling retail goods. And out of 103 retail spaces that house restaurants, clubs or shops selling goods, Downtown Works identified only 12 percent as desirable enough to keep, she said.

Quality retailers have unique, attractive storefronts with distinctive, eye-level signs and appealing window displays, good merchandise that is well organized and a clean, well-maintained store.

The proposed solution: hire a "retail recruiter" whose job is to find urban pioneers — innovative retail entrepreneurs from near and far willing to open up shop in the city's risky downtown retail corridor. Arm the recruiter with the latest data on available property and financial incentives to lure retailers who agree with the vision to revitalize the area, McCauley said.

Undesirable tenants could be phased out as their contracts come up. The retail mix needs much more variety, such as apparel, outdoor goods, shoes, accessories and home furnishings. The mix should be unique — not something already offered in shopping malls. Independent stores should be focused on first, and chains that aren't overly represented in the market should be considered later, she said.

They recommend allowing cars on the entire K Street Mall, rather than a one- or two-block pilot which people are unlikely to use. The firm also recommends lower-level planters over trees, which they said block sight lines, tear up sidewalks and obstruct signs.

"People love their trees but trees are a retailer's nightmare," McCauley said.

Programs could be developed to offer facade grants and forgiveable loans for businesses that remain for at least five years, with 20 percent of the loans forgiven each year. Downtown Works recommended the first three to five pioneers get loans of $300,000 to $500,000. Other new businesses that fit the vision might get $20,000 to $100,000, McCauley said.

"We know those early deals are often the hardest ones to make," said McCauley, adding that the first deal would take a year to a year and a half if a recruiter began work today.

The DSP board members now must agree on whether to support the recommendations and then vote on formal adoption in December. Blewett said it was too early to discuss funding sources for such programs. However, if the city were to provide $1 to $2 million from the general fund, that could generate much more tax revenue for the city, he said.

Blewett pointed to Sean Kohmescher, who owns Temple coffee and teahouse on 10th Street, as the type of urban pioneer the corridor needs more of.

"He's young. He's entrepreneurial. He's committed to downtown," Blewett said. "Look what he did with a lot of elbow grease and some guts."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Editor's Note: The Sacramento Press editorial department corrected a fact in the above article after the article was published. The original sentence is denoted with strike-through text, with the new sentence proceeding it.