Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "market"

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market breaks ground in Oak Park

2011-08-31T23:00:26Z

Sacramento, CA | Tim Mason, CEO of California based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, with Mayor Kevin Johnson, Councilman Jay Schenirer and other community memberrs broke ground Wednesday morning in a well attended ceremony in Oak Park.

The market will be built on the north west corner of Broadway and 34th Street. Mayor Kevin Johnson stated that when he came back from college he said "what can we do with this piece of property? As a year or two went by, you realize that properites this size get into the wrong hands." Johnson bought the land in 2002 and just held it "till the right person came in or the right company said 'we want to do something that will be an assest to the community.'" Prior to Fresh & Easy, Johnson stated that "they wanted to put a used appliance store there..." Johnson stated that this (Fresh & Easy) is the right business.

“I’m excited to welcome Fresh & Easy to our neighborhood,” said Johnson. “Fresh & Easy is not only bringing more good jobs to Sacramento, but also high-quality, healthy food at affordable prices to neighborhoods that don’t always have access to such foods.”

Johnson thanked Chris Brown who worked tirelessly and handled the real estate transaction, making sure the properety fell into the right hands.

In his opening remarks, Mason stated, "We hope to continue to be part of the solution in providing greater food access and help give food options to all types of communities... at a price they can afford right where they live."

Mason stated they have opened 137 stores since they opened in 2007, invested over two billion dollars and created more than 4500 jobs. In Oak Park, the new store will create 300 construction jobs and when it is finished it will create 30 retail jobs for the community.

"We have worked very hard to create a thoughtful business and a business that can make a difference in the community" Mason stated.

In a press release, Fresh & Easy noted the locations opening in greater Sacramento in 2012

Watt Ave. & El Camino Ave.- Sacramento
34th St. & Broadway- Sacramento
Mack Rd. & Franklin Blvd.- Sacramento
Lincoln & Sterling Rd.- Lincoln
Elk Grove Florin Rd. & Calvine Rd.- Elk Grove
E. Natoma St. & Blue Ravine Rd.- Folsom

"When you say Oak Park, when you put those two words together, people show up; people have been showing up for a long time. We are hitting our stride in this community; we are doing great things" Councilman Jay Schenierer stated.

"I know you said that you like to put your stores in all types of communities, so on behalf of Oak Park, I want to thank you for putting your store in the best and most engaged community that we have in Sacramento" Schenirer stated to Mason.

"When you look at Oak Park you see a diverse community, not just one sector of Sacramento" said Schenirer

Fresh & Easy has created nearly 5,000 jobs in California, Arizona and Nevada. Entry-level positions start at $10 an hour in California and provide room for employees to grow quickly. The company offers quarterly bonuses of up to 10% as well as a 401(k) with company match. Fresh & Easy believes everyone deserves access to affordable and comprehensive healthcare and provides all employees the opportunity to work at least 20 hours per week, which entitles everyone in the business to vision, prescription drug, dental and medical coverage with Fresh & Easy paying at least 75%.

In an impromptu open dialog, Mason committed to Johnson to install a solar roof and create space on the grounds for community members to sell their produce from the community gardens being developed. As a gesture and token of the commitment, Mason took his tie off and gave it to Johnson. Johnson holding the tie up stated that he would wear the tie at the ribbon cutting when the store opens.

"Fresh & Easy is going to open six stores in this area, that's a total of 150 jobs. We have double digit unemployment rates; that is a big deal." Johnson stated.

Fresh & Easy touts being a "green" company and you can learn more about them at their site>>>

Fresh & Easy invites community members to join their "Friends" to say in the know>>>

View more photos from this event>>>

Longtime pastry shop continues to please

2011-08-13T00:47:31Z

Snow cones are a seasonal favorite of the Osaka-Ya pastry shop and market, but it’s taken more than snow cones to keep the shop in business for almost 100 years.

A vestige of Sacramento’s former Japantown, which sat in the area around L, N, Third and Fourth streets, Osaka-Ya still provides traditional Japanese sweets, hot food and other edibles near the corner of 10th and V streets downtown.

“My mom and dad took over this business in 1963,” said owner Linda Nakatani. “A friend gave them the recipe for the snow cone syrup, and they used a hand-crank snow cone machine to shave the ice.”

Her father installed a motor, and the snow cones have been a summer favorite at the business ever since.

On sale from April 1 until whenever the weather gets too cold, there is a line most days at the walk-up window at 2215 V St.

Twelve traditional shaved ice flavors are offered, including cherry, strawberry, orange and vanilla, and a Japanese version is offered as well, which includes azuki beans layered in the shaved ice. If customers want, they can have azuki beans and syrup flavors.

Another popular variation is to have the shaved ice atop a scoop of ice cream.

“We make all of our own syrups here,” Nakatani said. “We have lots of sizes. Some people say our large is as big as a baby’s head.”

Prices range from $2 to $4.25, with four sizes available.

Daryl Leisey, 30, said he has been eating shaved ice from Osaka-Ya since he was about 8 years old.

“I’ve probably been eating those for 20 years, but last year, I really started venturing out into the other things,” he said, standing in line Friday holding a pair of watermelons.

“I get the raspberry mochi for my niece and nephew, too,” he added. “They love the fruit-flavored ones.”

Mochi is a rice cake pastry made from pounded sticky rice and filled with either azuki beans, lima beans or the more-popular peanut butter.

“We mainly specialize in those types of pastries,” Nakatani said. “I enjoy the art of making it and doing it in different styles.”

Special mochi pastries are made for traditional Japanese celebrations, including the Lunar New Year.

Other specialized pastries, such as omanju – a type of cake – are made on Girls’ Day (March 3) and Boys’ Day (May 5), Nakatani said.

Hot foods are served on Fridays and Saturdays, and they consist of Japanese favorites such as spare ribs, Teriyaki rice bowls and oden, a complicated-to-make fish cake.

“We make oden for a lot of the elderly single people who live around here,” Nakatani said. “And we have sushi every day except Sunday and Monday, and we make it here from scratch.”

Betty Nagano, 94, said she has been frequenting the shop for decades, since before Nakatani’s family took over the business.

The omanju drew her and her daughter in on Friday.

“I used to come here before the war, when it was in Japantown,” Nagano said.

Originally from Wyoming, Nagano grew up in Sacramento and kept going to the business through its various moves, including the current spot, where it has been for 14 years.

Japantown was in an upheaval during World War II, when it was illegal for people of Japanese descent to own businesses in many parts of California, said William Burg, president of the Sacramento County Historical Society.

“They were kicked out,” he said. “Essentially, the properties came up for sale during World War II, and they were fire sale prices. At the same time as the Japanese were sent to internment camps, African Americans working in waterfront industries bought the properties.”

After the war, the area around 10th and V streets became a sort of substitute for the old Japantown.

In the mid-1950s, the West End was the densest part of the city, but the residents had to move when the Capitol Mall area was reconstructed. The building of Interstate 5 wiped out the remains of the area in the 1960s.

“The Latinos went to Alkali Flat, the African Americans went to Oak Park and the rest of the Japanese went to Southside,” Burg said.

Over the years, Osaka-Ya has managed to stay in business under the same name.

Nakatani said the recession has made business tough, but she hopes to be able to keep going and possibly hand it over to her sons one day.

Her boys, ages 9 and 11, come into the pastry shop and help out from time to time, but after about 10 minutes, they get bored, she said with a laugh.

Leisey, who still buys snow cones at the street-front window after 22 years, said there’s a reason he keeps coming back.

“They’re always friendly,” he said. “It’s a great place to come, and they’ve got a lot of things for a small place.”

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

Davis Farmers Market celebrates the season with annual festival

2010-11-01T18:33:52Z

Fall was definitely in the air Saturday as the Davis Farmers Market held its annual festival to celebrate the season.

In addition to the typical market fare of garden-fresh fruits and vegetables, the festival, which is held on the last Saturday in October, brought a fall theme including Halloween decorations, a scarecrow display, additional vendors and more activities for families.

Overcast skies and cool air accompanied the dozens of Mylar balloons, cornstalks and hay bales that made up the many decorations in the market area. Joy Wills, the assistant manager who has worked at the market for 18 years, described the festival as a “celebration of the fall harvest.” Wills also mentioned that stuffed little pumpkin baggies hanging from some of the trees are 16 years old and are still in great condition.

Davis’ Central Park is home of the weekly market that is held under a pavilion, but the festival brought out an extra 20 or so vendors who stretched the row of offerings across the park’s entire walkway. Items for sale included handmade jewelry, freshly popped kettle corn and slices of pumpkin pie.

Kristy Lyn-Levings of Cache Creek Meat Co. has been coming to the market for a year and a half to sell naturally raised chicken. Lyn-Levings brought her 3-year-old niece, Abigail, to enjoy the day, and they both got into the festival spirit by dressing in chicken costumes.

Among the families and customers at the market were Peter and Susan Dileanis, who moved to Davis from Sacramento a few years ago. They have been attending the farmers market since 1984.

“It’s much bigger, with the 4-H groups and activities just for kids,” Susan said.

Additional activities for children included pony rides, face painting, a chance to pet baby pigs and even a chance to join in the live music. The Peter Franklin Band, which played on the south side, and Music Matt, which played on the north side, each provided a variety of instruments for the little ones to play.

Soft opening for Good Eats

2010-08-24T01:50:32Z

Good Eats — a cafe, wine bar and market by Raley's heir Michael Teel and partners — held its soft opening Monday.

The gourmet takeout kitchen was a bit overwhelmed, serving 180 customers on the first day. Management asked prospective customers to be patient while any kinks are worked out at the market cafe, 3145 Folsom Blvd., throughout the rest of the week, said a manager.

The official opening will be held in September. Hours are expected to be 6 a.m. - 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 7 a.m. - 9 p.m. Saturdays and 7 a.m. - 8 p.m. Sundays, said Julie Rollofson, Good Eats chief executive officer and Teel's wife.

The first Good Eats specialty grocery opened in Arizona but shut down in March.

Photos by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Grocery Outlet opens after delay

2010-08-21T00:43:19Z

A new Grocery Outlet opened Friday morning in a century-old building across from the Capitol Area East End Complex after the owners got a temporary permit.

The market's opening at 17th Street and Capitol Avenue in Midtown was delayed by a day.

An electrical inspection was performed Thursday, and a temporary permit allowing occupancy was then issued by the city, said co-owner Mindi Admire.

"It was supposed to all be buttoned up Wednesday," she said while moving shopping carts outside the busy store at 1700 Capitol Avenue.

A grocery store or market has operated in the building for about 100 years, according to local historian Bill Burg, who wrote about the location in his book, "Sacramento: Then and Now." For more on the history of the building, click here.

The store's hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. A video interview with Grocery Outlet spokeswoman Melissa Porter can be found here.

Grocery Outlet: Then and Now

2010-08-21T00:12:37Z

When I wrote Sacramento: Then and Now I wanted to show some images that were missed in other local history books, but were immediately recognizable by people who lived in the neighborhoods portrayed. I chose the image of the grocery store at 17th and Capitol because it was just this sort of place: ordinary, but recognizable and essential. At the time, it was still Rick's Uptown Market--one of the hazards of a book titled "Then and Now" is that the date of publication immediately becomes a new "Then."

The building is about 100 years old--I am pretty sure, but not positive, that it was constructed in about 1910. It was constructed as the Perkins and Company grocery store, selling food as well as dry goods and other essentials. Perkins & Company was first established in the town of Perkins, about seven miles east of Sacramento by Thomas Calley Perkins, renamed in his honor from the earlier name of Brighton. Thomas' son, Charles Calley Perkins, expanded the family business to Sacramento in the early 1900s, so this store was probably his idea. More about the history of Brighton Township, including Perkins, can be found in this a free online book called Stories of the Land by Paula J. Peper. The book was published by Stonebridge Properties, who currently plan to develop the Perkins/Brighton area into a new Sacramento County subdivision.

When the Perkins Store was built, Capitol Avenue was still known as M Street, and a streetcar line ran down its center. Paving was becoming commonplace in that decade, so the road may have been macadamized, but there was still a lot of horse traffic in addition to the streetcars, bicycles, pedestrians and a growing number of automobiles. Like most streetcar routes, M Street's property values were higher than adjacent blocks, so buildings on the street were more commonly commercial, multi-family dwellings or large, expensive homes of prominent families.

The Perkins & Company Store went out of business in 1944, but it served as a neighborhood market after Perkins closed: by the 1950s, it was a Raley's store. More recently it was part of the Compton's Market local chain, and most recently Rick's before closing and reopening as a Grocery Outlet store.

As the photos show, other than covering up some of the street-side windows with stucco, the store hasn't changed very much. The mural, now in mid-restoration/enhancement, gives a little bit of flavor, not strictly what the building actually looked like but enough to evoke the past. In the past week, Sacramento lost one of its oldest market buildings to fire, but places like the old Perkins Store, reopened today as a Grocery Outlet, still function in their historic role. As Sacramentans redisciver their central city, buildings like this one and places like neighborhood markets will have an important role to play. Perhaps this building could serve the neighborhood as a grocery store for another hundred years?

East Sac poised for Good Eats

2010-08-20T01:05:07Z

Raley's heir Michael Teel and partners will open a new cafe, wine bar and market called Good Eats in East Sacramento Monday.

Similar to Selland's Market-Café and Corti Brothers, which operate on other end of East Sacramento, the kitchen will offer hot and cold takeout foods, wine and coffee. The specialty grocery will include wine, butchered meats, seafood, cheeses, bakery items and flowers.

On Thursday, Good Eats official Julie Rollofson led food and wine tastings to prepare for a soft opening set for 6 a.m. Monday. The opening follows a lengthy renovation of what used to be Andiamo restaurant and the Rosemont Grill at 3145 Folsom Blvd., near Alhambra Boulevard.

The establishment promises to be the flagship store for the Good Eats company founded by Teel and venture capitalist Michael Ashker, who partnered previously to run Prosper Media in Midtown. Ashker also founded Internet companies Healthaxis and Courtlink.

Teel — grandson of Raley's founder and son of its owner, Joyce Raley Teel — was named president and chief executive officer of the West Sacramento-based Raley's grocery chain last January after an eight-year absence. He'd also served as Raley's CEO between 1996 and 2002.

Teel's original plan to open his first Good Eats specialty market at 5810 Folsom Blvd. — a retail space long occupied by Corti Brothers — in 2008 met with stiff opposition from locals because it would have forced the Italian gourmet shop to move. Teel canceled those plans and opened several Good Eats markets in Arizona.

Good Eats was previously scheduled to open last December. The building's brick and brown adobe-style exterior is accented with an outdoor terrace, new landscaping and trellis work.

Photos by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Fire ends store's saga

2010-08-17T03:51:30Z

One of Sacramento's oldest markets — a store that stood in the heart of Alkali Flat since 1868 — was ravaged by fire Sunday.

The little brick store had first been damaged by fire last December after a blaze at an adjacent apartment building spread. The market was shut down, then fenced and boarded up. A man had been squatting in the building recently.

Nearly 40 firefighters from nine companies responded Sunday after neighbors heard a boom and saw fire break out on the second floor of the building, 427 10th St., at about 7:30 a.m. A search dog found no one was inside.

Firefighters stopped the fire from spreading but weren’t able to save the building. A city crew later tore the rest of the unreinforced masonry building down, said Sacramento Fire Department spokesman John Burgess.

"It was already at the point of being a collapse hazard because the construction was in the 1860s," he said. "The concern was it would actually fall down with very little effort. So it was taken down."

A fire investigator is trying to determine the cause of the fire.

Neighbors were sorry to see the building demolished. But the market had become a run-down eyesore before the first fire, said Jennifer Caldwell, a neighborhood resident and member of the Alkali Flat Redevelopment Advisory Committee.

“We've been agonizing over that place,” she said. “It has been a blemish on this community.”

The structure had been built as a grocery or other type of mercantile store to serve the monied Alkali Flat neighborhood that sprang up in 1852. Living quarters were built on the second floor, and stables operated in back.

"There were a few (markets) in that neighborhood, even in 1868," said James Scott, who wrote "Sacramento's Alkali Flat" with Tom Tolley. Both are also reference librarians at the Sacramento Public Library's Sacramento Room.

"There was industry. Central Pacific was burgeoning at that time. You had schools being built. And you know you had the upper crust of Sacramento occupying that area as well,” he said. “It was one of those charming spots within a very dynamic neighborhood.”

The store changed ownership and names throughout the decades.

The growth of the nearby railyards led to changes in Alkali Flat as well. The ritzy neighborhood once defined by stately houses, large lawns and wrought iron fences began to change. Smaller, cheaper homes for railworkers began to be built in between the grand homes starting in the 1880s and 1890s.

The market was owned by the Dunphy family from the 1880s until owner Jim Dunphy sold it five years ago. The store had been operated by his grandfather and then his parents. Now 87, Dunphy remembers riding with his father in a horse-drawn wagon to deliver milk to customers, said Kathy Martin, office manager at the Distillery, which Dunphy owns.

Alkali Flat became a blue-collar, family neighborhood. But the area turned into "Sacramento's form of tenement living" when large homes such as the J. Neely Johnson House, a former governor's house, were divided up into multiple apartment units in the 1960s and '70s, Scott said. The buildings and neighborhood became magnets for crime and gangs.

Redevelopment pioneers withstood danger and threats to begin rehabbing homes in the 1970s and 1980s. At some point, the store began selling liquor — the only store to do so in the neighborhood. The building wasn't kept up well, and it got a bad reputation. That really struck at the heart of the neighborhood and the people trying to turn it around, Scott said.

"For a neighborhood that is inhabited by people who care a lot about where they live...the market was always kind of a thorn," he said. "I am amazed that it lasted this long."

Photos by Jennifer Caldwell. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Market robber gets LoJacked

2010-05-07T05:09:43Z

A 44 year old Sacramento man robs a convenience store but gets dooped by technology Wednesday afternoon.
Sacramento, California

According to Sacramento Police Department spokesman, Conrad Vonschoech, 44 year-old Colon Carmelo is the suspect being held for the robbery of the Fast Stop Food Stores, at 5600 Wilkinson Dr. in South Sacramento Wednesday afternoon. He was booked into Sacramento County Jail at 7:32PM Wednesday evening for felony robbery.

Per police radio traffic Wednesday afternoon, at the time of the robbery, the store clerk was able to insert a tracking device into the money bag before handing it over to Carmelo. A short time latter, officers began picking up the signal from the device in the area of Lemon Hill Ave. After Carmelo stopped at a residence on Nona Way near 37th, officers honed in on the suspect finally stopping him at 41st Ave. and 44th St. taking him into to custody without incident, with the cash still in the front seat of the vehicle.

Another team of officers stood ready to access the residence on Nona Way to search for additional weapons and potential evidence.

Carmelo, with a list of aliases including Mike Carmelo, Michael Johnson, Carmelo Jones and more, has a history of petty theft, charged once in June of 2003 and again in March of 2004. Carmelo also has a charge in October of 2009 for providing alcohol to a minor. Carmelo is currently being held on $175,000 bail all according to county records.

Sacramento housing: putting a lid on the grid

2009-05-29T05:33:50Z

Special to Sacramento Press

By Dena Kouremetis

It may seem like an anomaly, but it really comes as no surprise to REO expert and Re/Max agent Ray Ponce. Housing in Sacramento’s ‘grid’ – surrounded by freeways in all directions, has simply not become a casualty of foreclosure crisis.

“It’s just a matter of supply and demand,” says Ponce. “There has always been, and will continue to be a demand for housing in this area. Most of the homes in this area were built during the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s during a period of time when quality of craftsmanship and individual style were important for homeowners. These homes are built well and possess charm and character that today’s modern homes simply do not have.”

Ponce adds, “Since there is no more open space for builders to come in and throw up massive subdivisions of homogenous tract houses, the supply has remained relatively stable, even in these hard times. You may have noticed that the areas of Sacramento with the largest number of foreclosures are the areas that grew the fastest during the boom years -- places like Elk Grove, Natomas, and Lincoln. Most of this was caused from over-building and over-pricing.”

Another factor protecting grid homes from the foreclosure glut is the fact that many of the homeowners in East Sac and downtown are original owners or are heirs of original owners, according to Ponce, making them debt-free and lien-free as well. Fewer liens mean fewer foreclosures.

A snapshot of foreclosure activity, in mid April from Foreclosure Radar,for example, reveals approximately 115 active foreclosures in the Elk Grove area as compared to only four in the grid area. The contrast has not changed significantly since then.

According to Ponce, other types of home owners in the grid tend to be young professionals; doctors, attorneys, and business owners, who could afford to put 20-50% down when they bought these homes. “They purchased homes within their means and probably took out fixed rate loans. The buyers who purchased in the new subdivisions may have been the victims of variable rate loans, since homebuilders’ in-house lenders tended to make qualifying easier for cash-strapped buyers.”

The grid area holding its own is consistent, judging by a story reported several years ago in the Sacramento Business Journal. In it, staff writer Michael Shaw found that homes in East Sacramento were selling handily while homes in other areas three times the size of the diminutive East Sac footprints were sitting on the market for at least six months at the time. “Homes located in East Sacramento, one of the city's venerable neighborhoods, along with others such as midtown, Land Park and Curtis Park have in many ways resisted the ravages of the housing downturn,” reported Shaw.

Rapid growth areas are traditionally hit hardest, reminiscent of the saying, ‘the bigger they come, the harder they fall ‘ The 2007 Sacramento Business Journal investigation revealed that Sacramento's strongest neighborhoods, however, have been landlocked for years, resulting in little new construction. This makes them a smaller commodity, forcing prices to stay stable or even increase over time when other areas suffer.

The beauty of downtown-close neighborhoods isn’t all about economics, however. The proximity to the downtown job core is a big draw for buyers, along with the area’s tree-lined streets, neighborhood shops and eateries and entertainment venues.

Instead of three car garages, you get charm,, instead of strip malls you get sophisticated Downtown Plaza, and instead of freeway gridlock, you get light rail, a few bus stops or a 10-minute drive.

Even though the grid area is resilient, however, it is certainly not immune. “Just as in Sacramento as a whole, the inventory of homes for sale in core neighborhoods has crept up over the past two years,” reported Shaw, adding that multiple offers are not commonplace. But homes within Sacramento’s coveted grid have been and always will be a draw, no matter how you slice it.

Four farmers markets to open weekly beginning May 1

2009-04-19T02:08:15Z

The following is a schedule of farmers markets in the grid. While Sacramento Central Farmers Market is open year round, Roosevelt Park, Fremont Park, Cesar Chavez Plaza, and Downtown Plaza Farmers Markets will be open starting May 1, 2009. The next article in this storyline will interview the owners of the farmers markets.

Sacramento Central (Southside Park) Farmers Market

Located in the State Parking Lot 8th and W Streets, the farmers market is open from 8 a.m. until 12 noon on Sunday mornings all year long.

Roosevelt Park Farmers Market

Roosevelt Park is among two farmers markets along P Street held weekly on Tuesdays. "Along the perimeter of the park, shoppers can buy vegetables, fruits, nuts, meats, herbs, flowers, baked goods and cheeses," says the California Federation of Certified Farmers' Markets website.

9th and P Streets, Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., May 1 through October 30.

Fremont Park Farmers Market

16th and P Streets, Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., May 1 through October 30.

Cesar Chavez Plaza Farmers Market

10th and J Streets, Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., May 1 through October 30.

Downtown Plaza Farmers Market

4th and K Streets, Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., May 1 through October 30.

A few tips from california-grown.com:

"Bargaining for small amounts is not well received. Bargaining for big boxes or great amounts is usually acceptable. Remember that these are the growers of the produce you are bargaining for. Do not insult them. They worked very hard to sell so cheap.
Have patience with the growers. They are not polished sales people, they are just farmers. They were up late picking and irrigating and up early to load and drive the truck several hours to market.
If you smile at and appreciate them, you will find them smiling back and appreciating you in return. That is what certified farmers' markets are really about. Smiles and mutual appreciation. Families growing food for families. Californians supporting California."

Sacramento Office Space Rates Decline

2009-03-30T23:49:53Z

The Sacramento office market experienced a year-over-year decline of up to 13 percent for key submarkets as landlords began lowering prices and offering incentives in order to attract tenants. In addition with businesses downsizing or closing offices altogether, more space has come on the market which has helped to drive down prices even further.

The following section shows the year-over-year declines for the average price of space in key Sacramento submarkets. (The price range factors in specific location and class of space) :

Downtown - 2009 rates are 8 to 11 percent lower

El Dorado Hills - 2009 rates are 7 to 11 percent lower

Elk Grove - 2009 rates are 8 to 11 percent lower

Highway 80 Area - 2009 rates are 6 to 10 percent lower

Roseville/Rocklin - 2009 rates are 10 to 13 percent lower

While none of the major submarkets posted a gain in average price between 2008 and 2009, there is a silver lining for businesses that signed leases at higher rates. Depending on their individual lease situation, they may be able to negotiate for a lower rate if they are willing to renew their lease. However with the current market situation, many Sacramento businesses are apprehensive about making long-term commitments until the economy begins to turn around. Until that happens, prices for office space in Sacramento will likely go even lower.

Data Source: Synergy Real Estate Group