The first flights will take off Oct. 6 from Sacramento International Airport's nearly $1.1 billion Central Terminal B complex, officials announced Friday at the California State Fair. The airport expansion, dubbed “The Big Build,” was initially budgeted at $1.27 billion. It will replace a 44-year-old, far smaller terminal and will be completed seven months ahead of the originally scheduled opening. The complex was expected to start operating in March of 2012 when construction began in 2008. Hard economic times led Sacramento County Airport System officials to scrap plans for an airport hotel and a new parking garage. Airport officials chose an early October opening date so the new termi

Retail space on a prime Midtown corner is getting a lot of attention from restaurateurs after Spin Burger Bar suddenly closed there earlier this month. On Thursday, Rocklin resident Paul Singh toured the 2,800-square-foot store, where he and partners in Monsoon Indian Bar & Grill of Toronto are considering opening an Indian restaurant and bar by the same name. Many other restaurant owners have already checked out the space at 1020 16th St. Spin Burger's owner, SRO Inc., closed the restaurant's doors July 5, said commercial real estate broker Bobby Rich with Retail West. The Haines brothers, who own 33rd Street Bistro and several other area restaurants under SRO, converted a Bistro 33 at

The arena campaign committee, Think BIG Sacramento, hosted a four-county bus tour Thursday to spread the message that a new sports and entertainment facility will benefit not just the city of Sacramento but the entire region. The group released a "Capitol Corridor Impact Report" showing 55 percent of the people going to basketball games and other events at the Sacramento Kings' current facility come from outside Sacramento County. And almost 75 percent live outside the city, committee Executive Director Chris Lehane said Thursday at a press conference in El Dorado Hills. The report was compiled using three years' statistics from the National Basketball Association. Actual numbers of aren

Sacramento officials believe a new arena can be integrated with a future regional transit center in the historic downtown railyards – making this one of the country's most eco-friendly sports and entertainment facilities, Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said Tuesday. At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, Dangberg gave council members a status report nearly halfway into a 100-day technical review of a proposed arena. The $387 million project is on an expedited schedule to be in operation by May 2015. One of the most critical issues being reviewed is the need to coordinate construction of an arena with the previously planned transit center. Both structures would be built on a site

Biba Restaurant reopened Tuesday with a soft new look after a remodel to celebrate its 25th anniversary in Midtown. Sacramento restaurateur, TV show host and cookbook author Biba Caggiano added a new color palette and made other changes at her namesake Italian eatery. The restaurant at 2801 Capitol Ave. was closed July 3 - Monday to allow work on the its two dining rooms. The makeover was done in time to mark a quarter-century in business next month. "Just like a beautiful woman, you don't stay beautiful forever unless you do something," Caggiano said during the lunch hour Tuesday. "This place needed something: color, other things. I'm very, very, very happy." Both rooms opened Aug. 6,

Sacramento International Airport's nearly $1.1 billion Central Terminal B complex is expected to open this fall – months earlier than originally scheduled. When construction began in 2008, the terminal project was expected to cost $1.27 billion and was scheduled to open in spring of 2012. The project will open months ahead of that because of changes in construction plans due to the recession. Plans for a hotel and new parking garage were dropped to save money. A new garage will be built once there is enough need. Other cost savings were found during a simultaneous design and construction phase, , airport spokeswoman Gina Swankie said. The construction schedule was later revised to refle

New Sacramento Railyards Project Manager Fran Lee Halbakken said she became a civil engineer because she loves solving problems. Halbakken is now tackling challenges with one of the city's and country's largest redevelopment projects after starting in her new role June 27. At nearly 240 acres of combined private and city land, the railyards project is so big it will virtually double the size of the central business district. The key position was created at a critical stage of the massive undertaking. The private portion of the site has a new owner and the projects’ housing plan must be revised in light of the recession. Also, plans for a new regional transit center must be coordinated wi

Think BIG Sacramento launched an effort Thursday to recruit 1,000 people from Merced to Redding to rally support for a new arena. The arena campaign committee also announced plans to hold a public design contest for a space adjacent to the new facility as part of that effort. The committee is asking regional residents and community leaders to help spread information and gather supporters for the drive to build a new sports and entertainment complex, state Senate staffer Greg Hayes, a member of the arena committee, said in a Thursday morning press conference outside the MARRS Building at 1050 20th St. Later this month, the committee will announce full details of a contest that could enab

Longtime Midtown costume shop Cheap Thrills will be reopened this month by its original owner, Linda McNally, with help from her grandson, his wife and former employees who have become like family. McNally’s grandson, Todd Gockley, and his wife, Sondra, said the family hopes to reopen the store at 1712 L St. July 16 – about three months after its then-owner, "Uncle" Fred Smith, closed the business in May so he could retire. McNally's father was a Sacramento tailor. She’s a costume and vintage clothing collector who opened the shop with costumes and formalwear in about 1969. McNally operated it for at least 25 years before Smith, an employee, bought the business in the mid-1990s. Cheap T

Capital Stage Company expects to finish major construction on its new Midtown theater by the end of the month. The troupe is putting on its final show on board the Delta King Riverboat. The show, "Or," by New York playwright Liz Duffy Adams, runs through July 17. At the same time, theater company officials are busy recruiting a few more volunteers to help with the theater's move and trying to gather the last $65,000 of the $300,000 construction budget, company co-founder and Producing Director Jonathan Williams said. To save money, Williams is serving as the project manager. They’ve also gotten materials, skills and time donated. He estimated the project – which will turn an old gun sho

Two restaurateurs with a love of fine beer and coffee plan to open an alehouse in Midtown with a possible cafe and coffee-roasting operation next door. Tex Mex Bar and Grill owner Mike Keolanui said he and his best friend, Anthony Priley, expect to replace Keolanui's restaurant at 2326 J St. with a joint venture, River Rock Tap House, July 9. They decided to team up again, about 17 years after they opened River Rock in Citrus Heights featuring 40 craft beers, on-site roasted coffee and food. Priley and his father, Steve, who co-founded Java City, owned River Rock. Keolanui was the general manager. Within a month, they also hope to sign a lease for the space next door at 2330 J St., whic

The Rail Bridge Cellars Penthouse Lounge at the Elks Tower will offer a wine-tasting room with a skyline view after opening in two weeks. The owners of urban winery Rail Bridge Cellars, Michael Gelber and his wife, Katharine (Ayers) Gelber, want to breathe new life into a room that once held Top of the Town, a restaurant and bar popular in the 1950s and 1960s. They hope to officially open the spot July 11 as an off-site wine-tasting room in the heart of downtown, he said. The opening is tied to the winery's growth after seven new wines were recently introduced to the market. Previously, Rail Bridge had only offered two wines: a sauvignon blanc and a 2004 proprietary red blend called Latt

A new downtown arena could draw 3.1 million visitors to the central city each year and bring the region more than $7 billion over 30 years, according to a report released Thursday by an arena campaign committee. The 37-page report on an arena’s expected impact to the region was released to reporters at a press conference at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel. "In downtown Sacramento, there's a considerable economic boost, just by the fact that there really isn't a facility like that," said Cathleen Dominico, author of "The Economic Engine Report: An Economic Analysis on the Regional Impact of an Entertainment and Sports Complex," during the press conference. "If you can create a downto

The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission is developing a new fundraising strategy to help offset continued cuts in public funding that have slashed the agency's primary financial sources by 70 percent in the last four years. The strategy includes an expanded arts public service campaign, a donors' "Walk of Fame" on K Street Mall and new types of fundraisers, such as one involving City Council members and a celebrated local restaurateur. As of Friday, public funding for the joint city-county agency will be just under $900,000 for fiscal year 2011/2012 – down from $2.6 million each year in July 2008 and 2007. Last year's public funding totaled $1.04 million. That doesn't include money f

Sacramento musicians and their followers are waiting to see whether this summer brings an end to an era of live music at Old Ironsides. Countless local bands broke into the music business at the bar/restaurant known as "Old I" over the last two decades. But there's currently only one weekend show booked for July. Two shows that had been set for next month have been moved to another location, one has been canceled and future bookings have been postponed for now. The family that has owned the bar at 1901 10th St. for 76 years is working to replace a rented sound system that was removed Sunday. The Kanelos family rented the system for about 17 years and was unable to negotiate a lower fee

Sacramento locavore Amber Stott is documenting her life as a conscious consumer and her journey to eat as locally as she can with a food blog, Awake at the Whisk. She said she likes to start each day, camera in hand, with a walk through the garden. On a recent June morning, she snapped photos of plants in her backyard next to the American River.  Planter boxes were filled with watermelon, tomatillos, corn, squash, cucumbers, melons and peppers growing in various stages. She pushed aside leaves, peered under plants and squealed with joy when she found the first jalapeno of the season.  "With the garden, every single day there's something new. That's – for me – my favorite part of the da

The Sacramento region will have to get creative to come up with a public-private financing plan that might work to build a new arena – possibly coming up with funding sources never tried in other cities before, a prominent sports financing expert said Thursday. Sacramento will need a unique financing model, partly due to the community's "limitations" in size and past efforts to gain voter support for public arena funding, Barrett Sports Group owner Dan Barrett told a crowd gathered for a town hall meeting at the Central Library. The media market is relatively small, which makes it less lucrative, and there aren't a lot of potential corporate sponsors here. Other challenges come from diff

Dads teach their kids all kinds of things – sometimes even skills that allow them to build shopping centers and redevelop historic properties as big as Globe Mills and Sacramento’s K Street Mall. When kids go into the family business, a father's ability to impart lessons gets taken to a whole new level. Sons who've followed their dads into development in three families say there are pros and cons to doing so – with the biggest benefits being the valuable instruction they've gotten from their fathers. Ali Youssefi was doing investment banking in San Francisco when he decided to return to Sacramento to join his father, Cyrus Youssefi, at his community development firm, CFY Development, In

Marc Feldman resigned as executive director of the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra on June 9. Following his resignation, Feldman and the Philharmonic have released official statements, which can be found below. Former Sacramento Philharmonic Executive Director Jane Hill is returning as interim director July 5. She retired in 2007 after about five years with the Philharmonic, the organization’s financial officer, Marta Quinn, said. Feldman also worked at the Philharmonic for about five years, starting in 2007 before Hill left. A native New Yorker, Feldman spent much of the last two decades working as a bassoonist and concert organizer in France, Italy, Portugal, Canada and the United

A dusty corner of the historic Elks Tower containing a pool hidden for decades will soon get a second life when a Euro-style cafe, bar and chocolatier open next year. The Ayers family has begun renovating a bi-level corner of the 1926 building designed by architect Leonard J. Starks to incorporate a pool where club members swam for 50 years. The pool hasn't been used since about the early 1980s. Building owner Steve Ayers, his daughter Katharine (Ayers) Gelber and her husband, Michael Gelber, are partnering to open Rail Bridge Wine and Spirits in the front corner of the building at 921 11th St. The other corner is anchored by McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant. The bar, small cafe