East West Commercial Real Estate is pleased to announce the May 2013 opening of Fitness System Land Park at 1250 Sutterville Road in the City of Sacramento.  Fitness System is part of a local network of athletic clubs with three additional locations in West Sacramento, Lodi, and Woodland.  

Fitness System – 17,000 sq.ft. athletic club opened May 2013 in Land Park

The newest facility comprises 17,000 square feet and is located directly across from the Sacramento Zoo and Sprouts Market / La Bou Cafe at the corner of Sutterville Road & Land Park Drive.  Sean Covell, owner / operator of locally based Fitness System, is excited to provide a much needed athletic club to Land Park residents and intends to become active within the community right away.  The club offers free weights, machines, aerobics and child care on the first floor, while members engaged in cardio workouts upstairs have the unique opportunity to watch the giraffes at the Sacramento Zoo located just across the street.  See related article from Sacramento Business Journal and CoStar.

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Living in Sacramento, its easy to take for granted that we actually reside in the State Capitol of California, which represents the 9th largest economy in the entire world.  At times, a healthy reminder is in order to draw attention to this remarkable privilege that we all share.  Important matters are considered and decided every day inside the venerable halls of the State Capitol.  We are certainly fortunate to now have our very own local correspondent, Christopher Arns (Sacramento Business Journal), who has already written over 40 stories covering legislative activities surrounding the State Capitol since January.  

It is incumbent upon citizens to communicate with legislators to ensure their voices are heard.  It is within this context I participated last week in the 4th Annual Legislative Summit at the State Capitol, hosted by the California Asian Chamber of Commerce.  Pat Fong Kushida (President & CEO of the CalAsian Chamber) led four teams who met with over 40 legislative offices to discuss pro-business issues including workforce development, taxation, economic development, and regulatory reform.  It was a terrific day with open dialogue and a distinct willingness to come together.

California State Senator Jim Nielsen (third from left) with CalAsian Chamber lobby team

One such meeting took place with Senator Jim Nielsen (see picture above), where team representatives connected on a personal level, sharing concerns and ideas for improvement in various areas.  This scene repeated itself many times throughout the day as we walked the halls, transitioning from one meeting to the next.  In a fitting culmination of events, the CalAsian Chamber lobby teams capped off the evening with a tasteful reception with dozens of legislators and staffers, along with community and business leaders.

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Local Sacramento food truck operator, Andrew Blaskovich (aka “Drewski”), has been on the Sacramento scene for over two years now, serving up gourmet sandwiches to hungry crowds.  With well over 15,000 Twitter and Facebook followers, he is most certainly a force to be reckoned with and has been recognized by Food Network as one of the Top 10 food truck operators in America.  Drewski’s has received rave reviews in local print and media and is currently ranked #1 on the KCRA “A” List and was voted #1 best Food Truck by Sacramento News & Review

In a growing trend, the success of food truck operators has convinced some to open brick-and-mortar locations as well.  For Blaskovich, his foray into the brick-and-mortar restaurant business started with a Midtown Sacramento commercial property operated by Republic, a large sports bar, located across from the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium.  He partnered with the owners to provide his signature dishes and experienced tremendous success ever since.  Drewski’s second brick-and-mortar location is essentially a small café positioned within the lobby of a commercial office building on Iron Point Road in Folsom.  However, Drewski’s third brick-and-mortar really takes the cake.

Click here for related articles written by the Sacramento Bee, Cowtown Eats, and Sacramento Business Journal.

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Comstock’s Magazine published a terrific article in this month’s edition discussing the need for Sacramento commercial property landlords to relax long-standing tenant requirements for attracting startup tech companies that desperately need space to foster innovation.  The article explains how Hacker Lab, a non-profit technology incubator, recently expanded its commercial space by more than 10x by relocating to a Midtown Sacramento office / warehouse building that lends itself to creative work space.  Sacramento commercial real estate broker Brian Jacks, who handled the lease transaction, was quoted in the article as saying “it wasn’t an easy deal, but fortunately the landlord was willing to take a chance.”  A few short months later, Hacker Lab finds itself at the epicenter of a movement that is culminating with Startup Weekend, a global event in local cities that brings programmers, designers and entrepreneurs together to launch their own startup company in 54 hours.  Excitement is building.  The City of Davis recently announced a new staff position called ‘Chief Innovation Officer’ that was assumed by industry veteran Rob White.  White toured a mixed-use commercial building last week, located just one block from the U.C. Davis campus, which he agrees would be a perfect fit for a Hacker Lab type organization.  Students and industry professionals need a place other than coffee shops where they can meetup to collaborate on technology and innovation projects that will help take the Sacramento region to the next level.  Click here for related article.  

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Sacramento commercial real estate investors who own property near the proposed site of the Downtown Arena are now one step closer to potentially significant increases in value.  The Sacramento City Council voted 7-2 in favor of approving the arena financing proposal, which creates the opportunity for investors to form a competing bid to acquire the Sacramento Kings.  News 10 caught up with Sacramento commercial real estate broker Brian Jacks to find out what this could mean for commercial properties within the immediate vicinity of the proposed arena.  Click here for News 10 story

Sacramento commercial real estate

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As reported in a recent article by the Sacramento Business Journal, “a new Brookings Institution study ranked 20 U.S. metro areas by the number of patents per million residents from 2007 through 2011.  All, including Sacramento, are home to major research universities.”  Clearly, UC Davis has been a major contributing factor to the Sacramento region’s success in this area.  While Sacramento barely made the cut at #20 on the list, it proves the region is certainly in the game and ripe for an ever-increasing market share of patents.  No surprise to anyone, our nearest competition, San Jose and San Francisco, ranked #1 and #3 with 1,988 and 555 patents, respectively.  However, when totaling the patents for all three Northern California cities, it represents over 34% of all patents nationwide.

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The California Legislature recently approved Senate Bill 1186, which is designed to curb the misuse and abuse of California’s ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) laws and protect business owners. The catalyst driving the Legislature’s action was what the Bill’s authors described as a serious problem in which claimants and attorneys file “shakedown lawsuits against businesses in an effort to gain an easy payday with no intention of improving access for the disabled community.” Landlords and property owners were often faced with exploitive demand letters for money and would choose to pay the claimant simply to avoid the time and expense of dealing with litigation. 

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East West Commercial Real Estate is pleased to announce its successful relocation of Jackson Sports Academy (JSA) to McClellan Park in Sacramento County.  Effective December 1, 2012, JSA is taking over 72,000 square feet of primarily warehouse space, which represents only a small portion of the 8.5 million square feet of commercial real estate that comprises McClellan Park.

The new space will provide sufficient room for 12 volleyball courts, which is currently the predominant sport for JSA.  Other sports to be offered will include basketball, soccer and tennis.  According to Dwayne Jackson, Executive Director of JSA, “we’re most excited about the massive parking lot, large upstairs offices with training room, hospitality suite and parent’s lounge, 38-foot high ceilings, plus free-span building without interference from structural support poles.”

Click here for related article by the Sacramento Business Journal or recent news story by Good Day Sacramento.

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According to industry sources, a 12-story, Class A, Gold LEED certified commercial real estate office building known as 2020 Gateway Tower (north of Downtown Sacramento) may soon receive its first tenant. 

2020 Gateway Tower - Sacramento

News 10 anchor Cornell Barnard reported the California State Department of Housing and Community Development is considering the possibility of relocating its 100,000 square feet of office space (currently located at 1800 3rd Street) into the never-been-leased 325,000 square foot, green energy-efficient building in Natomas.  News 10 caught up with Sacramento Commercial Real Estate Broker, Brian Jacks, who said “many State office buildings are in nice locations, but this could be a great lease deal for taxpayers, as the owners [of 2020 Gateway Tower] are likely eager to lease space here for the first time after building completion three years ago.”  Click here to watch

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East West Commercial’s Regional Vice President, Brian Jacks, is featured in the Sacramento Business Journal for the recent lease of Hacker Lab. Mark Anderson of the Sacramento Business Journal writes,” Gina Lujan took a big leap of faith Monday, agreeing to move Hacker Lab in September from its 850-square-foot office to a 10,480-square-foot building in downtown Sacramento. Hacker Lab rents desk space and office space to startups ranging from software developers to web designers. The collective shares some equipment and some of the tenants mutually support others with equipment and expertise.” Click Here to continue reading!