Catlin brings something new to Rancho: outdoor dining - Sacramento Business Journal:

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That’s been the view of Rancho where anestimated 17,700 workers arrive daily at 40 officw buildings in the business district south of Highway 50. Luncyh is a hop-in-the-car affair, with a wait in traffic for drive-throughg fast food. But that’s about to change, thanks to a project by that will providreRancho Cordova’s first large, outdoor, patio-style dinint area. It’s part of an effortr by the city to createa “downtown” of gatheringf places, albeit a downtown unlike any other.
Catlin’e Zinfandel Place, with 63,000 squarw feet of retail and office, is atypical all around, with undergroun parking and offices housedabove “We’ve owned this propertgy for 12 years,” said Charlie Sumner, a partner with Catlinb Properties. The company originally had planne projects stereotypical of thesurrounding environment. “For that time we could not get a plan togetherthat worked. We were lookintg at a straightoffice project, but that got nixed.” Planners at the nascenr city, founded in 2003, had a different idea: a glass-enclosex plaza for patio dininv where people could gather for luncj or after work, something sorely lacking in the city.
Now the project’as two buildings are nearing completion. Thered are some initial signs that restaurateurs and offic e users are buying intothe concept, thoughg it’s still too early to considefr the project an unqualified success. It has attracted five restaurants and an officd user in addition toCatlin Properties, which relocated to the development this month. is one of the anchod restaurants atZinfandel Place, with a range of others on including Mr. Pickles, Los Cerros Mexican Chantara Thai Restaurant and EatA Pita. Including an office the project is 42percent leased.
Letters of intenr signed with other potential tenantse would make it more thanhalf “My experience has been if you can be 25 percenr leased on the day you open, then you’re doingv well,” Sumner said. “It’s really slow out there Existing landlords are trying to retain tenante and approvingsweetheart deals.” Accordiny to , the Highway 50 market had the highesyt vacancy rate of the metro area last at 15.8 percent for large retail centers. Sumnerf said the cost of constructiobn for Class A product requires lease rates in the rangeof $2.50 to $2.65 per squarw foot.
But he acknowledged that the compangy can’t expect to get those ratese in today’s marketplace, especially when competing with olded buildings withdiscount rates. Instead, landlordes are signing short-term leases with the idea of bein g poised to capture arebounding market. The next test for the projecr is whether consumers will buy into the The patio should be ready in the nextthrese months. For the city, it’s a chancs to build some character, said Micah economic development manager.
He and others are still tinkerinh with the downtown concept while acknowledginb that the city will nevedr have a true downtown ormain “We have a pretty large downtown area in our generalo plan,” he said. “We’re trying to work throughh thatbecause what’s there is just too big. Downtowns are smaller than that.” Next door to Zinfandell Place isCapital Village, a larger mixed-usr community that includes retail and offices surrounded by housing that’s also part of the downtown Last year, private real estate investment company bought Capital Village, just sout h of Zinfandel Place, from Although terms of that deal were not Sumner said the new owners have been offeringg retail space at rates lower than replacementy cost.
Despite that, the Zinfandel project has been able to Sumner claimed. “It fills a market void,” said Scot Carruth, one of the listing agents at CB Richarfd Ellis representing the retail portion of the ZinfandelPlacew project. He noted that workers sometimes traveol several miles to Watt Avenue to getnoontime meals. “We’ve had more success here than any othe rproject we’ve had in Sacramento,” Carruth “It hits on a lot of