-
Real estate revival?
by Adam Weintraub, Sept. 16, 3:45 p.m.
More signs of life are rippling through the Sacramento real estate scene with surprisingly strong demand from sponsors of an annual developer trade show and party. The Association of Commercial Real Estate had 48 sponsors for its 2009 Developer Showcase at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento. Organizers expected this year’s event to shrink 10 to 15 percent because of the soft economy. But event co-chair Becki Roberts told ACRE members at a breakfast meeting this week that a discounted early-bird campaign has already landed 44 sponsors for the Nov. 18 event, with weeks still to go. The industry group already has four top sponsors, the same count as in 2009, and seven “Showcase” level backers so far compared to 10 in 2009. Roberts says many sponsors are returning, but there’s some new blood. A half-dozen prospects also are talking with the group. “If a company is a player in this market, they realize they need to spend on marketing,” says Roberts, who also serves as vice president of Small Business Administration lending at Exchange Bank in Sacramento. “We’re not going to see a spike (in business) — it’s going to be very gradual and we may still see a price correction — but the general consensus in the commercial real estate industry is optimistic.” The news came at ACRE’s Sept. 15 breakfast meeting at The Sterling Hotel downtown, featuring a presentation on redevelopment along K Street.
-
Central Valley Fund invests in gas station expansion
by Adam Weintraub, July 13, 5:50 p.m.
Anabi Oil Corp. has made a big push into Northern California and the Capital Region with a major gasoline station and convenience store acquisition fueled in part by a local investment fund.
Upland-based Anabi Oil bought about 20 Shell-branded gas stations and Shell’s distribution business for territories in its Inland Empire/Los Angeles-area home base and in a swath from the Bay Area to San Joaquin County. The $35 million-plus deal closed July 7. Wells Fargo is the senior lender; the Davis-based Central Valley Fund was the lead lender along with Huntington Capital of San Diego in an $8.5 million mezzanine financing tier.
It’s the second investment this year for Central Valley Fund, following more than a year on the sidelines after the economic downturn. “In this kind of economic environment we were looking for businesses that were sustainable and would be around for a while,” says Jose Blanco, a principal with the fund. Even with attention focused of green technology, he says, Californians will need to fill up the gas tank for years to come.
And Anabi doesn’t sell just gas well, Blanco says. “It’s not about selling gasoline, it’s about selling convenience.” A gas station with a convenience store might make more on snacks for the kids in a minivan than on the gasoline that fills its tank, and the gross margin on an automatic car wash alongside the pumps can hit 90 percent.
“With the way the margins fluctuate, you have to look to the ancillary businesses,” says Rawa Anabi, vice president and co-owner of Anabi Oil with her husband Sam. “It’s a balancing act between gas, (convenience) store and car wash.” Anabi Oil builds up repeat business by stressing customer service, loyalty programs and amenities, including Subway and Del Taco restaurants operating in subleased space inside the convenience stores.
Company president Sam Anabi bought his first Shell station in Baldwin Park in 1991 and his second two years later. He got into the business after an injury ended a career in police work, he says. “I was chasing three burglary suspects and I shattered the right side of my face.” The couple built up the business over the years and the latest acquisition brings their total holdings to about 55 owned and managed Shell stations from Elk Grove and Tracy to the Bay Area in Northern California and from Chino to Riverside and Redlands in the south state.
They also acquired distribution centers in Martinez, Wilmington and Colton from Shell that will enable them to supply fuel to their own stations and more than 90 others. Shell, like some other major oil producers, is shedding U.S. retail businesses to focus on production and foreign markets. “That has always been our dream, to become wholesalers,” Sam Anabi says. “All of the Shell customers in those geographies become our customers.”
Retail customers shouldn’t notice much change, Rawa Anabi says. “It’s a seamless transition. The only change we hope the customer sees is in customer service and competitive pricing.”
The distribution business, however, gives Anabi Oil another avenue to grow. While the couple isn’t looking to add any new stations to their roster, they’re looking to add stations owned by other operators to their supply routes.
-
Quagga Corp. acquired for $18.5 million
Updated June 10, 11:50 a.m.
Folsom-based Quagga Corp. has been acquired by Paetec Corp. of Fairport, N.Y., for $18.5 million.
The telecommunications firm was founded in 2003 by Ken Apperson and Scott Knorp, two self-described "prima donna sales reps" who quit their lucrative jobs selling video conferencing and telephone systems to pursue their own specialty sales platform. Quagga specializes in IP-based voice and video systems for medium and large businesses, data and business process management, and consulting, design and maintenance of communication systems.
In Comstock’s April 2010 cover story, Apperson and Knorp insisted the company wasn’t for sale. Apperson said he would consider it if he “thought it would make the company better, but that’s just not the case.”
Turns out the pair were in a courtship with Paetec since 2009.
“We couldn’t talk about it. And even when we talked (to Comstock’s), it felt pretty surreal. We just weren’t really sure that it was going to happen,” Knorp says. “We get offers every week, and this was the first one that felt right. But even in the homestretch we weren’t sure if it was going to crater at the last minute.”
Quagga worked with Paetec on other deals, including network services at the University of Southern California.
Since its inception, Quagga has grown to 80 employees and $34 million in revenue. Its 3,000 clients include eBay, Google and Pixar. Paetec brings about 40,000 customers to the table.
Apperson and Knorp will stay with Quagga and lead Paetec's West Coast expansion.
“I’ve got a boss again for the first time in seven years, which is a very strange feeling,” Knorp says. “But our charter is to grow this division to $500 million” … from its current $38 million.
Paetec also specializes in voice and video systems for businesses. The publically traded company reported revenue of $1.6 billion in 2009.
-
Colliers: Solano vacancies hit bottom
June 7, 9:40 a.m.
Industrial vacancy rates for Solano and Napa counties rose to 13.8 percent in the first quarter, up from 13.2 percent in 2009, according to Colliers International. Vacancies have increased six consecutive quarters since the third quarter of 2008, rising from 8.6 percent."It looks like it's still going to slow and vacancy rates will remain high, although we don't expect too much more of a decline," says Colliers research analyst Rob Gerard. "It's the story overall, and I don't see one area recovering more quickly than the others. We think we've hit bottom, but it doesn't mean we're jumping to recovery right away." Benicia saw the highest increase in industrial vacancy, up 2.9 percent to 16.4 percent. Fairfield was the only city to experience a decline, 12.2 percent in the first quarter from 14.4 percent the prior quarter. Vacaville's vacancy rate remained relatively flat at 21 percent, Napa's vacancies increased from 11.9 percent to 14 percent from the prior quarter, and American Canyon experienced a fractional vacancy increase to 11 percent.
-
Legislature rejects feasibility study for peripheral canal substitute
June 1, 11 a.m.
The Legislature has declined to consider a proposal to build gates, barriers and fish screens in the Delta as an alternative to the expensive and much-debated peripheral canal. The so-called Delta Corridors Plan was touted by Delta farmers, San Joaquin County and some environmentalists as a way to protect California’s ecosystem and water supply. But lawmakers declined to move forward with Assemblyman Bill Berryhill’s (R-Ceres) bill requiring study and analysis of the plan. AB 1797 would have allocated $750,000 from Proposition 84 funds (passed by voters in 2006) to the Department of Water Resources to pay for a feasibility study. Supporters of the bill could try again in the Legislature next year, and they are now attempting to present their plan directly to the Delta Stewardship Council, a government body formed to adopt and oversee implementation of a comprehensive management plan for the Delta.
-
Professor Nicole Woolsey Biggart tapped as UC Davis energy chair
June 1, 2010 | 3 p.m.
Today, UC Davis announced the appointment of professor Nicole Woolsey Biggart to the Chevron Chair in Energy Efficiency. Woolsey Biggart was the dean of the Graduate School of Management from 2003 to 2009. As the Chevron chair, Biggart will direct the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center in its mission to accelerate the commercialization of energy-efficiency technologies, teach future leaders in energy efficiency and conduct critical policy-supporting research. The energy efficiency center is a consortium of researchers and educators working on water, lighting, cooling, post-harvest technologies. "Part of what I hope to do is to bring that group together to leverage one another," Woolsey Biggart says. "There has been a lot of independent activity, but I see myself as an integrating force." She'll begin her new position July 1, following a one-year leave of absence in which she pursued independent research related to energy efficiency in commercial construction. Chevron Corp. last year gave UC Davis $2 million to create the endowed chair along with an additional $500,000 in funding for the Energy Efficiency Center.
-
Colliers: Worst of retail vacancies
June 1, 2010 | 3:10 p.m.
Nationwide, the first quarter 2010 saw a slight dip in retail vacancy rates from 10.7 to 11 percent, according to the recently released Colliers Spring Retail Highlights report. Vacancy rates will likely inch higher in the second quarter with stabilization by the end of the year and, finally, clear signs of recovery in 2011, according to the report. "We're starting to see rents stabilize, and the rate of decline has slowed considerably," says Garrick Brown, U.S. retail research director for Colliers. Top-notch inventory will be the first to recover, he says. "Class A centers, we think, have bottomed out. The best retail product comes down to location and tenant mix," Brown says. Locally, rents are down for Class A space, Brown says, creating an opportunity for Class B tenants to move up. In April, Stockton's Pacific Avenue fetched about $25 per square foot, down from $33 last April. In Roseville, Galleria Boulevard fetched $23.75, down from $30 for the same time period.