Business Journal: Ettore's Closes Roseville Location, Elk Grove Commons Sells For $59 Million, Driverless Cars Tested At Sleep Train Arena

Ettore's Bakery & Cafe closes its Roseville site

Ettore’s Bakery and Cafe has closed its Roseville location — which opened only about a year ago. Swiss pastry chef Ettore Ravazzolo still has a restaurant in Sacramento on Fair Oaks Boulevard, as well as a production facility. Scott Rodd from the Sacramento Business Journal says the Fair Oaks Boulevard site will stay in business.

"Ettore said he plans to focus his time and attention on the Sacramento location, which is what brought him his success and renown in he region in the first place," says Rodd. "He supplies baked goods to other stores like coffee shops and retailers, and it appears that will continue despite the Roseville closure."

Ettore opened his Sacramento bakery about 30 years ago. Last year, he expanded into Roseville, opening a restaurant on Sunrise Avenue. In April, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize. Ettore attributed the bankruptcy to the expenses that came with expanding to Roseville.

New York company buys Elk Grove Commons shopping center

An Elk Grove shopping center has been sold for about $60 million. Elk Grove Commons on Bruceville Road was sold by the Sacramento property management company Donahue Schriber. Rodd says the buyer is a real estate investment company called Acadia Realty Trust.

"They're based in New York and it looks live they've been buying up some properties on the West Coast, mostly in the San Francisco area," says Rodd. "This is the first property they've bought in Sacramento. And it looks like they purchased this property seeing that it could be a good return on their investment."

According to one of the brokers in the deal, the sale is unusual not just because of the high price tag, but also because assets like Elk Grove Commons are rarely listed on the market these days. Some of the tenants at the site include: Trader Joe's, HomeGoods and Cost Plus World Market.

Driverless cars at Sleep Train Arena...And maybe youth sports

A tech-startup from Mountain View is quietly testing its autonomous car prototype in the parking lot of Sleep Train Arena in Natomas. Rodd says the tests have been going on since late last year.

"The company is called Nuro and they’ve been developing a driverless, electric vehicle intended to deliver goods ranging from groceries to pizzas," says Rodd.

The company has raised $92 million to develop their driverless vehicles. Nuro's two founders formerly worked at Google’s autonomous vehicle division. The City of Sacramento says it wants to be a national test-bed for autonomous vehicles, and recently announced a partnership with another autonomous vehicle company, Phantom Auto, which will be doing on-the-road testing in Sacramento in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the tourism board Visit Sacramento wants to build a youth sports complex, measuring up to 200-acres, somewhere in the city. Rodd says one possible site is the now dormant Sleep Train Arena in Natomas.

"A sports complex with upwards of a dozen fields would allow the city to host those competitions, and in turn would generate economic activity from visitors," says Rodd.

Visit Sacramento hasn’t submitted a formal proposal to the city yet, saying that rehabbing the Convention Center is the primary focus right now, but that a youth sports complex is on the horizon. Other potential sites for a complex include Sutter’s Landing Park or the Sacramento Railyards.