Business Journal: New Owner For Downtown's Cathedral Square, Bennigan's Closes At 10th And K, New Contracts For Area Nurses

The Grid To Open At Former Site Of Bennigan's

After opening only about a year ago, the chain restaurant and bar Bennigan's has closed its site in downtown Sacramento at 10th and K streets. And there's already a new restaurant getting ready to take its place. Scott Rodd from the Sacramento Business Journal says Executive Chef Kent Souza is planning a new concept called The Grid featuring a menu of local entrees.

"...Menu items inspired by his favorite dishes at other well-known Sacramento eateries such as Mulvaney's, Localis, Red Rabbit and Skool," says Rodd. "Souza said he is working on getting an entertainment license as well from the city to host live music events at the new spot, and that the venue will be remodeled with a new look."

Souza is planning a soft opening of The Grid this coming Monday. Meanwhile, the now-shuttered Bennigan's never seemed to catch on with area residents and rarely seemed busy since opening in the spring of 2017.

Anthem Properties Buys Cathedral Square

Plans for a 25-story condominium tower in downtown Sacramento that stalled during the Great Recession may be coming back. Anthem Properties, a Roseville-based real estate developer, has purchased Cathedral Square, near J and 10th streets, for $5 million. Rodd says it's still unclear whether the original plan for a condo tower will move forward.

"The city granted an entitlement extension for Cathedral Square through July 2019, but the ultimate plan for the site and how it may differ from the original plan is still to be determined," says Rodd.

The original plan called for a mixed-use tower with around 240 condos above about 12-thousand square-feet of ground floor retail space.

Nurses Approve New Contracts

Many nurses in the Sacramento area will be seeing a bump in their pay. Nurses at the University of California are expected to vote on a contract that would include a 15 percent raise over five years, which would include about 2,800 nurses at UC Davis.

“This comes after nurses at Kaiser and Dignity also entered into new contracts earlier this year,” says Rodd. “In April, about 4,500 nurses employed locally by Kaiser Permanente signed onto a five-year contract with a 12 percent wage increase. And in March, Dignity Health nurses secured a 13 percent wage increase over the next five years.” 

The California Nurses Association was able to preserve nurses’ pensions and secure contract terms barring the university from changing nurse schedules or switching them from part-time to full-time without notice. The contracts also include new rights for per diem nurses. However, the nurses did not secure wins on the issues of parental leave and increased wages for on-call nurses.

More Details on Sacramento’s Deal With Centene

The City of Sacramento last week announced it had finalized a deal with health insurance company Centene to open a corporate hub in North Natomas, a deal that promises to bring thousands of jobs.

“This is a deal that the city and area partners like the Greater Sacramento Economic Council have been working on for over two years now, and the last pieces of the agreement have finally fallen into place,” says Rodd.

In November of 2017, the city announced an incentive agreement with the Fortune 100 healthcare company, offering the company up to $13.5 million in exchange for bringing 5,000 jobs to a corporate campus in North Natomas — at least 1,500 of them would have to be net new jobs, or ones not relocated from other parts of the region. But it didn’t require the company to set up a corporate campus here or bring any new jobs.

“It became clear that Centene was eyeing a 70-acre site in North Natomas on East Commerce Way, east of Interstate 5, based on plans submitted to the city that matched a description of the potential corporate campus,” says Rodd. “Then last week, the city announced Centene had finalized its plans to establish a corporate campus here after the $28 million purchase of the property in North Natomas. The city has said the project could break ground in the next couple of weeks."

A number of these jobs will be high-wage positions. In order to be eligible for the incentive agreement, 1,500 of these jobs must have a median salary of over $61,000. Most of the jobs are expected to be related to health care, information technology, accounting and administration.

But there were some bumps in the road to finalize the deal.

“At first, the city suggested the final approval of the deal could happen by the start of the second quarter this year, but that didn’t happen,” says Rodd. “Then, earlier in the summer, Laborers Union Local 185 filed a challenge to the building plans filed with the city, arguing that there needed to be a more thorough environmental review—a not-so-unusual tactic for unions trying to secure work on a big construction project.”

The union ultimately pulled their challenge, but it remains unclear what exactly they got in exchange for pulling it.