Sacramento Bee, The (CA)
August 30, 2007
It takes a village Shopping center's $5 million renovation welcomes five new businesses, expansions
Author: Ramon Coronado
Bee Staff Writer
Edition: METRO FINAL
Section: ARDEN CARMICHAEL
It's still August, but the merchants at the Town & Country Village shopping center are thinking of Christmas.
As part of a $5 million renovation and expansion plan, five new businesses have moved in, and five others are expanding in the center at the intersection of Fulton and Marconi avenues.
"We hope that everything is ready to go for the holiday season," said Henry Avila, a vice president for Donahue Schriber, the shopping center's owner and operator.
The new businesses are A Cup of Tea, Adams Jewelers, Eyeglass Charlie's, Starlette O'Hara and The Terrace Cafe.
Expanding are Bella Donna Bridal Salon, FurnItalia, Sister's Boutique, Tobacco Road and Vientos Mexican Grill & Bar.
Also new to the center's 55 boutique businesses are portal gates with signs designed to draw shoppers into the back of the complex, where many of the new specialty stores have located.
The center's owner owns or operates about 90 shopping centers in Nevada, Arizona and California. Local centers include Pavilions in Sacramento, Natomas Marketplace and Creekside Town! Center in Roseville.
Opening in 1946, Town & Country Village was one of the Sacramento region's first open-air shopping centers. The first Starbucks in Sacramento opened there, Avila said.
"It has a lot of history and has institutions like William Glen and Anderson Pharmacy," Avila said of the housewares store and the family-owned drug store.
"We are making this push to introduce a new energy and the new stores. The independent operators bring something special to shopping," he said.
"It is not the center it was a year ago. We want to reintroduce the center to the community," Avila said of the specialty stores, which are being promoted as "The Collection."
Town & Country Village also is known as the Town Center of the Fulton Business District, a business improvement association for about 300 businesses along and near Fulton Avenue.
Individual businesses pay extra property tax into a fund the county matches to pay for area im! provements.
"The main goal of the district is to improve! and upd ate the area and to make it look nice," said Melinda Eppler, its executive director.
Formed in 1998, the district was responsible for the landscaped medians on Fulton Avenue and for upgrading 50-year-old water mains.
Town & Country Village "is in the heart of the district. We consider that to be Town Center," Eppler said. "The physical enhancements with signage and the metal work help the image. That is important.
"It is our shopping center," Eppler said. "It is indoor and outdoor. It is alfresco. It is a lot more of an experience than a mall. There are shops particular to women and shops particular to men. There is a little bit of everything."
The Bee's Ramon Coronado can be reached at (916) 321-1013 or rcoronado@sacbee.com.
Caption:
Sacramento Bee / Anne Chadwick Williams
Sign installers Mike Harman, left, and Davis Hollis work on the new, Italian-style portal gates at the Town & Country Village shopping center.
Amelie is a new store in the Town & Country Village shopping center. One of five new boutiques, the store moved from Roseville.
Danielle Ashlock, an employee at Bella Donna Bridal Salon, cleans the glass door to the store, which will be expanding into the space next door.
Sacramento Bee / Anne Chadwick Williams
Noni Horsburgh is co-owner of Starlette O'Hara, a new store in Town & Country Village, one of Sacramento's first open-air shopping centers.
Copyright 2007 The Sacramento Bee
Record Number: SAC_0405173613
