Business and Finance news

Owners of a new Folsom combo bike shop-coffee shop that already stretches the norm is expanding some more.

Folsom Bike, which opened in October along with the adjoining Folsom Grind, is adding a studio for spin-cycle classes and a studio for athlete coaching sessions with coach Bruce Hendler of AthletiCamps.

Folsom Bike’s additional departments, set to open next week, will add 1,200 square feet to the retailer’s original 4,280 square feet.

“Cycling is very much a community sport,” said Erin Whatley, who owns Folsom Bike with Wilson Gorrell and a silent third partner.

And with the store’s varied offerings, the owners want to create a one-stop hangout for cyclists of all abilities and ages, while also offering services for others who embrace a healthy lifestyle.

Folsom Bike, at 7610 Folsom Auburn Road, provides bar stools so customers can watch and talk with mechanics during repairs, employs a professional bike fitter and serves as a meeting place before and after group rides.

With the addition, spin classes will be offered in the mornings and evenings for cyclists who bring in their own bikes. Cyclists also need to bring in their own bikes for workout and nutrition coaching with Hendler.

CB Richard Ellis broker Sam Orlando represented the store owners and the landlord in the lease.

Retailer switches to cell phones from music

Ritmo Latino Inc., which once had been the nation’s largest Latin music chain, has converted its Sacramento store and 11 others to T-Mobile wireless stores, and established four more T-Mobile stores, most of them in California.

When the New Jersey-based chain opened a few years ago at Franklin Boulevard and Fruitridge Road, Ritmo Latino was expanding fast. With the music industry’s decline, Ritmo Latino has switched gears.

Instead of becoming a franchise or a sole proprietorship, Ritmo Latino joined T-Mobile’s premium retailer program “designed for businesspeople of the highest caliber,” according to a T-Mobile representative.

T-Mobile USA Inc., based in Bellevue, Wash., saw Ritmo Latino’s president David Massry as “an ideal partner” to help it court Hispanic consumers, the spokeswoman said.

Ritmo Latino’s Sacramento store, which opened Dec. 10, and its other locations offer the same products and services of a T-Mobile company-owned store. The stores offer bilingual services and are located in areas where more than half of households speak Spanish at home.

Tire store opens in West Sac

America’s Tire has opened its ninth store in the region, in the IKEA-anchored center in West Sacramento.

The store, which opened Dec. 3 and with a grand opening in late January, employs eight workers.

Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Discount Tire Co. operates more than 750 stores, including 122 stores in California under the America’s Tire banner.

Some retail centers being bought and sold

As the Business Journal wrote last summer, few shopping centers in the region — in good or bad financial shape — have been trading hands over the past two years because sellers hadn’t lowered their expectations amid the stagnant economy.

But the Sacramento team of retail real estate brokerage Retail West has been able to shake loose some deals, including outside the region. Brokers Jon Gianulias, John DuBois and Mark Denholm negotiated the Dec. 18 sale in Porterville in Tulare County of an 81,000-square-foot shopping center anchored by a new Vallarta supermarket.

The sale represented the sixth of a grocery-anchored center for Retail West in 2009, and the ninth retail investment sale for last year. Retail West has offices in Sacramento and San Francisco.

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