IN THIS ISSUE...

  

EGEDC Welcomes New Board Directors, Looks Forward to New Economic Growth
The Elk Grove Economic Development Corporation welcomes two new appointments to its Board of Directors as the City continues to move forward and prosper, embracing major growth developments.

Popular Ice Cream Business Expands to Elk Grove

Leatherby's Family Creamery, a much-loved regional favorite, will open a new location in Elk Grove in early 2012. David Leatherby, Jr. explains why Elk Grove is the perfect location to expand his family's flourishing business.

Think, Shop, Live Elk Grove for the Holidays!
The consumer education program "Think, Shop, Live Elk Grove" completed the Holiday Shop Elk Grove program, an effort to drive traffic to local businesses.

 

News from the EGEDC 

• Business License Report Online--See Who Else Has "Opened Up to Elk Grove"
• Online Plan Reviews Streamlined
• Have Questions? Free Consulting From the Small Business Development Center Available!

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EGEDC Welcomes New Board Directors, Looks Forward to New Economic Growth      

The Elk Grove Economic Development Corporation welcomes two new appointments to its Board of Directors, Erin MacEneaney and Nancy Milton.

Erin MacEneaney has been with Methodist Hospital since August 2009, first as Communication Specialist and now as Director of Provider Relations. MacEneaney is currently on the Leadership Sacramento Alumni Board (Metro Chamber) and is active in the Elk Grove community through her work at Mercy's Methodist Hospital, a Chamber premier partner and participant of many of their events.

"I am extremely excited to continue the partnership between Methodist Hospital and the Elk Grove Economic Development Corporation, said MacEneaney. "I look forward to building new business partnerships in the Elk Grove community."

Nancy Milton has been a mediator since 1991 and an attorney since 1994 in various capacities and practices. In 2006, Milton opened "Progress Mediation," a private practice in Elk Grove, and works with families and couples in the area of Family Law Mediation and Elder Mediation. Milton will also be President of the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce starting in 2012 and is also active in the Laguna Sunrise Rotary Club and Business Network International (BNI).

"I'm honored to be on the EGEDC board, and I'm looking forward to assisting the Elk Grove business community to bring in new business, increase the productivity of current business, and support the economic development of Elk Grove," said Milton. "I feel very optimistic about Elk Grove's future and the state of business and how that will grow."

"We're pleased to have both Erin MacEneaney and Nancy Milton join the Board of Directors, said EGEDC Board Chairperson, Deborah Travis. "They each bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to our organization and we are confident they will contribute to our growing organization."

Founded in 2007, the EGEDC--in partnership with the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce and the City of Elk Grove--works toward the goal of bringing jobs to Elk Grove by helping to streamline the process for existing businesses and foster growth in the City's employment opportunities and economic vitality.  This year alone, Elk Grove has enjoyed major developments in growth as the city continues to move forward and prosper.

"Elk Grove is seeing an increase in business activity and we're excited about business expansion and job creation," added EGEDC Interim Executive Director, Angela Perry. "Through our partnership with both the City and Chamber of Commerce, we can further strengthen our efforts to spread the word about Elk Grove and its benefits and continue to support existing businesses. The EGEDC looks forward to guiding future Elk Grove businesses through difficult issues presented by this challenging economy."

In August the California Correctional Health Care Services announced that its new headquarters will be located in Elk Grove, bringing with it 1,500 employees and generating up to an estimated $4 million dollars in economic benefit to the City. The EGEDC participated in the City of Elk Grove's State Office Ad Hoc Committee tasked with attracting state agencies to Elk Grove.

In March, the city celebrated the groundbreaking of the new Mercy Medical Plaza. This state-of-the-art 65,000sf, $30 million facility will create more than 250 new jobs in Elk Grove. Kaiser Permanente recently completed not only a five-year, $300 million expansion of its South Sacramento Medical Center, but also completed its Promenade Medical Offices, the health-care system's newest medical facility in Northern California. This summer, Sutter Health broke ground on the $10.8 million Sutter Elk Grove Surgery Center.

Demand for new executive custom homes saw a rise as Elk Grove welcomed worldwide custom homebuilder, G.J. Gardner Homes. Within a week of launching its Elk Grove website, the company had two requests for custom-built houses. G.J. Gardner is also currently developing Silvergates Estates in Elk Grove with home sizes varying between approximately 3,000sf to 4,500sf.

Elk Grove-based Frontier Communications Corporation announced this year that it tripled in size after the acquisition of Verizon wireline operations. Frontier Communications is one of the largest employers in Elk Grove, and last year completed a $1.3 million upgrade to a state-of-the-art network.

In addition to small businesses locating and expanding in Elk Grove, Anna's Linens, buybuy Baby, Carters, TGI Friday's are among the many large retail chains that have located and expanded here as well.

"The EGEDC is pleased with the growing interest in small and medium-sized businesses who want to expand or relocate to the city," added Travis. "As a number of new businesses show interest in the area, we will keep looking for ways to encourage their move to Elk Grove and contribute to the vitality of Elk Grove's economy."

For more information, please contact the EGEDC at (916) 691-3895, or send an email to info@elkgroveedc.org.

 

 

 

Popular Ice Cream Business Expands to Elk Grove 

Leatherby's Family Creamery, a much-loved regional favorite, will open a new location in Elk Grove in early 2012. David Leatherby, Jr. explains why Elk Grove is the perfect location to expand his family's flourishing business.

"We are a multi-generational business started by my grandfather, my father and myself, and we're coming up on our 30th anniversary in 2012. Our first location was in Sacramento where it still stands today. In the mid-80s we opened approximately 30 Leatherby's franchises in six states. We sold the franchise company in the late 80s and kept only two ice cream parlors in Sacramento. Now my children and my brother's children want to get involved and help run the business so we decided to look for a new location to expand. One of the areas that we get the most number of requests for is Elk Grove. Literally, almost not a day goes by that we don't have someone come into our business and ask, "When are you going to open in Elk Grove?"

"People usually don't eat ice cream every day, although we'd like them too! We needed to draw from a broad area and have certain demographics to support an ice cream parlor. There aren't very many 6,000sf ice cream parlors around! Our competitors have small spaces and are more of a takeout type business, where we have an extended menu with sandwiches, soup and salads in addition to the ice cream, and we make everything on premise. One of the things we were hoping to find in a location was a former restaurant that might have some of the equipment and fixtures and things like that. We found a former bar and grill facility and it was perfect!

"One of the factors that helped us choose this location was Sutter Health's plans to open a 150 bed hospital right next door to the building we're going to be in. There is also all the other medical expansion going on nearby, and there's a movie theatre right down the street. All the city offices are in walking distance from here as well. The California Correctional Health Care Services will be putting in a state office headquarters soon and we share a parking lot with them. We felt this area on Laguna Boulevard was the place to be with so many restaurants up and down the street. There's very little competition for us in this area. With all these new entities coming in nearby, we felt it was a perfect hub for us!

"We established our business to be a gathering place for the community. At almost any time you can walk in with 30, 40, 50 people or more in a group and be seated within five minutes. We designed our ice cream parlors to accommodate these big groups immediately. We looked at Elk Grove's demographics and they were perfect for us - nine high schools and so many families with children, and outdoor events, sports teams, churches and all those things were we draw our business from. We have such a broad cross-section of people, young and old alike, and Elk Grove's family-friendly environment seems to be a perfect fit for us!"

 

Think, Shop, Live Elk Grove for the Holidays!

The consumer education program "Think, Shop, Live Elk Grove" completed the Holiday Shop Elk Grove program, an effort to drive traffic to local businesses.

The "Think, Shop, Live Elk Grove" Holiday Campaign came to a end giving away over 75 prizes and announcing Elk Grove resident and retiree; Randy Garrett as the winner of the $2,000 cash giveaway.

Over 75 businesses in Elk Grove participated in the program emphasizing the important message of shopping locally. Businesses that participated in this program offered sidewalk sales, demonstrations, free giveaways, activities for kids and families, and a free "shopper shuttle" service was provided to tour local retail sites.

For more information about the Holiday Shop Elk Grove program, click here or contact the EGEDC at info@elkgroveedc.org or (916) 691-3895.