One of the region's most intriguing restaurant sites could soon have a major new tenant after mostly sitting dark for the past five years.

We're talking about Beermann's Beerwerks, a Victorian-themed, 13,000-square-foot restaurant and brewery in downtown Lincoln.

TRI Commercial broker Tony Wood tells us a franchisee for a national chain is "seriously interested" in moving into the building, which still is filled with antiques, art and exotic light fixtures.

But the prospective tenant needs to find financing – and that might not be easy, says Wood, who has seen two previous lease deals at the site fall apart for lack of a loan.

Wood has been able to get one smaller tenant on the first floor of the building. Beer maker Knee Deep Brewing recently leased about 1,500 square feet and this week is producing its first batches of beer there.

Co-owner Jeremy Warren says the year-old business makes suds "that appeal to everybody" but also experiments with "completely crazy stuff that beer geeks" love.

Might the craft beer maker become an on-site provider for the restaurant that's hoping to take over the rest of the unusual Lincoln building?

There's a "good chance" of that, Warren says.

Retail face-lift

A "night and day" transformation is nearing at the Arden area's Pointe West Plaza shopping center following its $5 million-plus sale last week to Bay Area investors.

The new owners – Sansome Pacific Properties and Browman Development Group – will be installing new facades, improving signage and updating landscaping.

Trees already have been removed, giving passers-by a clearer view of the Kohl's- anchored center.

"Right now when you drive by, you don't think about it," says Ariel Fox, part of a team of Retail West brokers who are marketing the property for the new owners. "With the changes, you won't be able to not think about it."

She says the transformation will help make Pointe West – across from Arden Fair mall – the area's "dominant Class A power center."

The new owners acquired about 77,000 square feet feet of space, including a vacant Circuit City site and space now occupied by Petco and the Luau Garden eatery.

The Kohl's and a vacant Room Source space are not included in the deal.

The buyers plan to relocate Petco and Luau and bring in new retailers at the three available spots.

Says Fox, "We're literally two deep or more" with tenants interested in each of the spaces.

In good company

Sacramento actor Jason Kuykendall found himself at the unlikeliest of places last weekend: a national awards ceremony in San Diego honoring the best in TV commercials.

Kuykendall and his actress wife, Elisabeth Nunziato, moonlight making corporate videos.

One of their jobs, a 90-second PSA spelling out the need for more interpreters, took top honors at the local ADDY Awards competition several months ago. Then it won a regional contest.

And on Saturday it received a silver award at the national show.

Kuykendall, who made the spot for pennies, got to rub shoulders with producers of some of the best-known and most expensive ads of the year: including the folks who made the Allstate "mayhem" spots and the Old Spice ads featuring buff actor Isaiah Mustafa.

The Sacramentan's work – showing a frantic woman walking into an emergency room where everyone is speaking an unintelligible language – came in second in the PSA category to a haunting clip about domestic violence.

Kuykendall was thrilled to even be in the running.

"I was just completely amazed," he says, "that I was anywhere near the joint."

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