The British are coming!

Finally.

Four years after announcing plans to enter the Sacramento market, UK-based Tesco PLC is bringing its Fresh & Easy grocery store concept to the capital city.

A groundbreaking is set for next Wednesday at a future store site at 34th and Broadway in the city's Oak Park neighborhood.

Another Sacramento store already is under construction, says company spokesman Brendan Wonnacott, but he's not revealing its location.

That tidbit – and plans for numerous other stores – will likely be disclosed at the Aug. 31 Oak Park groundbreaking event, to be attended by Mayor Kevin Johnson and City Council members.

The company has opened 127 "neighborhood markets" since starting its U.S. invasion in November 2007 but has been slow to move into Northern California.

Surprisingly slow, says commercial real estate analyst Garrick Brown, considering competitive factors and the rents the company has been paying on numerous sites it's locked down.

"Frankly, I'm astounded by how they've dragged their feet," says Brown, research director at Cassidy Turley BT Commercial. "Especially when they've known that Wal-Mart has been making moves" to open its own brand of small, grocery-only outlets.

Naming rites

An odd sight greets those passing by the Holiday Inn Northeast off I-80 at Madison Avenue: tarps near the top of the building covering up the hotel's signage.

The property is about to become a Crowne Plaza, a more upscale brand, following a $7 million remodel.

But the hotel's Southern California owners can't use the new name – or show off their new Crowne Plaza signs – until the improvements are OK'd by officials with InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns both the Holiday Inn and Crown Plaza "flags."

Thus the tarps.

InterContinental officials are due for a visit in a few weeks to do a final inspection of the remodel. In the meantime, says hotel sales director Brad Ross, it's sort of a Catch-22.

"We need the signs on (the building) to have them sign off on the improvements," he says. "But we can't show them until they sign off."

Not so fast

Here's the latest on plans to make a movie about the 1991 hostage ordeal at a south Sacramento Good Guys store.

Filming has been put off until next year, producer Matthew Barry tells us. He didn't want production to run into the holiday season. Besides, he says, "a lot more actors will be available" after the New Year.

Still committed for one lead role is Kurt Russell, Barry says.

Odds are the film will be shot out of state, where greater tax incentives are available.

'Most wanted' building

A couple of Sacramento real estate agents have completed a hush-hush deal – the sale of an FBI facility in Virginia.

Greg Margetich and Mike Cattuzzo specialize in the sale of buildings occupied by federal agencies.

Recently they heard the owner of a building used by the FBI in Stafford, Va., was looking to sell.

"I had a buyer and one thing led to another," say Margetich, who is associated with Cassidy Turley BT Commercial, as is Cattuzzo.

The buyer and seller of the building aren't being identified. Also undisclosed is the sales price. And especially confidential is the purpose of the 165,000-square-foot FBI facility, which is not far from the bureau's training center in Quantico.

Here is what can be said: It was a very nice piece of business for the local real estate team.

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Call The Bee's Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049.

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