Lots of food and drink will drive you to the Pour House.

That's the hope, at least, for the owners of a new restaurant and bar by that name, opening in 60 days at the former Whiskey Wild Saloon site at 19th and Q streets.

In this economy, that punny name was the "perfect fit," says Trevor Shults, one of five partners behind the new venture.

Shults, also a partner in midtown's sports- and beach-themed Barwest, says this will be an "Old World restaurant and bar with a new age twist."

The plan is to serve sandwiches and burgers at lunchtime, and dinners and drinks in the evening with an eye on creating a neighborhood vibe that's fun but more sedate than the often-raucous Whiskey Wild, which closed in mid-2009 little more than a year after it opened.

The partners plan minor cosmetic changes, including restoring the building's exterior brick to its original hue and softening the concrete and metal interior by adding booths and other wood touches.

Shults says he considered buying the building after Wells Fargo Bank foreclosed on it in 2010. Now he's happy to lease from restaurateur Kurt Spataro, who ended up acquiring the place.

Also involved in the new business are Shults' Barwest partner Todd Zancaner, nightclub owner Bob Simpson, marketer Benjamin Rozenberg and nutrition shop owner Don Arnold.

Blood and money

A South Korean firm has selected Sacramento as the site for what it's calling Northern California's only blood plasma collection center.

Green Cross Corp. is setting up the center in March at a 10,000-square-foot building on Florin Road, near Highway 99, that originally served as a headquarters for the California State Automobile Association. Another plasma firm, Bio-Medics, ran a collection operation at the same site for six months before going out of business in 2009.

Casandra Elliott, who worked for the earlier, short-lived plasma business, says she lobbied Green Cross to open up a facility here. She'll manage the operation.

"It seemed like a good way to boost the economy," Elliott says, noting that the center eventually will create jobs for 40 staffers and generate income for people who make regular plasma donations.

Donors can make between $25 and $35 per visit by showing up, having blood siphoned off and then waiting while plasma is removed before the blood is returned to their bodies.

Plasma, which is used for making vaccines and medicines, regenerates every 48 hours, allowing people to make donations as often as twice a week.

Revolving door

Progressive Insurance has opted to leave one of two large Rancho Cordova buildings it now uses for call center operations.

But it's not too big a setback for ING Clarion, the institutional owner of the 80,000-square-foot building at 10940 White Rock Road.

Its brokers already have signed up a new tenant – Wells Fargo Insurance Services – to take up most of the space Progressive is vacating next month as part of a local consolidation.

The new tenant should be in the building by summer, says Craig Brinitzer, the Cornish & Carey Commercial broker who worked with colleague Todd Eschelman to attract a new tenant.

"To be able to stabilize your building that quickly, with the high vacancies in that area, that's pretty significant," he says.

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Reach Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049.

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