The Beat, the spacious Sacramento record store beloved by music geeks, might need to move from its current site at 17th and J streets.

The store's lease expires next spring, and the 1920s building that houses the Beat is being marketed to other potential tenants.

Beat owner Rob Fauble said his business, which has weathered the collapse of CD sales and the closure of many record stores over the past decade, will survive regardless, even if it's in another space.

Fauble would prefer to stay in the large-windowed, brick building at 1700 J St., owned by members of the Soehren family of Sacramento.

"Our landlord has been really generous with us," Fauble said. That generosity has included a rent reduction under the store's current five-year lease, Fauble said. During those five years, Fauble was developing new ways to sustain his business in a changing music market.

Fauble will consider other spaces, he said, but in a "best-case scenario" would sign a new lease on the J Street building the Beat has occupied since 1994. In the meantime, Colliers International brokers David Herrera and Mark Engemann are marketing the building.

"There is a significant amount of interest" in the building, Herrera said. That interest is inspired, he said, by the building's midtown location, 12,000 square feet of space, open floor plan, abundant windows and "iconic architectural features" such as exposed trusses.

The Beat marks 30 years in business this year. Fauble opened first at H and 56th streets, near Sacramento State, then moved to a different east Sacramento location before the move to J Street.

Long known for its extensive selection of vinyl and imported and rare items, the Beat has stayed in business even as sales of new CDs have plummeted and other retail music outlets, such as the Tower Records chain, shut down.

"We have always sold records, and we (still) sell records, and it coincided with records having made a small comeback," Fauble said of a growth in vinyl sales over the past few years.

Internet streaming and downloads have stolen a big chunk of the Beat's new-CD business. But the record shop also benefits from the popularity of Internet shopping.

The Beat offers cash for used vinyl, CDs, DVDs and cassettes, and sells some of those items on sites such as Ebay and Amazon.

"We are aggressively buying for Internet sales," Fauble said. "We have good, clean used merchandise, and we can decide whether it is more advantageous to sell it in the store or on the Internet."

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