Bob Shallit: Pet supply chain moving into Sacramento area

A fast-growing Central Valley pet supplier is making its first move into the Sacramento area, securing spots at two of developer Paul Petrovich's retail projects.

Pet Extreme, a Turlock-based firm with six stores, will take 18,000 square feet at Woodland's Gateway project and 5,300 at the slow-to-grow Stone Pointe center at Freeport Boulevard and Sutterville Road in Sacramento.

The 7-year-old company normally builds large outlets but was happy to take the smaller space at Stone Pointe, Petrovich says.

"They determined that the Curtis and Land Park area (has) the most underserved pet population in California and elected to downsize to be in the trade area," he says.

The outlet in Stone Pointe is set to open by Thanksgiving, joining a FedEx Kinko's there.

The Woodland opening is scheduled for May.

Petrovich says Pet Extreme is known for brightly colored stores, with "over-the-top" graphics and unusual, high-end merchandise.

Examples? Reptiles costing more than $1,000 each, he says. And 1,000-gallon fish tanks. Filled with sharks.

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Going Hollywood: Native son Matt Oates has found a buyer for the coming-of-age film he shot in Yuba City three years ago.

Weinstein Co., the independent studio behind "Derailed," "Sicko" and "Miss Potter" among others, has acquired the movie and is taking it straight to DVD, debuting it at Blockbuster stores "in large numbers" on Aug. 5, Oates says.

It's not completely the Hollywood fairy tale Oates envisioned for his film, about a group of twenty-somethings who return to their hometown for a friend's funeral.

He'd hoped for a big-screen release, of course. And he found he had to yield some artistic control.

His title, "Farewell Bender," was changed to "Wasted." And the music he planned was redone.

But he's hardly the first filmmaker to gripe about a studio. Bottom line: The L.A. resident has sold his first film (for an undisclosed amount) and is at work on other movie ventures.

Of his career progress, the 26-year-old says: "It's actually really cool."

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Starbucks watch: We have one final location to add to the list of local Starbucks stores targeted for closure.

It's the shop at 3620 N. Freeway Drive in Natomas, according to a complete list of doomed sites the company finally released late last week.

That one joins three other sites in Sacramento and one in Lincoln that we identified as headed for closure.

When exactly will the five local stores stop caffeinating their neighborhoods? That's unknown. Employees are still waiting for their 30-day layoff notices.

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Condo mentality: The owners of downtown's Marriott Residence Inn have found themselves with an unexpected challenge: unloading the 30 condo units sitting atop the 235-room hotel at 15th and L streets.

SoCal investor Warren Lortie struck a deal last year to buy all of the condo units – at a steep discount – with the idea of reselling them at a profit. Then the housing market collapsed and he asked out of the deal, says Tony Giannoni, the project's developer and a minority owner.

He says the three American Indian tribes that are the hotel's main owners are "stand-up people" who agreed to let Lortie out of the deal. "They said, 'We'll just go out and sell them ourselves,' " Giannoni says.

Those sales are progressing well enough, considering the market. Giannoni says 10 of the 30 condos have been sold, at prices ranging from just under $400,000 to close to $1 million. Three more are "in contract" prior to a sale and negotiations are under way with potential buyers on others.

Why the relatively positive sales results? A great location near dining and entertainment, Giannoni says.

And how is the hotel faring? Weekends are a struggle. But on many weekdays, the developer says, "you can't get a room."

About the writer:

• Reach Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/shallit.