First American Core-Logic has concluded its yearlong search for expanded local digs, signing one of the year's biggest leases.

Industry sources say the company, which makes mortgage risk-assessment software, recently signed a deal to occupy a two-story, 54,000-square-foot building in the Capital Center office complex in Rancho Cordova.

Company officials aren't commenting on the deal. But we hear they've agreed to pay about $1.70 per square foot – a bit below current market rates – for the Class B space at 11010 White Rock Road owned by DRA Advisors of New York.

The company, created in a February 2007 merger of Sacramento startup Core-Logic Systems with First American Corp. of Irvine, reportedly was considering three sites before opting for the White Rock location for its 200 or so employees. The Sacramento offices are currently located nearby, on Old Placerville Road.

The deal, brokered by Cornish & Carey Commercial, is one of the largest in a year with relatively few blockbuster real estate moves.

The biggest?

A state deal in June to lease 285,000 square feet in the area near Richards Boulevard north of downtown for the California Highway Patrol's headquarters.

Cutting back

The First American deal notwithstanding, these are tough times for the commercial real estate business.

The latest sign of weakness: San Francisco-based regional brokerage TRI Commercial is closing its Sacramento office as of Friday and consolidating local operations in Roseville.

It's seeking a tenant to sublease the 5,000 square feet of space it has at 1545 River Park Drive, according to broker sources.

In response to our questions, TRI issued a press release calling the closure a "strategic move" based on prospects for diminished revenue next year.

The release states that the 12 agents in the Sacramento office will be invited to meet with managers in Roseville, but it doesn't say how many – if any – will be offered jobs. The release says that support staff will stay on the job.

Doily doodling

At downtown's new Citizen Hotel, cocktail napkins are used for the regular purposes.

But a select few are doing double duty as decorations.

The creative team at Citizen operator Joie de Vivre Hotels figured it would be cool to get visiting celebs to write short notes on napkins, frame them and display them on the walls of the new hotel's mezzanine-level bar, called "Scandal."

The notes, which start hitting Scandal's walls next week, play on the idea that a lot of important information in Sacramento is shared on bar napkins, says JDV chief Chip Conley. Like business plans. And legislation.

And most certainly phone numbers. "The best of those are written with lipstick," Conley says.

So far, napkin notes and signatures have come in from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, first lady Maria Shriver, the Maloof brothers, River Cats owner Art Savage, former TV anchor Stan Atkinson and PR doyenne Jean Runyon.

Atkinson's blurb is perfect for a bar that aspires to be a backroom deal spot: "Scandals? Me? Well let me tell you … " Runyon's missive is practical. She writes: "Where's the bathroom?"

Back to the future

Speaking of Runyon, her firm has just won a plum job: handling advertising for the California State Fair for the next three years.

The ad and PR firm, Runyon, Saltzman & Einhorn, beat out two other local companies – Glass McClure and Astone/Crocker/Flanagan – for the contract valued at about $1 million annually, says Erica Manuel, assistant GM with the fair.

Runyon partner Estelle Saltzman says winning the state fair business is a little like "coming home again."

The firm has worked for the fair "off and on" for the past three decades, she says.

The contract has a particularly special meaning for Saltzman. She got her first PR job in 1972 – writing State Fair press releases on a free-lance basis for Runyon, who then was with another firm.

"I met Jean then and I haven't looked back," she says.

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