Business Parks

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Uphill Struggles

By Sukhjit Purewal

For Sammy Cemo, the original developer and still part owner of the El Dorado Hills Business Park, it hasn’t always been easy doing business in the hills.
     Today, there are about 400 companies in the 887-acre park, with about 4 million square feet of building space. And although the location has lured some businesses away from the Bay Area, Cemo says it’s been a slower migration then he anticipated.

Upscale Venue
Still, for about the past decade, the business park has enjoyed a certain cachet as a choice location for local and transplanted entrepreneurs and their smaller-sized businesses, thanks to comparatively low rents.
     Adding to the appeal, Cemo says, is Serrano, the gated residential community with its country club and golf course.
     And thanks to the shopping options and other enterprises that have emerged in the City Center development, including a movie theater and a planned Target store, life in the foothills isn’t as spartan as it once was for the business community.

Downhill Moving Up
But the climate may be a little more promising along Highway 50 in Rancho Cordova, according to some analysts. Long a magnet for large businesses, Rancho Cordova is now in competition as the place to locate, even for smaller-sized businesses.
     “There are simply better opportunities to strike a better deal,” says Dennis Vollman, broker and owner of The Vollman Company of Sacramento.

Lower Rent, Affordable Housing
Though roughly 100,000 square feet of small-office space remains for rent in El Dorado Hills, more than three times that amount is available in Rancho Cordova, Vollman says. (El Dorado Hills has a vacancy rate of 12 percent; “not low,” according to Cemo.)
     Rents are as low $2 a square foot, 25 cents to 35 cents cheaper than in other business parks, says Ken Turton, senior vice president with CB Richard Ellis in Sacramento.
     And some companies are realizing that for employees who don’t rake in executive salaries, there is more affordable housing to be had closer to Rancho Cordova than in the foothills . In fact, Rancho Cordova is receiving an infusion of new housing in the Anatolia project, where more than 2,000 new homes are to be built by 11 different developers.

To Each Its Own
Turton says he could see business parks in the Sacramento area, including El Dorado Hills, experiencing short-term vacancies because of all the focus being garnered by Rancho Cordova. Vollman, though, says he doesn’t see a mass business exodus from El Dorado Hills in favor of Rancho Cordova. Companies located in El Dorado Hills, he says, are usually smaller, have more of a high-tech flavor and aren’t as beholden to the transportation corridor.

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