A high quality of life, affordable real estate and plentiful skilled labor are some of the reasons why companies are deciding to locate their headquarters operations in the Sacramento metro.
Ranked by Business 2.0 as the 11th of 61 metro areas most likely to become “boom towns” during the next four years, the population is already booming.
With a dramatic rise in population, the demand for homes continues to rise.
KB Home moved its North Bay headquarters to a Sacramento location in order to serve its growing business in the region. The company moved its 185 employees into a 40,000 square foot facility last year and created 50 additional jobs.
“It makes sense for KB Home to move its North Bay headquarters to a Sacramento location in order to serve and meet the demands of that market better, as well as to expand our market presence,” said Jefferey Fautt, president of KB Home’s North Bay division. “Our new location will provide an even better opportunity for us to serve our growing business in the region.”
KB Home is planning its first high-density communities in the metro. These communities are designed to meet the demand for homes closer to work centers while maximizing land use within urban areas in the face of land constraints and increasing prices.
The KB Home Studio will also move into an expanded 15,000 square foot space at the new Sacramento location.
KB Home Studio is a retail setting featuring thousands of design ideas and products to personalize a new home, with design consultants on hand to help buyers make the right decisions for their lifestyle.
Many design options at KB Studio can also be added onto the monthly mortgage, with the home of one’s dreams costing only a few more dollars per month.
The division expects to deliver twice as many homes during the next three years, with much of that increase coming from the Sacramento metro. In 2003, KB Home delivered more than 1,000 homes in the metro and opened five new communities.
Along with a growing population comes the need for more automobiles and automotive servicing companies.
Carquest, a nationally known automotive parts distribution company, announced plans in March to expand operations in the metro and open a new state-of-the-art distribution facility with future expansion capabilities in West Sacramento.
The new facility will allow Carquest/Golden State Supply to not only continue to service the Sacramento market, but also expand its service area to handle new business in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The facility could add as many as 125 to 130 employees to the existing 50 as the business grows. The target date for completion of the new facility is later this year.
After almost a year of consideration, the company’s decision to expand in the Sacramento metro was hailed as a victory by The Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization.
Because of increased activity in the Bay Area, Carquest seriously considered locations west of the metro. However, the company’s desire to retain its employees locally, combined with the assistance of a strong economic development and real estate support team, persuaded it to stay in Sacramento.
Producing a Qualified, Educated Work Force
In November, Universal Technical Institute Inc. (UTI), a trade school that specializes in auto technology, signed a deal to open a 22.5-acre undergraduate campus with about 110,000 square feet of classroom and lab space in the metro.
The project was highly competitive, with Sacramento competing with other metro areas inside and outside California. UTI, a publicly traded company based in Phoenix, is the second automotive repair school to come to the Sacramento metro during the past year.
The new campus will add to UTI’s eight existing campuses. UTI plans to bring in 2,000 students and a full-time staff of 100 to Sacramento.
The company has long targeted Sacramento because of the area’s strong car dealer demand, as well as the growing need for auto technicians in the industry.
DeVry University has also chosen to locate a facility in the metro. The DeVry University Center in Elk Grove will hire 12 to 15 employees initially, in addition to adjunct faculty, and have an initial capacity enrollment of 400 to 500 students.
The University Center will offer undergraduate degree programs, as well as graduate degree programs through the Keller Graduate School of Management in the fields of business, management and technology.
The Sacramento metro is a vibrant and expanding area, and DeVry executives expect to fill an important niche among educational institutions, said Jamie Kho, regional vice president of DeVry University and president of the university’s campus in Fremont.
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