Sacramento Blogs

Virgin America Inc. planes took off for the first time Wednesday, marking the startup’s entry into the competitive U.S. airline business.

British billionaire Richard Branson, the airline’s owner and founder, was aboard Virgin America’s first flight from New York City to San Francisco’s airport.  Local leaders such as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom were part of festivities at SFO, which will be the main operations hub for the new carrier.

The United States airline industry has underwent many changes in the time it took Virgin America to reach its debut flight. Low-cost carriers like Southwest and JetBlue, once the darlings of the industry, are throttling back growth plans amid high fuel prices and other cost pressures. Southwest said it is offering buyouts to 25 percent of its employees to help cut costs.

SureWest Communications‘ income gained seven percent in the second quarter, primarily on gains in broadband revenue.

The Roseville communications company earned $1,500,000 in the second quarter ended June 30, a seven percent increase over the $1,400,000 the company earned during the second quarter 2006. Earnings per share beat expectations at 10 cents per share. Analysts had expected 8 cents per share.

Frontier Airlines has expanded its service between Sacramento to Mexico service with non-stop flights from to and from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

The Sacramento to Puerto Vallarta flights will run four days a week from Sacramento International Airport starting Dec. 15, 2007  and will be operated by Republic Airlines.

Denver-based Frontier Airlines currently flies non-stop from Sacramento to Cabo San Lucas.

California’s top financial regulator is calling on California mortgage and financial companies that hold mortgages on foreclosed property to maintain pools and ponds to stop the spread of West Nile virus.

Thousands of mosquitoes can breed from a small puddle of stagnant water. A pool of a vacant foreclosed home starts going stagnant after a month, and can breed swarms of mosquitoes.

With waves of foreclosures hitting California, the California Department of Financial Institutions wants to make sure pools and water features don’t contribute to a higher than usual season of West Nile.

Two local Sacramento shopping centers have been sold as part of Kimco Realty Corp.’s sell-off of some of the properties it acquired in a merger last year with Pan Pacific Retail Properties Inc.

Kimco  has sold the K-Mart shopping center (132,630 square feet) at 5200 Stockton Blvd. and the Glenbrook Shopping Center (69,230 square feet) at 8700 La Riviera Drive to Doerken Properties Inc., a Southern California real estate investment company that already had a presence in Sacramento.  CB Richard Ellis brokered the sale.

CB Richard Ellis has one more to sell in Greater Sacramento — the FoodMaxx anchored Elverta Crossing shopping center, of which almost 120,000 square feet is up for sale.

Advertising revenue at The McClatchy Co. (owners of the SacramentoBee) dropped almost ten percent in the second quarter of 2007 compared to the previous year, led by a 19 percent decline in real estate advertising.

Ad revenue dropped 15 percent in California and 21 percent in Florida.

The company also said it would pay down debt by as much as $700 million over the next 18 months through cash flow and sale of assets. McClatchy’s stock has been heavily pounded by investors, caught between an industry-wide revenue slump and a high debt load from last year’s acquisition of Knight-Ridder Inc.

Total revenue for McClatchy declined 8.3 percent to $580,000,000 in the second quarter of 2007 from $632,000,000 in the previous years’ quarter.

Sacramento’s Lyon Real Estate has said it plans to significantly reduce its advertising with The Sacramento Bee, saying that national statistics show four of every five homebuyers use the Internet in some way to find their homes.

Lyon’s contract with the Sacramento Bee is worth more than $1 million per year according to Michael Lyon.

The Sacramento Bee’s loss of a significant portion of the Lyon contract would be a blow to a company already suffering from decreasing real estate ad revenue.

Lyon’s reduction of newspaper advertising represents a continuing shift in the traditional manner of selling homes. Where homebuyers once leafed through the pages of a Sunday newspaper cluttered with ads, now they can search the Web anytime, finding houses that better fit their needs.

Nordstrom Inc. said it is selling its Faconnable brand for $210 million to M1 Group of Lebanon.

Nordstrom announced in February that it was considering putting the brand up for sale. It bought the French clothing design firm in September 2000 for $169 million.

As part of the deal, Nordstrom said it will continue to buy Faconnable products for the next three years and will continue selling the brand in its stores. Nordstrom has sold products from the 57-year-old French company since 1989.

Nordstrom has two stores in Greater Sacramento; in Arden Fair and the Roseville Galleria .

Bank of America is increasing its automated teller machine fees at its banks to non-customers from $2.00 to $3.00.

The increase also doesn’t apply to ATMs at off-site locations, such as convenience stores, airports and malls.

Mortgage rates dropped slightly this week on lower bond yields, Freddie Mac said Thursday.

The mortgage lender said 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.68 percent this week, down from 6.69 last week. Last year, 30-year FRMs averaged 6.63 percent. One-year adjustable rate mortgages averaged 5.59 percent this week, down from 5.69 percent last week. Last year, 1-year ARMs averaged 5.69 percent.

Lower interest rates could help stimulate the Sacramento real estate market.