North Bay Business Journal

BAY AREA — The Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved $44 million in grants, including $3.6 million for North Bay projects, through its Transportation for Livable Communities program to finance pedestrian, bicycle and streetscape improvements near public transit. The 22 projects approved for funding are being developed by community groups and local authorities. A local match of 20 percent is required.

NORTH BAY — The National Union of Healthcare Workers has petitioned for elections that would determine whether thousands of employees at Kaiser Permanente facilities could vote to join the upstart union or remain with the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West.

NORTH BAY – Movie Gallery Inc. is closing all its U.S. video and game rental stores, which includes six Hollywood Video and Game Crazy locations in the North Bay.

A number of the municipal water suppliers in Sonoma and Marin counties already have adopted a model water-efficient landscape ordinance developed by a working group led by Santa Rosa. The model ordinance was based on the statewide standard from the Water Conservation Landscaping Act, or Assembly Bill 1881, which took effect at the beginning of this year.

Mi Pueblo Foods opened its San Rafael store, renovated from a 36,000-square-foot shuttered Circuit City store, on Wednesday. … Rancho Mendoza Super Mercado is reworking 14,000 square feet of former high-technology development and furniture store space at 1201 Piner Road in northwest Santa Rosa to create a second location. … The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service last week expanded the critical habitat for the threatened California red-legged frog into six counties not covered by the 2006 ruling on habitat, including 21,814 acres along Mill Creek on the Mendocino Coast and two locations in Sonoma County, encompassing 1,564 acres in and around Annadel State Park east of Santa Rosa and 4,932 acres on Sonoma Mountain. … Ken Lafranchi of Santa Rosa-based Lafranchi Architecture and Development said the bulk of interest for the forthcoming remodel of the 2,400-square-foot Geyserville Post Office is coming from a group of boutique vintners interested in setting up a collective tasting room. … The Dutra Group’s proposal for an asphalt plant and aggregate distribution facility along the Petaluma River was postponed from March 16 to the May 11 Sonoma County Board of Supervisors meeting.

(Editor’s note: The Business Journal features profiles of North Bay construction projects that are complete or nearly so. Send details to jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or fax to 707-521-5292.)

The industrial markets of Napa and Solano counties are seeing a modest amount of demand as we head into 2010.

The Napa County retail shopping centers market ended 2009 with a vacancy of 3.9 percent, a slim decrease compared with 4.0 percent in 2008. The Solano County retail shopping centers market vacancy pushed into double-digits as it closed 2009 at 12.3 percent, compared with 7.2 percent at year-end 2008.

Assuming that historical indicators hold true, the recession is over, we are told, and the economy is starting to rebound at some level.

Meyer Corp.

SOLANO – Dr. Marilyn Hopkins, past dean of the College of Health and Human Services at California State University, Sacramento, has been brought on as the new provost and chief operating officer for Touro University California.

The Santa Rosa City Council voted 5-2 against a proposed Lowe’s Home Improvement store at an industrial site on Yolanda Avenue amid questions about the environmental impact of the project and the potential to hurt local business. At the Sept. 1 council hearing, several leaders of major businesses in the city advocated opposition to the proposal.

SAN RAFAEL – The San Rafael Planning Commission on Tuesday night rejected an appeal of an approved Mi Pueblo Food Center in a shuttered Circuit City store in the Canal area of the city.

NORTH BAY – Rising unemployment together with a struggling economy and a large number of foreclosed homes are driving down rents for apartments and income homes.

Kimco Realty Corp., one of the nation’s largest shopping center owners, sold a 66,000-square-foot shopping center in Vallejo to a Southern California investor for $12.9 million in what is thought to be the first such sale in Northern California this year.