Downtown Businesses, Homeowners Excited About Arena Potential
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - The thought of an arena being built in the downtown railyards is a making a lot of business owners there excited about the future.
"We need it. We need it bad," said Dean Ingier, who manages the Best Western hotel near the proposed arena site.
Ingier wasn't sure if the hotelwould survive much longer.
"This whole area has been depressed for quite some time," he said.
But barely 24 hours since Mayor Kevin Johnson announced the framework of an arena deal was agreed upon, Ingier says he's already getting calls from construction workers looking to book rooms, and he expects business to start booming.
"It would be a huge deal for this area, especially right here in our area, we're in very close proximity to it," he said.
Johnson has said building a new downtown sports and entertainment complex would add 4,000 jobs to the local economy.
Next door to the hotel is a Mexican restaurant called El Coyote Junction, where Elivira Valencia owns another struggling business. But she thinks her investment will finally pay off if the arena is built - seven years after opening her restaurant near the railyards.
"I'm excited about the news," she told CBS13. "That was my hope, that we one day we have a lot of people coming through after the games and we'd be able to take care of the people who goes there."
Businesses here know how desperate times have been. Sekou Strivers opened his BBQ restaurant late last year, right across from The Rusty Duck, a Sacramento staple until it closed its doors in 2008.
Now, after news of the framework of a arena deal, his smile got a little bit bigger.
"It helps us out a whole lot man," he said. "God is good and he looked out for everybody."
