A trendy concept in dining is making its way to Midtown Sacramento, with a Los Angeles-based group planning the neighborhood's first ghost kitchen.
Maker Kitchens is planning 1829 22nd St. as its first Sacramento location, after closing escrow on the building in late April for $2.25 million.
"This concept is growing really fast," said Bennett Goldberg, a partner in Maker Kitchens. "The demographic we steer toward is in Midtown, where you have young people with disposable income, and they order food on their phones."
Tentatively called Midtown Kitchens, the location on 22nd Street will have 21 individual kitchens, as well as communal refrigerator, freezer and dry storage space. Construction on the 11,200-square-foot building could start as soon as summer, with a goal of opening in early 2023, Goldberg said.
Other Maker Kitchens locations in Los Angeles and San Diego — with more coming in cities like Denver, Las Vegas and Phoenix — often have tenants such as bakeries, meal prep companies and consumer packaged foods sold in stores.
A vegan dog treat business is even a tenant at one, Goldberg said. "I'm always amazed by what we get," he said.
Typically, about 40% of Maker Kitchens' tenants are delivery-only restaurants. Goldberg said he expects those kinds of businesses and existing restaurants trying new concepts or more delivery options to make up the bulk of the tenants in Sacramento, at least to start.
Marketing doesn't typically begin until about 10 weeks into construction, but new locations are often 10% to 20% pre-leased just by existing tenants expanding into new locations and markets, Goldberg said. He wouldn't disclose the cost of outfitting a new location, but said the company prides itself on being a more affordable option for kitchen rentals.
The building Maker Kitchens bought in Midtown is ideal because it has good ingress and egress for delivery drivers, Goldberg said. That avoids a ghost kitchen being a nuisance to residential neighbors.
Dating to 1945, 1829 22nd St. was an industrial building on the former plant for The Sacramento Bee, which has since relocated to East Sacramento.
Shopoff Realty Investments, which owns much of the rest of the former newspaper offices and printing plants, was the seller. A message left with the Irvine-based company Wednesday was not returned.
Once it opens, the Midtown site will have a pickup window for people who want to buy directly, but no on-site dining areas. Because many tenants at other Maker Kitchen locations often try out multiple concepts in one kitchen, it's possible the one in Sacramento will have 30 to 40 concepts housed under one roof, Goldberg said.
Bacon Commercial Real Estate brokered the sale.
