The first flights will take off Oct. 6 from Sacramento International Airport's nearly $1.1 billion Central Terminal B complex, officials announced Friday at the California State Fair. The airport expansion, dubbed “The Big Build,” was initially budgeted at $1.27 billion. It will replace a 44-year-old, far smaller terminal and will be completed seven months ahead of the originally scheduled opening. The complex was expected to start operating in March of 2012 when construction began in 2008. Hard economic times led Sacramento County Airport System officials to scrap plans for an airport hotel and a new parking garage. Airport officials chose an early October opening date so the new termi

Retail space on a prime Midtown corner is getting a lot of attention from restaurateurs after Spin Burger Bar suddenly closed there earlier this month. On Thursday, Rocklin resident Paul Singh toured the 2,800-square-foot store, where he and partners in Monsoon Indian Bar & Grill of Toronto are considering opening an Indian restaurant and bar by the same name. Many other restaurant owners have already checked out the space at 1020 16th St. Spin Burger's owner, SRO Inc., closed the restaurant's doors July 5, said commercial real estate broker Bobby Rich with Retail West. The Haines brothers, who own 33rd Street Bistro and several other area restaurants under SRO, converted a Bistro 33 at

The arena campaign committee, Think BIG Sacramento, hosted a four-county bus tour Thursday to spread the message that a new sports and entertainment facility will benefit not just the city of Sacramento but the entire region. The group released a "Capitol Corridor Impact Report" showing 55 percent of the people going to basketball games and other events at the Sacramento Kings' current facility come from outside Sacramento County. And almost 75 percent live outside the city, committee Executive Director Chris Lehane said Thursday at a press conference in El Dorado Hills. The report was compiled using three years' statistics from the National Basketball Association. Actual numbers of aren

Sacramento officials believe a new arena can be integrated with a future regional transit center in the historic downtown railyards – making this one of the country's most eco-friendly sports and entertainment facilities, Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said Tuesday. At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, Dangberg gave council members a status report nearly halfway into a 100-day technical review of a proposed arena. The $387 million project is on an expedited schedule to be in operation by May 2015. One of the most critical issues being reviewed is the need to coordinate construction of an arena with the previously planned transit center. Both structures would be built on a site

Biba Restaurant reopened Tuesday with a soft new look after a remodel to celebrate its 25th anniversary in Midtown. Sacramento restaurateur, TV show host and cookbook author Biba Caggiano added a new color palette and made other changes at her namesake Italian eatery. The restaurant at 2801 Capitol Ave. was closed July 3 - Monday to allow work on the its two dining rooms. The makeover was done in time to mark a quarter-century in business next month. "Just like a beautiful woman, you don't stay beautiful forever unless you do something," Caggiano said during the lunch hour Tuesday. "This place needed something: color, other things. I'm very, very, very happy." Both rooms opened Aug. 6,