Paul Petrovich

Paul Petrovich is a major developer in the Sacramento and Davis area. He's the President of Petrovich Development Company, which the Sacramento Business Journal has ranked as the largest developer in the Sacramento region over the past two years and in the top five for the past six years. In this time the Business Journal has tracked more than $1 billion in completed projects by this firm. In 11 years, Petrovich has developed 30 projects totaling 4 million square feet.

Most of the properties are not sold, "because they are all extraordinary locations after they have been assembled and leased on a long-term basis," Petrovich says on his website. Petrovich developments are typically built with brick block, not stucco, which can clearly be seen at Oakshade Town Center, R Street Market - a Safeway anchored urban shopping center in downtown Sacramento with housing built above the retail space, Highland Crossing Shopping Center (another Safeway anchored project along with Longs Drug Store) in Roseville and in 10 other Rite Aid developments. Petrovich has built 14 stand alone and in-line drug stores for both Rite Aid and Walgreen's. He was the preferred developer for Rite Aid for nine years.

His local projects in Davis include Oakshade Town Center anchored by Safeway, OfficeMax and Rite Aid in south Davis. Petrovich sold Oakshade Town Center to Regency Centers in 2011 for $35 million. PDC also developed and owns Oakshade Commons, an 85,000 square foot mixed use project consisting of 42 two story town house units consisting of 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms primarily leased to students across the street from Oakshade Town Center. Other developments include Merryhill School adjacent to Oakshade Commons, the Rite Aid at Anderson and Russell across from the UC Davis campus. In the early 1980s, he was responsible for renovating University Mall converting what was Lawrence Department store into many smaller shops, some of which are still in existence. He also built and donated to the City of Davis a large parking lot adjacent to Merryhill School for use by visitors of Walnut Park. PDC has also constructed over 1,500 feet of class A bike paths and donated enough land to develop 15 units of affordable housing in south Davis at Cowell and Drummond. He also held an option to sublease the Ralph's former location at East 8th near Pole Line where he almost located Trader Joes. After Trader Joes turned it down, the property was relinquished back to Ralph's and it was subsequently leased to Dollar Tree, a use PDC was told was unacceptable by the neighbors during his control.

In Woodland, PDC is currently developing the 550,000 square foot Costco, Target, Best Buy, Michaels, Pet Extreme anchored power center at Interstate 5 and County Road 102, an auto mall adjacent to that project and redeveloping the entrance to downtown Woodland with a $7 million Rite Aid (which will replace a shuttered Shell gas station). PDC is also cleaning up the ground water pollution caused by the service station. At Third and Main in Downtown Woodland (also a contaminated site) he is endeavoring to develop a sit down movie theater to revitalize the historic downtown, something that has proven to work in other small downtowns such as Livermore, Vacaville, Lodi, Petaluma and Modesto. Also in Woodland, PDC is redeveloping another blighted corner with a Rite Aid on the opposite end of Woodland's Main street where abandoned warehouses and a used car dealer operated.

Another notable project being developed by Petrovich Development Company is the revitalization of the 72 acre former Union Pacific highly contaminated rail yard wedged between two historic upscale neighborhoods, Curtis Park and Land Park adjacent to Sacramento City College. This massive $200 million development is an endeavor to mitigate over 300,000 tons of contaminated soil of which 1,400 rail cars containing approximately 120,000 tons has been transported to Utah for safe disposal in a specially designed rubber lined pit. Ground water remediation is also part of the clean up with total clean up costs exceeding $40 million for this nationally recognized Brownfield. Upon approval and completion, the project is proposed to consist of 180,000 square feet of retail (including an upscale neighborhood serving shopping center and a dinner theater showing first run movies with upscale food and adult beverages in 40 seat home theater like auditoriums), 130 single family homes and 40 brownstone designed after those found the Washington DC/Georgetown neighborhoods. The project will also have its own 7 acre park with an amphitheater and sports courts.

Many of Petrovich's projects include what he refers to as Private Art in Public Places. These pieces are usually made by a Denver artist, Seann Guerro who builds sculptures of horses, cowboys, eagles and other interesting figures out of recycled chrome bumpers. Four projects of Petrovich's have Veteran memorials, some more dramatic than others. Oakshade Town Center in Davis has a small memorial in front of Dos Coyotes that was dedicated with full military honors performed by the VFW. The latest memorial constructed features an eternal flame and large stone obelisks etched with famous quotes at a cost exceeding $250,000. To view a photo montage of this memorial put together by one of the subcontractors who worked on the project go to http://www.photoshow.com/watch/mD5Ss8by

In 1997, Petrovich donated $250,000 to UCD for breast cancer research and became the angel investor in a start up biotech firm named SAGRES that opened its laboratory in Davis on the south end of Mace Ranch. The firm's goal was to map the human genome by reverse throughput technology using tumors from mice. The innovative process shortened the identification of the DNA makeup of tumors from one man/woman year to three weeks. The company was eventually bought out and merged with another biotech company for its technology in developing innovative drug therapy.

Like many large developers involved in major projects, Petrovich and his developments have been involved in several lawsuits:

• February 1999 — A group called Save Davis (basically two people) who planned to file suit against the proposed Ross center approved to be built by the City Council where Oakshade Commons is now located. The suit was never filed and the two people running the organization were allegedly using Oakshade Town Center's community room to carry on an illicit affair. The community room's use was then converted to a police substation which was later no longer desired by the Davis Police Department.
• September 1999 — Owners of Common Grounds sued Safeway and Petrovich for allowing a Starbucks kiosk to open inside the Safeway store, claiming that it violated their lease. The suit was found to be baseless and was dropped because Common Grounds lease clearly stated that Safeway is allowed to use their property for any lawful retail use. Additionally, Common Ground's lease specifically allowed Safeway and all anchors tenants in excess of 10,000 square feet to sell coffee. Common Grounds clearly understood these issues but tried to use public pressure to force Safeway to remove this service, something that is commonplace in almost all grocery stores today.
• October 1999 — Davis Footwear, sues Petrovich for misrepresenting Oakshade Town Center's intended clients (namely Starbucks, Dos Coyotes, and Baskin Robbins), who moved in after Davis Footwear despite the center having its major draws/anchors in place namely Safeway, Office Depot and Rite Aid consisting of 80,000 square feet. Davis Footwear closed a year after opening (one of only three businesses to fail in the first 10 years the center was open), forcing Davis Footwear to default on its lease payments. Oakshade offered to tear up the lease with no obligation to Davis Footwear when it noticed it was doing poorly after virtually all the tenants were open and then again after the business was closed. Davis Footwear declined and instead pursued Oakshade for damages. Oakshade counter-sued for breach of contract. In December 2001, the court threw Davis Footwear's suit out for lack of merit and ruled in favor of Petrovich. In January 2004, the total judgement of $158,549.42 was awarded against Hinesley by the Yolo County Superior Court and a lien was placed against his home. Davis Footwear then put up an inflammatory website at petrovichsucks.com and subsequently was forced to remove the site due to its inflammatory content. The website, now owned by Petrovich, explains the issues at length. The site, when operated by Davis Footwear, among other egregious content, identified Petrovich's personal residence with aerial and ground photos taken covertly in front of his house and also listed its address tacitly inviting danger to Petrovich, his wife and three children. Despite unending attempts to ruin Petrovich's reputation and business, after thoroughly defeating Davis Footwear, in lieu of foreclosing on Hinsley's house after six years of litigation, Petrovich allowed them to remain in the home and pay off his judgment over time. The case created new law in California. It set a new precedent where tenants can not wrongfully sue Landlords for lack of specific tenancy unless the lease states the tenancy is required as a condition of the lease.
• March 5, 2005 — Yolo County sues Woodland for approving Woodland Gateway for allegedly not filing proper environmental impact report. The county withdrew its suit since it lacked merit in January 2006 and the project was built without delay or further challenges.
• November 2005 — Petrovich puts up signs at two of his developments in Sacramento accusing contractor Walsh & Forster Inc. of construction defaults after failed attempts to cause them to fix residential floors that were 2.25" out of level in 10 linear feet involving 7,500 square feet of residential units built over retail shops in downtown Sacramento. Petrovich's claims were later proven to be true. The contractor complained to the city about the signs, who allowed Petrovich to keep the signs up. Petrovich said he put the signs up because Walsh and Forster said they admitted they constructed the project poorly, but had signed the contract using a shell corporation with almost an identical name with no assets. Walsh and Forster eventually paid Petrovich an undisclosed sum to rebuild the project. Walsh & Forster closed their business shortly thereafter in Sacramento relieving other developers of the same fate.

Several Petrovich Development projects have been awarded for their innovative design and due to their infill nature. One such award was a first ever given by the Heart and Lung Association for developing a project that epitomized smart growth - the aforemetioned R Street Market project in downtown Sacramento. Petrovich has also been awarded Comstock's Vanguard Award for innovative and smart growth development. Petrovich serves on the Board of Directors for Hemisphere's, a charitable foundation focused on helping disadvantaged children and women. He also serves on the finance committee for the Sacramento Newman Center as their development and financial advisor to build a new church and community center to help foster students of the Catholic faith attending Sacramento State University. Paul Petrovich graduate from UCD in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Managerial and Agricultural Economics. He was also the starting pitcher for UCD's varsity baseball team and turned down two opportunities to play professional baseball. He is married to his first wife of 23 years and lives in Sacramento with his three children.

2008-12-10 12:38:16   ATTENTION PAUL PETROVICH / PAUL S PETROVICH: use the talk page, it's at the top of the page. Communication is what sets us apart from savages. Blindly blanking will only result in people attempting to get you to participate... —StevenDaubert

2008-12-12 12:43:16   Wow! Based on the contents of this page, it appears that Paul Petrovitch is actually the second coming of Mahatma Ghandi, Franklin Roosevelt, and Jesus Christ all rolled into one. I was under the impression that he was a real estate developer. My bad. —aharjala

"People can do well by doing good" (Benjamin Franklin). Just because someone makes a good living in real estate, it does not mean they are bad people. Have you ever heard of an amoral teacher? Evangelist? Doctor? It matters not what the profession. You can have good and bad people doing great and horrible acts in all walks of life. Why can't someone in real estate use their ability to do good things and not "just" be a real estate developer? Open your mind "just" a little.

2013-10-30 10:25:59   Please change my contact info at the top of this page to: 825 K Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 916.442.4600

Thank you,

Paul —paulpetrovich