This story is part of our May 2026 issue. To read the print version, click here.



In 1923, the Public Market Building opened in downtown Sacramento
as a central gathering place for residents. The Beavis Meat
Company sold every kind and cut of meat; Durang & Schmidt
operated a beloved delicatessen along the east wall with cheeses
and salads, Bondi Fruit Company sold locally sourced fruit, while
the Charles Williams Haberdashery made custom suits and shirts.

Now more than 100 years later, the Sheraton Grand on J Street is
paying homage to this precursor to the shopping mall, designed by
famed architect Julia Morgan. Morgan designed Hearst Castle and
more than 700 other projects, including the Goethe House in
Sacramento. The 28-story luxury hotel, located in this historic
building, just concluded a multi-year, $35 million renovation
that preserves and honors its original purpose as the
103-year-old Public Market Building.

Since the building’s merchants sold everything from baked goods
to fresh produce, this is where electric refrigeration (of foods
and the indoor climate) was put to its first tests — and where
you could even buy your own refrigerator. Expansive steel girders
continue to run the length of the building, used by aerialists
who performed at the hotel’s grand reopening last month.

The Beavis Meat Co. was a major vendor when the site was a public
market from the 1920s-1970s.

“They also hung entire steers from ceiling hooks. It was a
genuine meat market,” says the hotel’s general manager Jeroen
Gerrese. It stands to reason that if you’re an international
hotel, the person running it should be, too. Enter Gerrese, who’s
filled that role at the Sheraton Grand (owned by Marriott
International) for the past five years, seeing it through the
two-year partial shutdown to allow for the $35 million
renovation, as well as the COVID epoch, which all but 
closed the hotel industry worldwide.

The Netherlands native has been in the hospitality business for
nearly two-thirds of his life, starting in the cruise line game
and working his way into more responsible positions around the
world. He’s held almost every staff job — “I started my career as
a dishwasher in my uncle’s restaurant in the Netherlands,” he
says — as well as being the boss at sea and on land. His latter
stints have included tenures in New York City, Philadelphia,
Moscow, Minneapolis, Boston, Baltimore, Brussels, England and our
own Central Valley. Not surprisingly, he speaks a few languages,
including Dutch, English and French. He and his wife, Nancy,
formerly in the linen business, have two grown sons.

The Sheraton’s ground floor restaurant and bar area have been
redone and restyled, with comfortable, colorful couches and
cushioned chairs enticing you to unwind. Sheraton went for a
gathering theme, creating a place for out-of-town visitors to
mingle with business workers attending conferences at the SAFE
Credit Union Convention Center next door.

Among the innovations on the first floor of the three-story
public market is where most of this interview took place: a
glassed-in room which can accommodate five or six people. “I
think the people in the room like it because while they’re
meeting or enjoying a private lunch, the excitement of the hotel
passes around them,” Gerrese says. And the guests who stroll by
and can’t help but stare? He laughs. “Oh, I think they wonder
what secret, important meeting is taking place,” he says, “and
who these important people might be.”

The Secretary of State utilized the office space after the market
closed in the 1970s. Around 1998-99, a local developer partnered
with the City of Sacramento under a public private partnership to
build the hotel adjacent to the public market building and
utilize the space where the market had been as a restaurant and
bar. The Sheraton’s owners have restored, refreshed and subtly
reimagined the hotel, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary
in Sacramento this year.

The Sheraton Grand just underwent a $35 million renovation for
its 25th anniversary in Sacramento. (Photo by Wes Davis)

“The secret of combining the old and new is to have a great deal
of respect for the old,” Gerrese says. As partial proof, a
visitor can casually stroll onto the airy mezzanine level and
enjoy historic photos on a wall that serves as a mini-gallery.
One features a mouth-watering (if you’re a carnivore) array of
the Beavis Meat beef stands, the company’s proud butchers
standing among fully-loaded shelves of product. Another depicts J
Street circa 1923, an immensely clean and startlingly unoccupied
downtown thoroughfare. Today, the Sheraton’s valets await your
arrival in a carved-out road entry that carries with it its own
sense of excitement as commuters drive past the hotel on their
way to I-80, Highway 50 and beyond.

The two-year project also saw the building’s five original
artworks, which a hotel spokesperson says are valued at $1
million, get not only preserved but also highlighted with
lighting and special placement. Among them are Jennifer
Bartlett’s “Neighborhood” (a 10-by-60-foot-long work composed of
hundreds of foot-long steel plates); a ceramic wall mural titled
“The Marketplace,” by Viola Frey; William T. Wiley’s stunning oil
and graphite canvas called “Sacramento California 2000” and two
Robert Kushner mosaics: “Sacramento Georgic I & II.” Sacramento
artist David Garibaldi performed at the grand opening
celebration, and you just might see one of his paintings at the
hotel in the future.

To sum it up, the art, openness, hardwood floors smooth enough
you could play shuffleboard (no, that’s not allowed), the 503
updated guest rooms and suites, and the Sheraton’s undeniable
bustle signal the vibrancy of the building’s past but also offer
a portal into how a carefully curated past can take a city
effortlessly back to the future.

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