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The former public market at the corner of 13th and J streets, designed by famed architect Julia Morgan in the 1920s, is now a food and beverage area for the Sheraton Grand Sacramento hotel. The entire hotel, including the former market, recently was renovated at a cost of about $35 million.<\/p>\n
GRAHAM WOMACK<\/p>\n
The days are long over of the Public Market Building at 13th and J streets operating in its original capacity.<\/p>\n
But there are still touches of the building\u2019s past.<\/p>\n
The Public Market Building now has a food and beverage area, Merchant25 for the city\u2019s largest hotel, Sheraton Grand Sacramento. The building is connected to the hotel inside, serving as a de facto lobby area and entrance point for hotel guests.<\/p>\n
The market building was part of a roughly two-year, $35 million renovation for the hotel unveiled Tuesday. But there were limits to what the hotel could do to the market building, which was designed in the 1920s by noted architect Julia Morgan and operated as a public market until the 1970s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are areas that we could touch and transform and there were areas that we could not touch,\u201d said Jeroen Gerrese, general manager for Sheraton Grand Sacramento. \u201cLike if you see the little glasses on top, the little window glass, for instance, they all have to stay… The color of the beams is kind of an avocado green. That is historic. So we didn\u2019t touch that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why the public market was built and eventually transformed<\/p>\n
Katie Tolan, a sales director for Sheraton Grand Sacramento, said the name Merchant25 for the food and beverage area in the Public Market Building honors the hotel\u2019s 25th anniversary this year and the 25 vendors who were once in the public market.<\/p>\n
A.R. Galloway, Jr. of Wright & Kimbrough touted some of the reasons to The Sacramento Bee for constructing a public market, when the project was getting underway in late 1922.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerally, in every community, there are a number of farmers and small gardeners who produce, above their own needs, a small surplus of food products, an amount often too small in the individual case to command much, if any, consideration from the wholesale buyers,\u201d Galloway told The Bee.<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cThese various small surpluses represent, in the aggregate, a very considerable addition to the community\u2019s food supply.\u201d<\/p>\n
The market was owned at the outset by Elizabeth Glide, who later had Morgan design Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco in honor of Glide\u2019s late husband Joseph H. Glide.<\/p>\n
Around the time that Morgan was designing the public market, she also was working on the project for which she is most famous, newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst\u2019s sprawling estate at San Simeon, Hearst Castle.<\/p>\n
Morgan, who became the first woman licensed as an architect in California in 1904, designed a variety of projects in the state, including what\u2019s now known as the Julia Morgan House at 3731 T St. in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
When the public market opened on Nov. 6, 1923, the Sacramento Union wrote that Glide had spared no expense, investing over $500,000 in the project. The paper noted that the building had been \u201ctrimmed in terra cotta and white marble, presenting an appearance of beauty on the outside as well as in the inside, which is painted green and white.\u201d<\/p>\n
By 1972, when the market received a renovation of more than $500,000, two vendors, Tofanelli\u2019s Sea Food Co. and Beavis Meat Co. had been tenants since the market opened, according to coverage by The Bee then.<\/p>\n
But the market wasn\u2019t long for Sacramento thereafter, with a new owner transforming the building into offices a few years later. It served as office space for the California Secretary of State until the early 1990s. The building then sat vacant until becoming part of the Sheraton project in the late \u201890s.<\/p>\n
Julia Morgan, who became the first woman to be licensed as an architect in California in 1904, designed the Public Market Building at 13th and J streets. It is now part of the Sheraton Grand Sacramento and was recently renovated. GRAHAM WOMACK <\/p>\n
It was a public-private partnership, with the city taking an active interest in the preservation of the former public market.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the site is compressed, it\u2019s because we want to save and reuse a historical structure,\u201d then-Saramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr. said in 1998, according to The Bee. \u201cIt\u2019s a great use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Ault, executive director for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, remembered a \u201cState of Downtown\u201d event for his organization taking place at the Public Market Building as construction was getting underway for the hotel in the mid-late 1990s. \u201cThe thought was always to have an iconic destination,\u201d Ault said.<\/p>\n
As a nod to the building\u2019s past, Tuesday\u2019s ribbon cutting event for the hotel included Ault cutting a link of sausages, as Gerrese and Sacramento City Councilmember Karina Talamantes stood by him.<\/p>\n
Jeroen Gerrese, general manager of Sheraton Grand Sacramento, stands second from left alongside others on-hand for a ribbon-cutting on March 31 to celebrate the newly-renovated hotel. Sausage links were cut to honor the site\u2019s history as a public market. GRAHAM WOMACK What the former public market is part of now<\/p>\n
When Kari Miskit began her professional career in Sacramento over 20 years ago, she and her friends would have Friday lunches at the Sheraton.<\/p>\n
Miskit, who is now chief operating officer for Visit Sacramento, a group that represents local hoteliers, described the space as being their hideaway. She was happy to see how it had come through renovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe authenticity feels the same to me and sort of that heritage piece really still comes through,\u201d Miskit said. \u201cI think it\u2019s more reflective now of what Sacramento is today. Again, it\u2019s still staying true to the roots, but feels a little bit more of the Sacramento of this moment, a little bit more modern, more vibrant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerrese noted that the bar in the former market area was now double in size.<\/p>\n
The bar inside the Public Market Building for Sheraton Grand Sacramento, as seen on March 31, has been doubled in size through a recent renovation, according to Jeroen Gerrese, the hotel\u2019s general manager. GRAHAM WOMACK <\/p>\n
In the end, the market was just part of a comprehensive renovation that added two rooms, bringing the Sheraton Grand Sacramento to 505 rooms.<\/p>\n
It is Sacramento\u2019s largest hotel, according to Ault and it could still be growing. Gerrese said the hotel plans to convert former office space for its staff into eight additional rooms either later in the year or in early 2027.<\/p>\n
The renovations commenced after the hotel had what Gerrese described as its best year in 2023. \u201cYou\u2019re dealing with a dated product, so we were at a crossroads,\u201d Gerrese said. \u201cWe have to renovate because you can\u2019t sustain it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hotel remained open during renovations, never fully shutting down. Gerrese said the budget for the renovations started off at $30 million but that they were closer to $35 million or $36 million now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a contingency of 10%,\u201d Gerrese said. \u201cThat went very quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sheraton Grand Sacramento hotel, including this 14th floor room, was recently renovated at a cost of about $35 million. GRAHAM WOMACK <\/p>\n
The end result was touted by people like Talamantes, who said she\u2019d had a 20-year-old mentee stay at the hotel recently. Talamantes had also heard that at least 15 legislators were residing in the hotel three days per week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that this newly-designed hotel just continues to put us on the map,\u201d Talamantes said.<\/p>\n
A room on the 14th floor of the Sheraton Grand Sacramento includes a view of downtown, as seen on March 31. GRAHAM WOMACK <\/p>\n
The hoteliers Miskit\u2019s group represents generate transient occupancy tax, or TOT. Miskit could see TOT increasing on the strength of Sheraton\u2019s renovations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I told somebody yesterday is: A win for the Sheraton is a win for tourism in Sacramento,\u201d Miskit said.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published March 31, 2026 at 3:07 PM.<\/p>\n
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