Mark Hutchason and his wife, Belinda Gutierrez, purchased the long vacant former Blue Lamp nightclub building at 1400 Alhambra Blvd in East Sacramento for $901,000 in mid-July, with plans to open a store tentatively called Love by the holidays, pending city and contractor timelines. Gutierrez, a third generation jeweler, will lead the business, which the couple describes as a woman-owned and minority-owned venture.
Love will specialize in luxury goods, including watches like Rolex, designer handbags such as Chanel and Birkin, and fine jewelry pieces like Cartier bracelets, items Hutchason said are often hard to find even at a regular jewelry store or through the brands themselves given long waiting lists. He said the store expects to carry roughly 100 Rolex pieces in stock once open.
Hutchason said the goal is to shed the negative stereotypes often tied to the pawn industry. “We’re not describing ourselves as a pawnshop,” he said. “We’re doing a luxury asset lending, we’re there to actually help the community, to offer a service to the community, not do a disservice for the community.”
The building opened in 1953 as a title company, the 2,555 square foot concrete building includes a 400 square foot vault, a holdover from Cold War era fears of nuclear attack. That vault ended up being the deciding factor in the sale. Other potential buyers would have had to give up the space entirely or risk compromising the building’s structure by removing it, but the couple’s concept, described as luxury asset lending rather than a traditional pawn shop, will put the vault to direct use storing high end merchandise.
