Sacramento mainstay to close midtown store. Here’s when University Art will say goodbye

University Art, for decades a fixture of Sacramento’s midtown, is closing its doors, its longtime home now under new ownership.

The shop closes Oct. 12. The Bay Area owners of the longtime art supply store on J Street at 26th Street broke the news on its website . A banner stretched across the storefront’s window confirmed it. A closeout sale began earlier this week as the art-and-crafts retailer says goodbye to Sacramento.

University Art’s Redwood City flagship will remain open.

“There’s a lot of sad customers, a lot of sad faces,” said Kristin Roff, manager at University Art. Roff marked 24 years at the Sacramento store in September. “This is the last independent art store in Sacramento.”

The store’s owners, Roff said, are now semi-retired and spend the majority of their time in the Bay Area. The store, a 9,500-square-foot space part of a larger property that includes vacant retail space and residences to the rear, has been on the market for several years, Roff said, but interest in the midtown listing picked up in the weeks before the sale was announced.

Then came the news that the store would close next weekend.

The University Art building at 2601 J St., was most recently listed in July, listings show . University Art opened the midtown location in 1998 taking over for the former Taylor’s art store which had been in business since the 1960s.

Business at the J Street location had slowed. Amazon and other online marketplaces had dug into sales. The store closed for a time during the COVID-19 pandemic and buying habits changed. But University Art still has its regular customers, people Roff considers friends after her years behind the counter, after taking over for another University Art manager David Saalsaa, who was with the company for two decades.

“I love this place. I love so many of my customers. So many customers we had were regular customers,” she said. “I’ve developed some nice friendships here. They bring a smile to my face and, unless I bump into them on the street, I won’t see them anymore.”

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