Elk Grove granted more than 400 business licenses in 2023. Here’s a breakdown of what was added

Development and expansion in Elk Grove is becoming quite visible with new city additions such as housing projects, businesses and shopping centers.

But what types of new businesses are coming to the booming city?

The Sacramento Bee requested a list of all Elk Grove businesses as of the end of 2023. The city provided a list of businesses that recently were awarded business licenses.

Elk Grove public affairs manager Kristyn Laurence told The Bee that the city last year granted 428 new licenses and had an additional 1,859 licenses renewed.

Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen said in an emailed statement that Elk Grove is “open for business” to innovators looking to set up shop.

“New businesses bring innovation and fresh ideas to the city,” Singh-Allen said. “We’re energized by those who want to make an economic and cultural impact on the community.”

Of the more than 400 new licenses, The Bee was able to find publicly available information for just over 350 businesses — either linked to a website, a physical location identifiable on Google Maps or an active social media account.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what types of new operations came to Elk Grove last year.

▪ The biggest share of the new businesses to join the Elk Grove community were food or drink operations such as restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops and bars. Businesses in the food and drink industry made up about 14% of the 352 newly approved Elk Grove licenses categorized in The Bee’s analysis.

▪ A close second were licenses related to homes and home improvement, featuring realtors, real estate firms, construction companies and contractors for gardening, landscaping and other home repair tasks. These businesses made up more than 11% of new licenses awarded in Elk Grove.

▪ Not too far behind the home improvement industry were vehicle-based businesses, which made up about 11% of new businesses categorized by The Bee. These consist of trucking, towing, automotive repair and other transportation-centered businesses.

▪ Cosmetology and fashion businesses licenses were next. Places like nail salons, hair salons, barbershops, beauty shops, spas and clothing and accessory boutiques totaled just under 11% of new Elk Grove businesses surveyed by The Bee in 2023.

▪ Just under 10% of awarded licenses, at 9.7%, were the introduction of health and fitness businesses — gyms, martial arts facilities, coaches, trainers, therapists and other mental health and wellness operations.

▪ Another 7.7% of businesses licenses handed out in 2023 to cleaning services, whether janitorial services, house cleaning, pool cleaning or garment cleaning services.

The remainder — a little more than one-third of businesses granted licenses for the first time last year — were spread across a wide variety of industries, spanning from consulting firms to specialty shops to a film production company.