Ethan Conrad drops plan to buy Sunrise Mall
Real estate investor Ethan Conrad said he's dropped plans to buy 50 acres of Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, putting the future of the fading shopping mall into question.
In an email, Conrad said he did so after the Citrus Heights City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously not to consider a potential amendment he proposed to an existing city plan called Sunrise Tomorrow for rethinking the mall property.
"It is certainly unfortunate that the current Specific Plan, although it may look attractive, is not designed to provide the needed components for it to be a successful project," Conrad said. "In particular, with the current Specific Plan showing all the buildings are demo'd and the new buildings are built, is not only wasteful, it's cost prohibitive and simply not needed in order for the project to be attractive as well as successful."
Conrad said he still plans to redevelop the 25 acres he already owns at the southern end of the mall, a piece that includes the closed Sears store building and several acres of parking.
The amendment Conrad sought to Sunrise Tomorrow would've allowed a Home Depot in the southeast corner of the mall and an In-N-Out Burger along Sunrise Boulevard, near the mall's southwest corner. Those uses wouldn't be allowed under Sunrise Tomorrow as it's currently adopted.
Site plans Conrad presented to the city showed a dry cleaner, Montessori school and a bowling alley or other entertainment retail business in existing mall buildings at the south end, though it's not clear if any or all of those uses are allowed under Sunrise Tomorrow.
Leading up to Wednesday's meeting, Conrad described plans for those 25 acres as phase I of his concept for Sunrise Mall under the proposed Sunrise Tomorrow amendment, and the 50 acres he was in contract to buy from Namdar Realty Group as phase II, which he said was still being developed.
Those 50 acres span the bulk of the actual mall building, including the enclosed store spaces and two closed former Macy's stores. Namdar did not immediately have a comment Friday on Conrad's decision to pull out of the purchase.
Conrad said after the meeting he was willing to be flexible in what phase II would include, but the council didn't seem willing to amend its plan. Sunrise Tomorrow would largely redevelop the mall with a central "main street" area of retail, surrounded by housing, hospitality and other new uses.
So far, no developer has emerged to try implementing that plan, though one City Council member and speakers at Wednesday's meeting said those developers exist.
A city spokesperson didn't immediately return a request for comment Friday on Conrad's announcement.
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