Citrus Heights is studying Sunrise Mall infrastructure costs to court developers
Citrus Heights will use grant funding to study infrastructure needs at Sunrise Mall, as part of the city’s ongoing effort to encourage development at the struggling shopping center.
The infrastructure study is the latest in a series of moves by city officials to see Sunrise Mall — which has suffered in recent years from store vacancies and declining sales — redeveloped under an ambitious plan that includes housing, entertainment and hotels.
Last week the City Council approved an agreement that allows Citrus Heights to spend $178,000 to hire an engineering firm to study underground infrastructure updates. The study is funded by a grant awarded last year by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.
“Infrastructure is the first question anytime we talk to a developer who’s assessing the opportunity,” said Meghan Huber, the city’s economic development director. “That’s one of the biggest costs as you approach a project like this.”
The grant will clarify what upgrades the site needs, in what locations, in what sequence and how much it may cost. Those details will help the city pitch Sunrise Mall to developers, who are typically responsible for assessing a project’s infrastructure needs.
In August Citrus Heights announced that it was launching an appraisal of the section of the mall owned by Namdar Realty Group a New York-based real estate firm that owns malls across the country and has been sued for failing to maintain its portion of Sunrise Mall. The appraisal could pave the way, eventually, for the city to take over ownership through eminent domain, by giving officials a sense of how they would have to compensate Namdar for the land.
The pre-condemnation appraisal is still ongoing, Huber said, and may be completed in December.
