This mall was a suburban Sacramento icon for a generation. Now it’s being redeveloped

Sacramento has its Downtown Commons arena and entertainment district. The El Dorado Hills Town Center is an upscale development of shops, restaurants and apartments. Roseville, Folsom and West Sacramento have all built — or are building — new “downtowns,” places where they hope residents will want to live, play and work.

Is it finally Citrus Heights’ turn?

The aging Sacramento suburb that boomed in the 1970s around Sunrise Mall is in the advanced stages of redefining that troubled shopping center at Greenback Lane and Sunrise Boulevard. A plan approved unanimously last year by the City Council will allow the development of 2,200 units of housing, restaurants, breweries, job centers and an outdoor entertainment venue on the 100-acre site.

City officials announced earlier this month that a developer had applied to designate part of the Sunrise Mall property for a potential hotel, among the first public expressions of interest in the site since the Sunrise Tomorrow Specific Plan was launched in 2019. The hotel would be the only one in Citrus Heights, city officials said.

“It is a very important redevelopment project for our economic future,” said Citrus Heights City Manager Ash Feeney. He said other nearby commercial districts show “there is still a lot of health and vitality (in that area), and we’re looking to bring Sunrise Mall back into that sphere.”

Sunrise Mall was a regional destination for decades, drawing movie-goers and shoppers to a growing suburb. Its popularity symbolized an era when Sacramento’s suburbs began to thrive; the population of Citrus Heights grew five-fold between 1970 and 1990.

But like many other shopping malls across the country, it has struggled in recent years as shoppers migrated to online marketplaces. The mall is now roughly half vacant, said Meghan Huber, the city’s Economic Development and Community Engagement Director.

Citrus Heights officials see an opportunity in that struggle.

In addition to the hundreds of units of multi-family housing and space for up to three hotels, the Sunrise specific plan would allow for 300,000 square feet of retail: restaurants, shops and breweries. The mall currently occupies about 1 million square feet and will remain open as the redevelopment takes place over the next 20 years.

Another 800,000 square feet would be permitted for employment centers such as medical or med-tech offices. A community space and outdoor venue would host year-round events.

“Sunrise Mall was the community’s living room for so long and this is a really great opportunity to reimagine that for a new generation,” Huber said.

The first changes will likely begin in the site’s 75 acres of parking areas. That’s where the hotel could go. Presidio Companies, a hotel developer and operator based in Davis that built the new Hyatt Centric Hotel at Seventh and L streets in downtown Sacramento, has had “very promising discussions” with the city about the plan, Feeney said.

Housing built on the site will very likely be “of an urban-village density,” not single-family residences, Feeney said. That housing would mark a significant increase for a city with limited land available for development.

“Citrus Heights is 98% built out, so we don’t have the luxury of building new construction,” Huber said. “We have to work harder and scrapier and smarter to be stewards of our own future.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2022 at 6:00 PM.