CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - The shuttered Sears property and accompanying parking space on the south end of Sunrise Mall has been sold for just under $7 million to Ethan Conrad Properties of Sacramento.

The commercial real estate investment company closed the transaction paying just under $7 million for the Sunrise Mall site, which includes 21.3 acres, with over 281,000 square feet of building space. Included in the purchase was the three-story former Sears store, a two-story automotive service building and a separate, 9,500-square-foot service building.

Ethan Conrad is looking to develop the site in accordance with the “Sunrise Tomorrow” plan, which lays out a vision for redeveloping the 100-acre site.

“Based on my communication with the City of Citrus Heights, they will be reasonable and flexible relative to desirable retail uses for the property, based on the fact that their goal is to expand the desired services for the City of Citrus Heights residents,” Conrad said in an email, of the former Sears at Sunrise Mall.

According to Conrad, three retail pads along Sunrise Boulevard, currently mall parking, are in the works, along with remodeling and slight upgrades to the existing buildings.

Conrad said what he’s envisioning should fit with the City’s proposed redevelopment plan for Sunrise Mall, called Sunrise Tomorrow. The plan would turn the 100-acre site into a combination of retail, residential and other uses. The City already received a preliminary request for a potential hotel on the site, not far from where the new retail pads would be located.

The likely first phase of the 20-year plan by the City of Citrus Heights involves developing unused parking areas on the perimeter of the Sunrise Mall site, with demolition of the existing mall slated for the end of the two-decade timeline.

Last month, the City announced an application was submitted last week that “lays out a footprint” for a potential hotel near the corner of Sunrise Boulevard and Greenback Lane.

Ethan Conrad, founded in 1995, has a commercial real estate portfolio which has grown to over 8.6 million square feet and comprises over 150 properties.

Buying the former Sears site at Sunrise Mall came a few weeks after Ethan Conrad made a similar deal for a closed store in Florin Town Centre, in unincorporated Sacramento County. Conrad also paid $5.6 million for another closed Sears location in Salinas, an anchor location for that city’s Northridge Mall.

In Citrus Heights, Conrad’s holdings include a portion of SummerHills Plaza, a 108,081 square-foot shopping center located at the intersection directly off I-80 and Antelope Drive, Suncreek Corporate Center at 7777 Greenback Lane and Sunray Plaza at 7700 Sunrise Boulevard, a prominent neighborhood retail center, home to California Family Fitness and Leatherby’s Family Creamery.

Seritage Growth Properties, an entity formed to deal with real estate holdings after Sears’ bankruptcy, was the seller.