n DISCOURSE
that’s just not the world we live in today.
So when people come to us and have de-
signs they want to do, we are looking with
a more open eye. We also have programs in
place to provide financial help for signage,
facade improvements for the small-busi-
ness person.
Businesses want to come to a city that
is attractive. We still have challenging ar-
eas in Citrus Heights, and so our focus is
on doing our part, which is improving our
infrastructure and making our city look
good, so [businesses] want to be physi-
cally located here. Right now our focus is
Auburn Boulevard; we are looking forward
to finishing that. We started that a number
of years ago — undergrounding utilities,
making the streets complete streets, visu-
ally improving the look.
Citrus Heights has Sunrise MarketPlace
among other shopping centers. How
has the shift to online shopping among
consumers impacted retail in your city?
It has definitely impacted it. We’ve had
services close, and [Sunrise Mall] has, I
think, seen it’s best days as a mall. Nam-
dar [Realty Group] is the new owner, and
they have been buying up aging and dis-
tressed malls all over the United States,
and they have a speckled reputation as
far as what they’re doing with those. We
are not sitting back waiting to see what
is going to happen. We are aggressively
reaching out to them to that end. The
city manager, community development
director and I are flying out to New York
to see them in the next 30 days.
Our internet sales is our No. 2 sales
tax producer at this time, so that says a
lot. Retail as we have known it is, I think,
something of the past. Will we still have
a retail presence? Absolutely. It’s just go-
ing to look different. It’s going to interact
with our community differently. The mall
is the big example. It needs to become
something other than what it has been.
So mixed-use is a very logical direction
to go into, and I certainly support that
— a mix of services, retail, destination,
dining [and] residential. How people
live their lives is different. We aren’t just
everybody-has-their-own-front-yard, back-
yard, five-houses-to-an-acre residential
model that drove building in the ’70s, ’80s,
’90s and 2000s. If we’re going to thrive as a
community, we’re going to need to make
those changes.
One of the things people don’t realize
is the mall doesn’t have one ownership.
It has multiple ownerships. The major
stores — Macy’s, Sears and JCPenney —
they own their own buildings and the dirt
they sit on, and they own a portion of the
parking lot. [Namdar] owns everything
else. So you don’t just have one person
coming to the table. You have all of those
parties, and they need to agree to act, and
that has been a major hindrance. That’s
typical; that’s not just Sunrise Mall. …
In a perfect world, it would be great if
someone came along and bought it all,
CONGRATULATIONS TO KEVIN NAGLE
UCP’S 2019
Humanitarian of the Year
Thank you to our generous sponsors.
Bank of America | Clement and Mindy Kong | Delfino Madden
The Nickel Agency – Demarcus Cousins | Downey Brand | Element Pointe
Greater Sacramento Economic Council | Manshadi Heart Institute | Moss Adams | Randle Communications
Sacramento Aviation Co. | Serrano Associates | The Vanir Group of Companies | UC Davis Health
The Foundation for UCP of Sacramento and Northern California
32
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