The former site of Dimple Records at 7830 Macy Plaza Drive, near Birdcage Street, is slated to become a blood plasma donation center. // M. Hazlip
By Mike Hazlip—
A building in Citrus Heights once occupied by Dimple Records is set to reopen as a plasma donation center, after several years sitting vacant since the record store closed in 2019.
A banner announcing Florida-based CSL Plasma now hangs above the door at 7830 Macy Plaza Drive, near Birdcage Street. Construction crews last week could be seen working on the interior space.
In an email to The Sentinel on Wednesday, director of communications for CSL Plasma, Rhonda Sciarra, said the company hopes to open within the next year, but added it is too early to give a more specific timeline.
CSL Plasma choose Citrus Heights because of population density, real estate availability, and local zoning laws, Sciarra said. Additional factors were parking and public transportation, retail density, and building visibility.
“CSL Plasma believes in being an integral part of the communities where our employees and plasma donors live and work, and we look forward to being part of the Citrus Heights community,” Sciarra said. “Our organization brings with it hundreds of employee volunteers and puts thousands of dollars back into the community. Wherever CSL Plasma has a collection center we are a positive economic force, benefiting the local economy each year.”
Site Foreman Robert Boda of Tucson, Arizona-based Barker Contracting told The Sentinel the facility will be state-of-the-art and plans includes over 40 beds for donation. The City of Citrus Heights has been easy to work with in approving permits, Boda said.
CSL Plasma lists one other Sacramento region location in the Arden-Arcade area. According to the company’s website, donors can make up to $1,000 in their first month, although amounts may vary based on eligibility and health factors.
Human blood plasma has a variety of medical uses, and CSL Plasma’s parent company CSL Behring contributes to a number of research and development projects related to blood disorders and rare diseases, according to the company’s website.
A sign reading “closed forever” is shown outside the former Sunglasses Hut location in Sunrise Mall. // M. Hazlip
By Mike Hazlip-
Sunglasses Hut has pulled the shades at their Sunrise Mall location after a decline in foot traffic, though opting to still maintain a presence with a “store-in-store” concept location inside Macy’s.
An employee at the location who could not be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said it was a corporate decision not to renew the lease based on economic factors. The business is re-locating to Macy’s South, he said.
Sunglasses Hut remains interested in maintaining a presence at the mall, and will consider opening a new store in the Sunrise Tomorrow concept, according to the source.
The national sunglasses chain joins Toys R Us in opening a “store-within-a-store” concept at one of the mall’s few remaining anchor retailers.
Macy’s Senior Director and Store Manager Greg Bazarnik told The Sentinel previously that a national launch of Toys R Us inside Macy’s stores will take place in October. Bazarnik said plans will include new fixtures and additional visual elements to “create the new environment,” which will be installed prior to the official national launch date.
The marketing move has been popular with other national chains as Disney closed their retail locations in favor of a smaller footprint stores inside more than 100 Target locations in 2021, USA Today reports.
While Sunrise Mall has seen several business closures over the past few years, it has also welcomed recent new businesses, including SmartTech Ready in March and Infinity Jewelers in June. The mall is also the site of a new performing arts group, slated for a grand opening this month.
The former Marie Callender’s restaurant on Sunrise Boulevard has sat vacant since closing in 2019. // CH Sentinel
By Mike Hazlip— The vacant China Buffet building and former Marie Callender’s restaurant on Sunrise Boulevard are both being eyed for future use by ARCO as well as a car wash, but such auto-centered uses in that area would be banned by the city under a proposal working its way through the planning process.
In an advisory email sent out Friday, Aug. 26, the Sunrise MarketPlace business improvement district said the city’s proposed ban came after property owners had worked to secure new tenants. “The City would prefer to encourage restaurant/entertainment uses in the District,” the district said.
Sunrise Marketplace Executive Director Kathilynn Carpenter confirmed in an email that Waterfly Car Wash is interested in the China Buffet building and ARCO is eyeing the former Marie Callender’s building. Both sites remain vacant, since China Buffet closed in 2018, and Marie Callender’s closed in 2019.
Emails sent to the property owner of China Buffet and a representative of Waterfly on Tuesday were not responded to by press time Thursday morning.
The owner of the former China Buffet building told Carpenter he is “close to signing a lease” with the car wash. The property owner has not been able to secure a dining or entertainment related business for the property.
While the business district has not taken a position on the city’s proposed ban on new auto-centric uses in the commercial areas near Sunrise Mall, the district’s email cited concerns with a gas station and said the city “should work with the property owners to secure desirable businesses for these buildings, including providing incentives for uses such as tap rooms and brew pubs.”
“These two buildings require significant retrofitting or demolition, and are consistent targets for property vandalism, abandoned vehicles, and homeless living in their cars and RVs,” the business district’s email noted last week. “Whether it sells alcohol or not, a gas station will be an attractive magnet for our transient population. Both property owners have tried for several years to secure a new tenant.”
Neighboring El Tapitio restaurant general manager Hector Alcazar called the idea of a car wash “crazy,” in an interview with The Sentinel Tuesday.
“I don’t think the city is going to be approving something like that,” he said. “They have to really, really look at it very careful.”
Alcazar said a car wash could negatively affect his business, but was unsure about a gas station further away at the former Marie Callender’s property. He said he made an offer on the China Buffet property to expand the parking for El Tapitio, but could not come to an agreement with the owner.
An employee at Boston’s Pizza who could not be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media referred all questions to the location’s owner, but did say restaurants typically thrive when in close proximity to other eateries.
Sunrise MarketPlace’s governing board has not taken a position on the city’s proposed ban, but Carpenter said the city will be providing more information to the board during an upcoming Sept. 8 meeting.
In a Frequently Asked Questions page on the city’s website, the city says its proposed zoning overlay was drafted to encourage sit-down dining and entertainment.
“Recently, demand for auto-oriented uses has hit a new high, generating significant interest to convert existing vacant restaurants or add new construction in the Sunrise MarketPlace area for gas stations and car washes,” the city says on its FAQ page. “The overlay zone would restrict uses like this that encourage cut-through traffic to preserve remaining available real estate for uses that support neighborhood vibrancy.”
A timeline for the city’s proposed ban, called a “zoning overlay,” has not been released. It would only affect the commercial areas near Sunrise Mall, on Greenback Lane and Sunrise Boulevard. Proposed text of the overlay ordinance is still listed as “coming soon” on the city’s website.
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Uddhav “Gary” Giri stands in front of his Valero gas station in Citrus Heights. // M. Hazlip
By Mike Hazlip–
Uddhav “Gary” Giri, longtime owner of the Valero gas station at Auburn Boulevard and Antelope Road, started out his life in a remote village in Nepal, before coming to the U.S. and working his way to success in business.
In an interview with The Sentinel, Giri said the village where he grew up had little access to the outside world.
“[Where] I was raised is a very remote village actually,” he said. “I grew up and went to high school and we didn’t have any electricity or anything.”
When Giri saw his first movie as a teenager, he thought the Hollywood-produced film with singing and dancing depicted the real life of the actor. But then he began to see more movies featuring the same lead.
“The actor was the same, but a totally different story with a different woman or in a different house,” he said. “Oh, my goodness. And then different women, different houses, different cars, different city. And I’m like, Holy cow, this guy got everything going.”
Giri started working at a hotel in his home country when a woman from New York came to stay. The two began a relationship that spanned half a world away.
“She came back here and I came here as a tourist visa and then visited here for about two or three months,” Giri said. “And I went back and then she spent some time and went back. Then you start missing each other.”
The two married in 1991 and first settled in a small apartment in San Leandro. A few years later, they bought their first home on a corner lot. Giri took out an equity line of credit to improve the house, increasing the square footage to about 1,800, he said.
About that time, Giri said many people were moving from the Bay Area to Sacramento, and with a growing family, he wanted access to better schools. Giri sold their home in the Bay Area and made the move to Sacramento with $270,000.
“That $270,000 became my seed money to explore the world,” he said.
He bought a house in Rocklin with 20 percent down and used the rest of their savings to buy the gas station at Auburn Boulevard and Antelope Road, which was then a Chevron. Soon after buying the business, Chevron and Texaco merged, freezing the asset for five or six years, Giri said. He finally purchased the property from Chevron in 2007 and started remodeling, adding a car wash and smog shop.
This year, Giri says he just sold the property for over $4 million.
The transition from Nepalese hotel worker to multi-millionaire has given Giri a sense of perspective that he uses to help others.
“I’m pretty active with the Nepalese community here, and then I share these things with them,” he said. “Also, as I see from both angles, here is what you guys are missing as I see this is this.”
As an immigrant himself, Giri says other immigrants can build bridges by reaching out to their neighbors and embracing some of the culture in the United States, something he says builds trust.
“Let that comfort build on both sides and then by doing that, I think your quality of your life improves dramatically,” he said.
Giri credits his success to hard work and discipline. After decades pf running a service station open seven days each week, he says he doesn’t know what he will do with all the free time once he cuts back to working only five days each week.
Struggles
Soon after immigrating to the United States, Giri says he had a sense that he was not always accepted by others.
“In the early days I felt a little more aware of not being accepted right here,” he said. “But then slowly once I start getting familiar here, then I felt really comfortable at some point.”
The years Giri spent at the service station has helped him develop a sense of confidence, he says.
“Those seven, eight years running in the business was like getting a PHD in my self-confidence,” he said. “I learned quickly that people don’t have much respect, I just walk away.”
The road has not always been easy for Giri. Construction along Auburn Boulevard that reduced the amount of traffic coming to the gas station, and a bankruptcy in 2013 were some of the most difficult financial challenges Giri has faced with the business, he says.
Restructuring the business after emerging from bankruptcy was a “tremendous” help that made the business stronger, he says.
Over the years, Giri says he has had some customers promise to pay and never return, or bounce checks.
“Then again, there are a lot of good people,” he says. “They did pay on time or [took] care of it.”
While some customers have taken advantage of him, Giri says he’s seen more gain than loss for his efforts to serve his customers.
“I think overall it’s been an incredible journey, made me very strong mentally,” said Giri, reflecting on his beginnings in Nepal to becoming a business owner. “Overall, the business made money for me and made me a stronger person,” he said.
Sunrise MarketPlace’s buisness office is now located next to Sacramento Black Rifle, at 8095 Greenback Ln. // CH Sentinel
By Mike Hazlip—
Sunrise MarketPlace has moved its business office out of Sunrise Mall after the building’s HVAC stopped working, according to Executive Director Kathilynn Carpenter.
Carpenter said there were no other spaces that could accommodate their offices without significant tenant improvements.
The owner of Greenfaire Village, InterCal Real Estate, offered Sunrise MarketPlace a vacant space and offered to pay for significant tenant improvements, Carpenter said.
“We liked being in the mall, we just couldn’t find a space we could afford,” Carpenter said. “We also thought it would help this center that is under-utilized right now.”
Their new offices are at Greenfaire Village on the northwest corner of Greenback Lane and Fair Oaks Boulevard. Sunrise Marketplace will share the center with Sacramento Black Rifle and Tague Music. A new veterinarian is slated to open in December, Carpenter said.
Sunrise Marketplace is the governing body for the area’s Property-based Business Improvement District, or PBID. The district represents over 350 businesses in the Sunrise-Greenback commercial district. It was formed in 1999 and plays a supportive and marketing role for businesses, along with hosting events and providing funding for a dedicated patrol officer to increase security in the district.
File photo, the Citrus Heights Community Center is located at 6300 Fountain Square Drive.
By Mike Hazlip—
A business destroyed by two consecutive fires is managing to still operate by temporarily using commercial kitchen facilities inside the Citrus Heights Community Center.
In June, Elena’s Kitchen and Catering was devastated by two fires within three days at their Carmichael business, according to a report by ABC10.
City spokesman Elijah Wilbur said the business contacted the city about renting the facility and said the city is glad to have a space for Elena’s Kitchen to operate. He confirmed the kitchen is being rented out, rather than offered for free.
An employee of Elena’s Kitchen could not comment on future plans for the business and told The Sentinel that the catering company’s owners were out of the country.
Metro Fire Captain Parker Wilbourn told ABC10 the building was heavily damaged in the first fire, complicating efforts to save the structure in the second fire.
“This building was already compromised, and that’s one of the things we look at when we’re making those decisions of what we’re gonna do as far as tactics, strategies and our priorities,” Wilbourn said.
Arson investigators responded to the incident, but authorities say the two fires are unrelated.
The commercial property at 6251 Sunrise Blvd. is for sale. Boundary lines are approximate, based on County Assessor’s records. // Image credit: Google maps
By Mike Hazlip—
A 5.9-acre portion of a shopping center near the busy intersection of Sunrise Boulevard and Greenback Lane is for sale at $19.7 million, a price tag $5 million higher than when the property previously went on the market four years ago.
The listing for the property on commercial real estate site LoopNet includes a single-story 71,514-square-foot building at 6241 through 6253 Sunrise Blvd., along with 350 parking spaces. The property is completely leased with National Career Education and Montage Salon Studios occupying the space along with Chuck E. Cheese.
The offering is listed by Cushman and Wakefield, and an agent contacted by The Sentinel said there is “nothing to report” when asked about potential buyers for the property. There is no indication any of the existing tenants are leaving the site.
The center was last listed in August of 2018 for $14.5 million, according to a previous report by The Sentinel. It does not appear to have been sold since 2000, according to Sacramento County Assessor’s Office records.
The building was constructed in 1981, records show. Adjacent properties are home to Texas Roadhouse and Buffalo Wild Wings. The Quick Serve Restaurants (QSR) are a valuable asset to the offering, according to Cushman and Wakefield.
The center is also home to Pier 1 Imports and Red Lobster. Across the street, a former Rite Aid building has sat vacant since closing its doors in 2018. A new tenant has not been announced.
Nearby, the area is seeing some recent changes, with the new 260-home Mitchell Village housing community nearing completion and construction of a 2.9-mile trail that will pass through the nearby Arcade Creek Park Preserve expected to begin later this fall.
An external entrance for Royal Stage is shown at Sunrise Mall. // S. Williams
By Sara Beth Williams–
A nonprofit performing and visual arts group is preparing to open its new studio and theater at Sunrise Mall next month, after facing delays but receiving some significant community donations to help renovate the 8,200-square-foot space.
Royal Stage Executive Director Tamara Warta announced in April during a belated tenth anniversary gala dinner that they had signed a three-year lease inside the Sunrise Mall. Plans are underway for a 200-seat black box style theater with a lobby, stage, dance studio, and concessions area. The opening was slated for July, 2022, but delays have pushed the opening back until September, 2022.
In a June 23 City Council meeting, Royal Stage was awarded a $25,000 grant from the City of Citrus Heights, which was given to help cover the costs of construction, marketing, and programming for the new space.
Warta confirmed that the nonprofit has also received another grant, along with other donations that have helped bring the dream of a permanent theater space to life.
Warta said the nonprofit received a grant from the California Arts Council’s Arts & Cultural Organizations General Operating relief fund. As well, L&H Airco donated $2,000 in materials, as well as volunteer time and company trucks with tools and ladders to help assist with necessary repairs during the renovation.
Marc Reid, project manager with L&H Airco, said the company has “always been very community-minded and charitable,” noting that individuals who worked off the clock willingly volunteered their time to help with electrical repairs.
Warta also praised a host of volunteers for their assistance during renovation, one of those being Reid’s wife, Shayne, a life and business coach who helped book and organize the many volunteers.
“We love the arts,” Shayne Reid said in an interview with The Sentinel, noting that Royal Stage has a close-knit, community-oriented atmosphere during productions. “They have great directors and put on great shows.”
“It has been such a challenging and incredible experience getting this building ready,” Warta said. “We have been honored by the true generosity and enthusiasm of the community.”
While it was previously reported that Royal Stage’s new location was to open over the summer, the nonprofit has pushed their grand opening back until Sept. 9, 2022. Warta said city staff have been “incredible and supportive,” but also said doing things right and making sure the building is safe and up to code takes time.
In a previous report, Warta stated that the performing arts group spent eight years hopping from homes to churches across the Sacramento region to put on performances. She confirmed with the Sentinel on Aug. 17 that the current main studio space, located at 1220 Melody Ln. in Roseville will continue to offer multiple classes and rehearsals every week.
The new location at the mall is not replacing the Roseville-based studio, but will allow for additional class space and a dedicated performance space.
Warta hopes to welcome as many people to their classes as possible, and said their goal is to make students feel “royal, loved, and worthy, both by God and through our positive arts programming.”
Royal Stage was established in 2010 with a mission to offer safe and encouraging classes and camps for children, youth and adults. Classes are open to those with any faith or background, but the organization operates as a Christian nonprofit. Fall classes are open and information is available on their website.
The Valero gas station at 7700 Auburn Blvd. has been sold. // M. Hazlip
By Mike Hazlip—
The owner of a Valero gas station at the corner of Auburn Boulevard and Antelope Road is in the process of selling the location, with plans to instead open a smog station at a recently vacated repair shop in Citrus Heights.
Longtime gas station owner Uddhav “Gary” Giri told The Sentinel in an interview Tuesday that he had sold the business to another Valero operator. Giri said he expects there will be a smooth transition with the new owner keeping the Valero brand and inventory, calling him a “super nice guy.”
“He is hoping that nothing would be an obvious change,” Giri said of the new owner. “They just want to simply maintain that, and nobody will even notice.”
Giri has owned the location since 2001 when he bought the station at 7700 Auburn Blvd. from Chevron. He said he was considering selling the business when 7-Eleven approached him wanting to make an offer. After some negotiations, Giri said he was willing to accept 7-Eleven’s offer, but Chevron had first right of refusal.
When the contract with Chevron fell through after a six-month wait, Giri says he was approached by Valero who had 10 interested buyers. Selling the business to another Valero operator saved him cancellation penalties, Giri said.
The business is currently waiting for the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to issue a liquor license for the new owner before Giri can finally transition out.
As he sells the gas station, Giri plans to transition to operating a smog and vehicle registration shop at 6717 Auburn Blvd., across from the Sylvan Oaks library. He said that business will allow him to have more flexibility with his time.
“I’ve been doing the smog for as long as I’m here,” Giri said, referencing that his Valero station also offered smog services. He said renovations have been completed at the new property and he expects the shop to open in the near future.
Pioneer Baptist Church formerly met at 7600 Old Auburn Rd., in Citrus Heights. // CH Sentinel
By Mike Hazlip—
A church on Old Auburn Road dating back to the early 1920s, and the former home to Pioneer Baptist, is on the market for $1,600,000.
The property at 7600 Old Auburn Rd. is listed on commercial real estate site LoopNet, which describes a 6,708-square-foot “specialty building” with a newer HVAC system, roof, and an upgraded electrical system. The listing says the property would be “perfect for a community center and event space.”
The property is described as a historic landmark, with construction completed in 1922. The agent is Robert Balina of Santa Clara-based Synergize Reality.
An email to the pastor of Pioneer Baptist Church on Monday was not returned, but an email response from Balina on Tuesday said the listing has prompted several meetings with potential buyers that he said are local churches and nonprofit organizations.
Pastor Kyle Conley told The Sentinel in a prior email that the church decided move to an existing church building at 4252 Garfield Ave., due to the growing needs of his congregation. The church had initially planned to build a larger campus across from Rusch Park, but halted those plans earlier this year when construction costs nearly doubled.
Conley told The Sentinel previously the church was not interested in managing the property. He said he remains interested in developing land the church owns across from Rusch Park at 7904 Auburn Blvd., but said there are no definite plans.
