By Sara Beth Williams–
Construction fencing is now down and new paving has replaced a weed-infested parking area in the shopping center where a Studio Movie Grill was once slated to open on the northern border of Citrus Heights. Additionally, there’s several indications that a deal with a new tenant is about to close.
The partially completed, abandoned building at 8501 Auburn Blvd. has been vacant since April of 2016, when the Citrus Heights K-Mart liquidated its inventory and closed its doors. Plans for a Studio Movie Grill began to take form in 2017, but fell through in 2020 when the company filed for bankruptcy.
Since then, other businesses have come and gone, and STORE Capital was announced as the new owner in an Auburn Boulevard Business Association meeting in July last year.
Asked for comment, a representative for STORE Capital said in an Aug. 8 email that the company’s policy is to not comment on tenants. However, a public leasing brochure for the property posted on the website for leasing firm Red Mountain Group shows the former Studio Movie Grill site is no longer for lease and a “Theater Coming Soon” message is now shown on the brochure. An image also shows an adjoining restaurant alongside the theater site.
Patrick Murphy, a representative who was referred to The Sentinel by Red Mountain Group’s leasing associate, said in a phone call to The Sentinel last week that the name of the theater could not be released because the deal hasn’t closed yet. Several neighboring businesses also told The Sentinel they had recently heard of plans for a new theater to come to the center.
Red Mountain Group’s leasing brochure shows a smaller, 4,500-square-foot pad to the right of Big Lots is still listed as available for fast food or drive-thru use. The flier also shows a picture of future signage for the shopping center, which includes a sign that would display the name of a new theater, but a specific company name for the theater is not listed.
While hope for a new local movie theater is pending, the Auburn Boulevard shopping center has seen new additions in the last year, including the Greenhouse Cafe, and Venice Nail Studio both of which opened in July, 2021. Newly paved handicapped parking spaces were recently added in front of the adjacent vacant building, replacing a previous strip of dirt with concrete curbing.
