By Sara Beth Williams–
With four major anchor retailers and at least 100 stores, Sunrise Mall hit its stride during the 80s and 90s. Doyle Phelan, who managed the mall for 23 years until 2008, said even the opening of the new Birdcage Walk shopping center across the street hardly impacted the revenue Sunrise Mall generated.
During a presentation on the history of Sunrise Mall at the Orangevale History Project, Phelan said there were few vacancies during his time as mall manager, and they were easily filled. Rent inside the mall was also four times the rent of suites located elsewhere on Sunrise Boulevard.
Sunrise Marketplace property and business improvement district Executive Director Kathilynn Carpenter said as a single mom, Sunrise Mall was a special place for her and her daughter. “The Mall was the center of activity, where people connected, a place to create shared memories—a true community gathering place,” Carpenter said of Sunrise Mall’s legacy.
In the 80s and 90s the mall hosted educational mobile zoo exhibitions, choirs, a large train track display, annual Santa Claus parades, photos with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, and annual fireworks displays during Independence Day. In the 2000s, the mall hosted professional tennis matches, Jeopardy tryouts, theatrical ballet performances, laser shows, movie nights, car shows, motorcycle competitions, major Halloween events, and more.
“[The community] mourned the tragedy of September 11, 2001, with a memorial service at the Mall. They gathered in 2005 to fill a Mayflower semi-truck with presents for victims of Hurricane Katrina,” Carpenter said.
But competition, new development, shifting consumer shopping habits, and a worldwide pandemic would culminate to initiate a downward spiral for Sunrise Mall. beginning in 2000. Google aerial images of Sunrise Mall show a visual pattern of decline. Once-full parking lots began to gradually grow empty over the years.
Historians and previous mall management attribute the decline of Sunrise Mall mainly to the opening of a new regional mall, The Galleria.
Construction on the Galleria began in 1998. The new Galleria in Roseville opened in August 2000 with 100 stores, later adding a 400,000 square-foot expansion in 2009.
During his presentation, Phelan said prior to the Galleria opening, SEARS and JCPenney collected regular customers’ zip codes and were able to project a possible 10 percent loss in revenue once the Galleria opened.
The Sunrise Mall’s projections were accurate, and gradually, every year, the Sunrise Mall lost 10 percent of its revenue. By 2008, the original owners saw the financial crisis and sold the mall for $110 million, according to Phelan.
However, the new owners “nickel and dimed” everything, and Phelan said he retired soon after the transition in ownership.
Over the years, other regional shopping centers like Arden Fair Mall, Galleria, The Fountains, and Palladio continued to maintain and update their facilities, as well as their tenant mix, Carpenter said, adding that Sunrise Mall didn’t offer any “distinctive shops.”
Also, the remodeled Marketplace at Birdcage offered more convenient shops, grocery stores, gyms, and other stores that offered necessities at reasonable prices for families, instead of more expensive convenience items, like much merchandise found inside Sunrise Mall.
The mall sold again in 2015 for roughly $55 million, according to Phelan, and then again in 2018 for just over $25 million, having depreciated in value by at least 75 percent.
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Amid a shift of owners over the last 18 years, significant neglect and decline inside the mall itself and economic hardship out of the control of owners and shoppers alike have impacted the entire property.
SEARS’ closure in 2018 led to a downward tick in foot traffic, and over the years, several businesses posted handwritten signs indicating they had relocated from the southern side of the mall closer to the middle or the northern side of the mall, where foot traffic still remained. When no new tenant was found to fill the old SEARS building over time, other businesses simply left altogether.
Other stores closed due to bankruptcy or downsizing as well, including Aeropostale, Icing, Claire’s, and Macy’s. Other businesses closed abruptly, including The Elephant Bar.
The closing of many non-essential retail centers during the pandemic only served to exasperate a worsening situation. Following the lifting of stay-at-home orders, hardly any patrons returned to the Sunrise Mall.
Phelan criticized Namdar Realty Group for neglecting the property as it had, saying his old boss would have “had fits” at the sight of the neglect.
In 2025, the City of Citrus Heights, along with other organizations in Sacramento County, conducted an inspection of the mall and issued a Notice to Abate to Namdar Realty Group to resolve hundreds of thousands of dollars in health and safety code violations. When the realty group failed to resolve the violations, the City of Citrus Heights filed a lawsuit against Namdar. Fines for unresolved code violations against Namdar continue to accumulate and have reached into the millions.
Why hasn’t private redevelopment worked yet?
Many owners over the years have attempted redevelopment plans without success, Carpenter said, including Spinosa Real Estate, who pitched the development of an open-air center with a movie theater but was unable to get buy-in from all the owners. Plans for a new outdoor venue fell apart in the mid-2000s according to previous reports.
“Carpenter said Jim Cordano, the original owner of the mall, and Steadfast, the second owner of the mall, attempted to modernize the mall but were unable to secure agreement from all owners.”
“The binding REA (reciprocal easement agreement) was the block that killed redevelopment over the years. All owners needed to agree to the proposed redevelopment plans,” Carpenter said. “Having five separate owners of the mall is one of the main reasons for the difficulty in attracting developers.”
Currently, there are about a dozen stores left inside Sunrise Mall, including JCPenney, which remains the only anchor store. JCPenney owns and maintains its own land.
The Sunrise Mall’s store directory still lists multiple stores that have long-since vacated their suites. Sunrise Mall management has not responded to repeated requests for comment regarding multiple store closures or neglected conditions of the interior of the mall.
*This is part of a series.
Part 1: The rise and fall of Sunrise Mall: The rise of a regional icon – Citrus Heights Sentinel
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