By Sara Beth Williams–
Community members weighed in with a range of ideas on what kind of business should come to the Citrus Grove Shopping Center, following the recent purchase of a vacant building on Auburn Boulevard by Ethan Conrad Properties.
More than 200 people commented on a social media video featuring the property at 8481 Auburn Blvd., with a heavy majority expressing support for a grocery store in the space, which formerly housed Smart & Final until 2019. The building later housed a charity shop and discount store before becoming vacant in mid-2025.
Suggestions on social media ranged from adding a WinCo, Grocery Outlet, Trader Joe’s, and a Nugget Market to bringing in an Aldi, which is a grocer that operates in Central and Southern California. Many also wanted Smart & Final to return to the same building and reminisced at how convenient it was to have one in the neighborhood.
Citrus Heights City Council member and current candidate for reelection Jayna Karpinski-Costa also suggested the center needed to incorporate a grocery store during a candidate forum in early October and called the surrounding area a “food desert,” as there is no grocery store with fresh produce in the immediate vicinity.
Dollar General, located less than a mile south on Auburn Blvd., does sell perishable foods such as milk, eggs, cheese, and meat, along with multiple nonperishable groceries, but the store does not sell fresh produce.
Other stores that sell fresh produce include a Bel-Air market in Roseville, located 1.27 miles east of the former Smart & Final, and a Safeway in Roseville, located across the street from Bel-Air, also roughly 1.5 miles east.
Farther away, the Citrus Heights Walmart Supercenter and Costco Wholesale are located just over 2 miles south. In Roseville to the north, off Douglas Boulevard and Interstate 80, a handful of other grocery stores are located just under 2 miles away, including Trader Joe’s and Grocery Outlet.
The vacant 23,000-square-foot building is located in the Citrus Grove shopping center, which was once anchored by KMART until 2016. Currently, the shopping center is anchored by FunCity, which opened in June. Wells Fargo, California Burger, Gold’s Gym and Jack in the Box also help anchor the shopping center, which is located in close proximity to the Auburn Blvd.-Riverside Avenue I-80 exits.
Ethan Conrad Properties did not respond to a request for comment regarding the property, but former leasing documents from commercial real estate CBRE show the building was at one point listed for sale for $2.9 million. The Sacramento Business Journal reported that the property sold for $1.5 million.
Following the purchase of the site by Ethan Conrad Properties, the building is now listed as available for lease as of Oct. 30.
Ethan Conrad Properties CEO Ethan Conrad told the Business Journal that the motivation to purchase the building was due to the major infrastructure upgrades recently completed along Auburn Boulevard. The Complete Streets project lasted two years and included adding and repairing sidewalks and traffic signal lights, adding crosswalks, street lighting, fresh landscaping, new medians and turn pockets, undergrounding utilities, repairing storm drainpipe infrastructure, and resurfacing and restriping a roughly one-mile stretch of Auburn Blvd.
Commenters responding to the video online also made other suggestions besides grocery stores, proposing everything from the addition of an arcade, fabric stores and hobby stores, a DD’s Discount, adult-oriented businesses, and fast food restaurants along with sit-down restaurants. Some even suggested turning the vacant building into a homeless shelter.
The area immediately surrounding the shopping center contains a mix of several apartment complexes to the northwest and long-established single-family home developments to the northeast. Leasing documents indicate that an estimated 39,000 drivers pass through the intersection of Orlando Avenue and Auburn Boulevard daily, and an estimated 200,000 drivers pass along the freeway going westbound.
The building located at 8525 Auburn Blvd., which currently houses FunCity for at least 15 years, has also been recently listed for sale.
Related: Trampoline park property in Citrus Heights listed for $5.3M – Citrus Heights Sentinel
