A little more than a year after he bought it, real estate investor Ethan Conrad has sold a retail building at 7870 Florin Road to the current tenant, who operates a Latino market.

By Ben van der Meer  –  Staff Writer, Sacramento Business Journal

About a year after investor Ethan Conrad bought an empty retail building in the Florin area of Sacramento County, he’s sold it to the current tenant — at a profit.

Conrad said the tenant, E&A Monroy LLC, exercised an option to buy 7870 Florin Road, which closed escrow this week for $2.75 million.

“By purchasing the property, the tenant will actually reduce his cost of ownership based on obtaining low-interest-rate financing as well as financing his tenant improvements over a long time period,” Conrad said in an email to his staff at Ethan Conrad Properties Inc. that he shared with the Business Journal.

No contact information was available for the new owner, who operates a Latino market in the 28,580-square-foot building.

A year ago, Conrad bought the building for about $1.25 million. The building was empty at the time after fitness center Fit Republic had closed, five years after it sold for $4.4 million while the gym had a long-term lease.

At the time he bought it, Conrad said the tenant improvements for Fit Republic left it in good shape, even without a business occupying it. E&A Monroy opened the market there a few months later, after what Conrad said he’d call a moderate remodeling. The option for the tenant to purchase it dates to last September.

The appreciation over the time Conrad owned the property was about $1.5 million, meaning it more than doubled in value over a year’s time.

“I think retail properties overall are pretty good post-Covid, but it really depends on what type of property it is and what kind of tenants are in it,” Conrad said in an email.