Real estate investor Ethan Conrad sold Sunset Plaza, a Rocklin retail center, and used the proceeds to make his company’s biggest acquisition in dollar terms, Mills Shopping Center in Rancho Cordova, for $28 million.
By Ben van der Meer  Staff Writer, Sacramento Business Journal
In what he called the largest acquisition he’s made in dollar terms, Ethan Conrad has bought a 235,511-square-foot shopping center in Rancho Cordova.
Conrad bought Mills Shopping Center, at 10301-10395 Folsom Blvd., for $28 million, he said in an email. The price-per-square-foot was particularly attractive, he said, at about $119.
Mills Shopping Center also has six pad buildings, worth about $250 a square foot, he said, and current rents for many tenants are below market.
The current occupancy is approximately 90%, he said.
Conrad stated in an email to his employees that he shared with the Business Journal that he plans to remodel the property and improve its lighting and tree maintenance.
Center anchors include Viva Supermarket, dd’s Discounts and Planet Fitness. The pad stores include Carl’s Jr., McDonald’s and Starbucks.
Retail Opportunity Investments Corp., a publicly traded real estate investment trust, was the seller in the deal. A message left with the company Thursday was not returned. Retail Opportunity Investments (Nasdaq: ROIC) bought the center in 2011 for an undisclosed price.
Buying Mills Shopping Center was actually the second retail move Conrad made in recent days, with a connection to the first. He sold Sunset Plaza, a 72,446-square-foot retail center in Rocklin, for about $10.4 million.
Selling Sunset Plaza to one of its primary tenants, Roseville Motorsports, was the first part of a 1031 exchange, in which he used the proceeds to buy Mills Shopping Center, he said. In a 1031 exchange, where the proceeds from one sale are used to buy a similar property, sale proceeds are exempt from capital gains taxes.
Occupancy at the property improved from about 30% in 2017 to 95% at the time of sale, he said. In a letter to his employees, Conrad attributed the improvement to the company’s standard pattern of remodeling and refurbishing a property and then concentrating on new leases.
Roseville Motorsports did not return a message seeking comment on the company’s purchase of Sunset Plaza, at 5905-6015 Pacific St.
