Staff Writer-Sacramento Business Journal
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Ethan Conrad’s splurge of commercial property buys in the last five years has hit a milestone: More than 4 million square feet owned, constituting over 100 properties and 155 commercial buildings in the region.

At the same time, the company’s also at more than 100 employees, who celebrated those marks with an employee appreciation day last week.

“I’m very pleased that the company has grown so much from a property ownership perspective as well as from an employee perspective,” Conrad said in an email. “Certainly it’s enjoyable to see our company grow from these two different perspectives.”

Conrad’s latest buy, which closed Thursday, was Stonelake Landing, a 74,890-square-foot commercial center in Elk Grove with nine buildings and two empty pads. The property is one of five Ethan Conrad Properties has in escrow to buy at the moment, including two in Sacramento and the Arden-Arcade area set to close within the next few months.

For Stonelake, Conrad said he plans to put a parcel map on the project to allow sales to individual owner-users, though he may also lease the properties. He’ll also do standard rehab and renovations of the center.

He said he’s confident in being able to make the center better leased. “In fact, as of the day before yesterday, I received a proposal to lease approximately 10,000 square feet in two buildings from a national tenant, which would raise the occupancy of the buildings by 15 percent.”

Previously this year, Conrad has bought eight properties.