By Mark Glover
mglover@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Apr. 17, 2014 – 4:49 pm

Rancho Cordova’s Rivergate Shopping Center, which saw the departure of a 36-year-old Kmart anchor late last year, is ramping up a new look and identity.

Ethan Conrad, head of Ethan Conrad Properties in Sacramento and owner of the Rivergate center at Sunrise Boulevard and Coloma Road, said it “is being transformed from an old Kmart center which had very low customer traffic into a state-of-the-art, modern, high-traffic center, which would be a significant benefit to the city of Rancho Cordova.”

About half of some 85,000 square feet vacated by Kmart will be taken up by Utah-based sporting-goods retailer Sportsman’s Warehouse. The rest of the former Kmart space is being leased by Smart & Final and Pet Club. Remodeling efforts for those sites are ongoing.

Conrad said the new tenants will all be open for business this summer.

Also, the Scooter’s Coffee & Yogurt drive-through site in the Rivergate complex is near completion and should be open for business within the next couple of weeks. Conrad said Chick-fil-A is pursuing permits to begin construction at the mall.

Conrad is building a 5,440-square-foot neighboring building at 2350 Sunrise Blvd., and he said he has leases pending with two as-yet-unidentified tenants for that site.

Conrad purchased Rivergate more than two years ago and immediately embarked on plans to put a new stamp on it, complete with a host of new tenants, including a Dollar Tree store and a Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, the Dallas-based chain that has been making a push to open franchises in the Sacramento area over the past several years.

In his tenant recruiting efforts, Conrad has noted that Rivergate, just north of the busy Sunrise Boulevard interchange off Highway 50, is at one of the busiest traffic spots in the Sacramento area, with more than 100,000 cars per day in the immediate area. Conrad said he hopes the changes he’s making at Rivergate will “quadruple” customer traffic.