By Ben van der Meer – Senior Reporter, Sacramento Business Journal
Oct 27, 2022

Florin Mall became Florin Towne Centre long ago, and anchor store Sears closed a few years ago after the retail chain’s bankruptcy.

Call it another opportunity for real estate investor Ethan Conrad, who closed escrow this week on the department store building in Florin Towne Centre and about 20 acres of developable land around it for $11.2 million.

“It’s a good property again, with strong tenant interest in it which will undoubtedly result in us getting a lot of leases and potential sales of portions of it done at this property reasonably soon,” Conrad said in an email.

The purchase includes the nearly 225,000-square-foot, two-story former Sears store and a 14,254-square-foot stand-alone building that housed Sears’ auto services. It also includes nearly 20 acres of parking surrounding the closed store on three sides, with a marketing brochure suggesting three possible retail pads on that land along Florin Road.

Conrad said he’s already getting interest from potential restaurant, big box and movie theater tenants, as well as an auto-related use for the former service center and 2 acres around it. The property had no operating tenants at the time of sale.

Marketed for sale by JLL, the property at 5901 Florin Road had several competing offers, Conrad said. He was successful in buying the property at a discount because he signed a non-refundable deal with a large deposit and closed escrow in five days, he said.

In addition to working on new leases, Ethan Conrad Properties Inc. will remodel the property, under his typical strategy for new investments. The former Sears, closed since 2018, was built in 1968.

JLL, which had handled retail leasing at the property in recent years, will continue to do so for the near future, Conrad said in an email to his staff announcing the purchase. Ethan Conrad Properties typically handles its own leasing on company properties.

Seritage Growth Properties (NYSE: SRG), the entity created out of Sears’ 2018 bankruptcy to deal with real estate, was the seller in the deal. A message left through Seritage’s website Wednesday was not returned.

Contact Ethan Conrad at 916-779-1000 or ethanconradprop.com for more information.