CITRUS HEIGHTS, Calif. — Since their heyday in the '80s and '90s, shopping malls across the U.S. have experienced a slow and steady decline, fighting to compete with popular online retailers.
For Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, the struggles have been no different.
Built in 1971, the mall has gone the way of many shopping malls across America, but city leaders say the mall is still the biggest economic engine for the city.
On Tuesday, Feb. 11, city leaders held a vision workshop where community members gathered to give their input on a project called "Sunrise Tomorrow," a city plan for redevelopment of the 100-acre property — 75% of which is parking lot. People who attended the vision workshop were able to tell city leaders what they’d like to see the space become.
“I’m thinking something along the lines of a town square," Peg Wright, a Citrus Heights resident who attended the meeting, said. "We kind of are going away from those things and it would be nice to bring them back. Town squares have a park or some kind of central gathering place. People can have environments around it, that are for shopping or local talent can have a garage band type of environment.”
Revitalizing Sunrise mall is a 24-month project and breaking ground on the new space won’t begin until December 2020.
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