Yuba Sutter Marketplace eyes replacement for Sears

The Yuba Sutter Marketplace is working to find a new anchor tenant for the mall following the announcement that Sears would be closing.

The Sears liquidation sale began last month. The store is projected to close on Sept. 6.

“The reason why Sears is closing this store is that, as you know, Sears is closing most of its stores throughout the country because of declining sales and it basically being a dying brand, as well as being in bankruptcy, etc.,” said Ethan Conrad, CEO of Ethan Conrad Properties, which owns the mall.

The closure means the mall can replace the longtime anchor tenant with a stronger tenant who will be more of a benefit for Yuba City, Conrad said, and for other tenants who are located on the property that will benefit from the increased foot traffic.

Conrad said he is close to reaching an agreement with a tenant interested in utilizing the entire building, and there are ongoing talks with a competing lease that would utilize approximately half of the Sears building.

“I am hopeful that I will be able to finalize both leases in the next two weeks because they are both pretty far along,” Conrad said.

Reported tenant sales have been up since the mall’s reopening on May 6. Conrad said tenant

sales have increased 30 percent to over 200 percent in comparison to figures from May 2019 on a sales per day basis.

As for the planned remodel of the Yuba Sutter Marketplace, Conrad said plans are moving forward, though the process has taken longer than originally

anticipated because of modifications to the plans based on some costs coming in higher than initial projected.

“In summary, Yuba City will be very happy with this property continuing to evolve and continuing to improve,” Conrad said.