Elk Grove Retail Falling Down; Who Will Go Next?

Gottschalks is a good ‘prospect’ for the next closure; Who has guided city planning?


A Sunday afternoon shopping trip to one of area’s numerous shopping centers revealed the perilous state of the Elk Grove economy.

My trip took my son and me to the Market Place 99 Shopping Center on Bond and Highway 99 in search of a certain type of jeans. The center which is about 16 years old is from my best recollection the first major Elk Grove shopping center on the east side of Hwy. 99 built in the 90’s. To my memory it had the area’s first of many chain non-fast-food restaurants, Applebee’s.

The center has been anchored by Raley’s and until its recent liquidation, Mervyn’s. Since then a small beauty supply shop and the longstanding UPS store have closed. Another blow to the center came when the Hollywood Video closed.

Directly across the street, I was surprised to see the Starbucks had closed. While the mass closings of hundreds of Starbucks stores have been well documented, I was surprised because again, it seems this store was the first one on the east side of Elk Grove. Perhaps the lease had run out or it simply was unprofitable despite its long existence.

Of course there have been long standing rumors that Raley’s would either close their store or convert it. In any case, this entire strip center seems imperiled.

Another retailer on the brink is nearby Gottschalks. According to several reports, it could be determined as early as this Wednesday whether or not the Fresno-based retailer will be liquidated. My reading of the situation doesn’t look good.

Obviously the dire state of the economy has determined the fate of many failed businesses throughout Elk Grove. This situation is being playing out right now and for years to come there will be an excess of retail space in town.

Making matters worse, there are tens of thousands (perhaps more) square feet of never occupied retail space.

A major international economic recovery and a huge rebound in consumer confidence will both need to occur before the retail excesses in Elk Grove are corrected. Of course this is not withstanding the Elk Grove Promenade.

But is the situation that Elk Grove finds itself in inevitable?

Coincidentally, last night while looking for some other unrelated information on the city’s website I came upon the planning department’s home page. In case you haven’t perused the planning department’s page, you should take a look.

The page heading is being anchored, excuse the pun, by an artist rendering of the General Growth Properties (GGP) ill-fated Elk Grove Promenade. With the way things are going with GGP and the Elk Grove Promenade, this might be as close to seeing the half completed mall in any form of completion for several years to come.

Here’s a suggestion to our city government; why not remove the artistic rendering of the Elk Grove Promenade and either replace it with a photo of the half-completed strip center, or put a photo of any of the shuttered retailer or never occupied retail space.

This will give a more accurate view of the ‘planning’ done on the city’s behalf by our very own version of Blackwater, aka, Pacific Municipal Consultants.