Business Journal: Sprouts, Town & Country, Sunrise Village, FitCade

There's another Sprouts Farmers Market opening in Sacramento. The new grocery store will be in Town & Country Village at Fulton and Marconi. It will fill a portion of a former Save Mart grocery space, which is being divided. The Sacramento Business Journal's Sonya Sorich says the Phoenix-based chain is expanding quickly in the area.

"Sprouts currently operates six local stores and some of those are pretty recent additions," says Sorich. "For example, earlier this year the grocer opened a location that filled most of a former hardware store space in Folsom. And it has some other stores in the works too. A new location in North Natomas is moving forward, as well as one in Lincoln."

The new Sprouts at Town & Country Village could open in the third-quarter of next year. The shopping center is getting a few other additions including Five Guys Burgers and Fries and Ulta Beauty.

Sunrise Village - a shopping center in Citrus Heights - has a new owner, and that could mean changes in the near future. Sorich says the site was recently purchased for nearly 26 million dollars by Merlone Geier Partners.

"It's near the northwest corner of Sunrise Boulevard and Madison Avenue," says Sorich. "And it's possible that parts of this center could be reconfigured and the company acknowledges that eventual changes will be dramatic. But you have to remember this will take some time."

That's because remodeling would happen after the developer finishes work on its current revamp of Arden Creek Town Center in Sacramento's Arden-Arcade area.

If you're shopping at the Westfield Galleria in Roseville, you may see some people clad in workout gear. A new business recently opened that offers virtual reality fitness games. Sorich says it's a way for brick-and-mortar businesses to compete with online retailers.

"This is a prime example of how mall tenants are evolving with the changing retail climate," says Sorich. "And the owners of FitCade, a husband and wife team, actually have big expansion plans beyond the Galleria site. This is their first location but ultimately they would like to have a full fledged virtual reality fitness gym."

Customers pay a fee, put on a headset, and are transported into a virtual world where they can do things like run, box and dance. FitCade is in an 1,800 square-foot site on the mall's second-floor that used to be a sock store.