Gold River Town Centre Has Found Its Big Tenants. The Restaurant Pads Are Still Waiting.

First Washington Realty's site plan for Gold River Town Centre lists all 24 spaces between Sunrise Boulevard and Gold Country Boulevard. Each one shows a tenant name or a square footage. Bel Air Markets has 53,058 square feet, Pet Supplies Plus has 6,113 and Wells Fargo has 5,510. Two entries say "Tenant Coming Soon" and eight say "AVAILABLE."

The eight available spaces matter most for the center's next chapter. Six of them are small, between 915 and 2,295 square feet. The other two are freestanding restaurant pads of 5,865 and 6,400 square feet, and together they make up most of the empty space still left.

Ten empty units in April, ten open lines on the map today

In April, the Sacramento Bee reported that 10 of the center's 24 units were vacant, about 37% of its floor area. The closures behind that number included a hair salon, a shoe repair shop, a dessert spot, Starbucks, Rite Aid, Applebee's and Outback Steakhouse. The Bee reported that a Jan. 7 town hall hosted by the Gold River Community Association and First Washington filled a room of about 100 people and a 100-person Zoom link too.

As of early November 2026, the site plan still shows ten spaces without an operating tenant. The difference is that two of those ten are now marked as spoken for. Here is how the open space breaks down:

The two "coming soon" spaces add up to roughly 33,600 square feet. The eight available spaces add up to about 19,850 square feet, or around 14% of the center's 139,643 square feet. That compares with the roughly 37% the Bee counted in April. Of those 19,850 square feet, the two pads account for about 12,265, close to two-thirds of what is still empty.

The anchor box has a name

The biggest "coming soon" line is the most important one. On Oct. 8, the Sacramento Business Journal reported that a Club Studio fitness center could fill the former Rite Aid space. A week later, WhatNow Sacramento listed Club Studio as an anchor tenant at 2111 Gold River Centre Lane. That would make it an anchor alongside Bel Air and Pet Supplies Plus. The only anchor-size open space on First Washington's plan is the 31,609-square-foot MAJB box marked "Tenant Coming Soon."

Club Studio is run by Fitness International, the company behind LA Fitness and Esporta Fitness. WhatNow describes it as a regular gym combined with boutique studio classes, including Reformer Pilates, cycling, boxing, heated yoga and a cardio-and-strength format called CS4. At other Sacramento-area clubs, the recovery side includes cryotherapy, compression therapy, red-light therapy and hydro massage beds. Recovery services and personal training cost extra.

The closest example is about 10 miles north on Sunrise. The Club Studio at Sunrise Village in Citrus Heights opened in September 2024 and drew about 1,000 new members at its grand opening, according to WhatNow. That location is roughly 36,000 square feet, and Fitness International put about $10 million into the remodel and equipment.

A gym also changes when people show up. A pharmacy brings short weekday errands. A studio gym with early classes and recovery appointments brings regular visits on a schedule, and those people walk past the coffee counter, the deli and the market on their way in and out.

The patio residents asked about

The other well-known gap was smaller. Starbucks closed its Gold River Town Centre store in 2025. In the Bee's April story, Gold River Community Association board member Dave Spencer said the store and its outdoor patio had been a common gathering place. "The community wants that to be a hub again," he told the Bee.

In July, WhatNow reported that World Traveler Coffee Roasters had signed a lease for 2095 Golden Centre Lane, the former Starbucks space. World Traveler is a regional company. Its own site lists cafes in Folsom, Roseville, El Dorado Hills, Midtown Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, DOCO, Granite Bay and the Galleria, and its Roseville cafe is where the coffee is roasted. Owners Linoy Nesher and Yaniv Rosenberg bought the business during the pandemic. WhatNow reports that the company roasts in-house on a Giesen roaster. The menu includes honey lavender and rose vanilla lattes, breakfast sandwiches, vegetarian paninis and a rotating pastry case.

Sunday Market regulars may already know the brand. The Gold River Messenger noted in July that World Traveler was serving specialty coffee and ceremonial-grade matcha from a cart at the market, a few steps from its Suite 10 storefront. We wrote about how that market has been trying out the Town Centre's next storefronts earlier this year.

Why the two restaurant buildings are a different problem

The anchor box and the coffee space are filling first because tenants who want that kind of space are out there looking. The pads are harder.

The Bee asked a Sacramento commercial real estate executive about the center. He said filling large restaurant spaces is difficult because the number of strong national chains able to support a space that size is "dwindling," and California's cost of doing business keeps many chains from expanding here. A smaller independent restaurant would likely struggle with the rent on a building that size. He estimated that remodeling an older kitchen can cost $500,000 to $1 million, and that splitting a building into smaller units would also be expensive. He described the center as well located, with heavy traffic on Sunrise Boulevard, and called the vacancies more a product of broader retail trends than of mismanagement.

The closures fit that explanation. The Bee traced the Outback closure to April 2020 and connected the Rite Aid and Applebee's closures to corporate decisions. National chains created the vacancies, and a national chain filling one of them would be the simplest replacement. The Rite Aid box has followed that path with Club Studio. The pads have not had a match yet.

Meanwhile, the restaurants already in the center carry much of the dining. Il Forno Classico, in its 4,485-square-foot space, has been at its Gold River location for more than two decades, according to the restaurant's own history. Arigato Sushi, Jack's Urban Eats, The Mimosa House, Beach Hut Deli and Blaze Pizza fill the rest of the dining list on the plan. Dip'd Dubai, a Dubai-chocolate dessert concept, is listed for Suite 40 at 2121 Golden Centre Lane.

What the next few months look like from the market lot

The best way to follow what happens next is the routine many neighbors already have on Sundays. Here is what to watch:

1. The Sunday Market. It runs 8 a.m. to noon in the Wells Fargo parking lot at 2100 Golden Centre Lane. Remaining November dates are Nov. 15, 22 and 29, followed by every Sunday in December. The weeks rotate through kids, art, car and pet-adoption themes. Vendors who start at the market have shown up in the storefronts before.
2. The "Tenant Coming Soon" labels. First Washington's property page for Gold River Town Centre is public, and its site plan is the quickest place to see a space change from "Available" to spoken for.
3. A second community meeting. At the January town hall, First Washington said the center would stay retail-focused and that it would improve parking-lot lighting and landscaping. The company has since added LED lighting in the parking lots. A second meeting was promised, and as of the Bee's April report it had not been scheduled. If it happens, it is the most likely place to hear plans for PAD2 and PAD4.

Club Studio gives the center a new anchor next to Bel Air and Pet Supplies Plus. What goes into the two buildings on PAD2 and PAD4 will decide how much dining Gold River Town Centre adds.

The Town Centre is the Gold River errand stop people bring up most when we talk about the neighborhood, and which tenants arrive next changes how this corner works day to day. If you're thinking about a home within walking distance of Sunrise and Gold Country, or about selling one, Allison R Billings can walk you through how the center fits into everyday life in Gold River. Let's Talk Your Goals.