Elk Grove approves Calvine Pointe storage project on long-vacant retail pad

ELK GROVE, Calif. — The Elk Grove City Council unanimously approved plans Wednesday for a mixed-use retail and self-storage project at the Calvine Pointe Shopping Center, clearing the way for development of a site that has remained vacant despite more than two decades of efforts to attract traditional retail tenants.

The project, located at 8854 Calvine Road, will replace a previously approved retail development on the shopping center’s Major 3 pad with a three-story, 135,444-square-foot building containing approximately 123,444 square feet of personal storage space, 10,000 square feet of commercial and office space, and 2,000 square feet of flexible retail, office or storage space. The proposal also includes a separate 3,900-square-foot building with drive-up storage units.

Presenting the project to the council, Senior Planner Sarah Kirchgessner said the development would occupy a vacant 1.86-acre portion of the Calvine Pointe Shopping Center near the southwest corner of Calvine Road and Elk Grove-Florin Road. She noted the shopping center has undergone several revisions since its original approval in 2005 and that the site has remained undeveloped despite multiple attempts to attract retail users.

Kirchgessner said the project is consistent with the city’s General Plan and zoning regulations and would have “minimal impact on the surrounding neighborhood,” citing an existing masonry wall and landscaping buffer between the site and nearby residential properties. She also noted the facility would include ground-floor commercial space, electronic security gates and locks, and a comprehensive surveillance camera system.

While acknowledging concerns about the growing number of self-storage facilities in Elk Grove, Kirchgessner said city staff supports the proposal because it would activate an underutilized parcel within an existing shopping center. She told the council that staff is preparing potential zoning amendments later this year that could include new restrictions on self-storage projects citywide.

Developer Paul Petrovich, who has owned the property since before Elk Grove incorporated as a city, told council members he had spent years attempting to develop the site as originally envisioned.

“I’ve been a retail developer for 45 years,” Petrovich said. “I believe I am the longest-tenured major shopping center owner in the city of Elk Grove.”

Petrovich said changing retail trends, the growth of major commercial centers along Highway 99, rising development fees and competition from existing grocery stores at the Calvine Road and Elk Grove-Florin Road intersection made it increasingly difficult to attract tenants.

“I’ve developed a couple billion dollars worth of retail projects and this has been a personal quasi-failure for me to not bring the center to its fullest potential,” he said.

Petrovich argued the project would provide a productive use for land that has sat vacant for years while maintaining a retail presence through commercial space on the building’s ground floor.

“I know this isn’t the city’s favorite use,” he said, “but I think we’ve done a good job of figuring out something for this parcel instead of having it vacant and full of trash.”

He also described the project as “about the quietest neighbor the neighborhood can have next to it” and said the building’s design was intended to resemble an office building with ground-floor retail rather than a traditional storage facility.

Petrovich is one of the Sacramento region’s most prominent developers. In 2023, the City of Sacramento agreed to a $26 million settlement after years of litigation over the city’s handling of a proposed gas station in his Curtis Park development. Courts found that a Sacramento council member had demonstrated an unacceptable probability of bias during the approval process, leading to the settlement.

The Elk Grove project was approved following a public hearing with no opposition voiced before the council.