Magnolia Antiques Could Leave Carmichael Oaks Center

With so many empty storefronts, one Carmichael resident and business owner said she feels like she’s been stranded on an island, left to fend for her self.

Caryn Conway has been a Carmichael business owner for 14 years. Her store has been located near the corner of Fair Oaks Boulevard and Marconi Avenue in the Carmichael Oaks Shopping Center for seven years and was across the street in what is now Coffman’s Furniture for seven years before that.

“I have been running a business for 14 years at this intersection," Conway said. "When we first opened, Carmichael had a really strong reputation for being a good place to live and work. In about 2000, we started noticing things changing.”

Some of the changes Conway noted are increased vacancies, trash, vandalism, graffiti, panhandlers and homeless people loitering or living around her store. 

Though she understands the economy is partially responsible for the vacant buildings and declining businesses, Conway said she feels like this problem is particularly rampant in Carmichael and that if things don’t start to improve, she might move her business elsewhere.

“I’m actually considering closing or leaving the location entirely and it makes me sick because we have been here for so long,” Conway said. “But this is my business and livelihood – I have to go where I can get money.”

Brenda Miller, a commercial broker with Associates West Commercial Real Estate who handles leasing of the Carmichael Oaks complex and has worked in Carmichael for 17 years, said she also notices the increasing number of vacancies in Carmichael, but that there is a larger issue behind this particular complex.

“Out of all my listings this one has been the most challenging because it has the most vacancies,” Miller said. “We’re dealing with an unanchored center and there just aren’t tenants looking around like there were a while back.”

Although Magnolia and Beverly’s Yard of Fabrics are the closest thing this complex has to “anchor stores,” Miller said true anchors tend to be grocery and drugs stores – places that increase foot traffic and benefit the surrounding businesses. The complex also includes , which replaced the site of a Copeland's Sports store, and the .

While they may not be traditional anchors, Miller did note that if either of these main stores were to leave, the complex would be severely hindered.

“It would really hurt the ownership if they left,” Miller said. “It’s going to be harder to survive if one of those places leaves.”

Conway too said she believes there is a larger issue with this particular area – she is concerned the county is too restrictive, resulting in more vacancies.

president Chris Meyer said increasing vacancies, though very apparent in Carmichael, are a statewide issue, not just a local or county problem.

“I’d love to pin it on Carmichael but to me it seems California-wide,” Meyer said. “It’s really all over – I don’t feel like we’re special.”

What Meyer said was Carmichael specific is the , which has not yet been put into effect. The corridor plan was set up to beautify Fair Oaks Boulevard and make the community more focused around pedestrian traffic rather than the automobile.

While the corridor plan could potentially make Carmichael a more successful community, Meyer said one concern is the restrictions it might place on existing and incoming businesses.

“The biggest concern we have is that we don’t want to restrict anything more than what has already happened because further restrictions will create more vacancies, not less,” he said.

While he understands wanting to restrict certain kinds of businesses, Meyer said he does not think any one person should be an arbiter of what can or cannot be in a community.

“If they are contributing positively to the community and paying rent, we don’t want to draw the line,” Meyer said.

Meyer said he and the chamber are focused on helping Carmichael businesses as much as possible and that he hopes Magnolia Antiques does not leave the area.

Conway, who is currently on a month-to-month lease, said she is looking at locations outside of Carmichael, but has not yet fully decided to relocate. Until she decides, she will not renew her lease at the Carmichael Oaks center.

Conway said she hopes something is done to bring business back to Carmichael and that she would like to stay and help the Carmichael Oaks complex, but that she can only do so much with her limited time and resources.

“We’re worth doing something for,” Conway said. “We are one of the last remaining heroes, so to say. We are very good for the community. We are a special little place and if we leave, boy it’s going to be bad.”

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