The Sierra Nut House at Villaggio Shopping Center in Fresno will remain open there through the end of 2025. Google Street View image

The Sierra Nut House announced Wednesday that it will remain at its current Fresno location in the Villaggio Shopping Center through December 2025.

The announcement comes nearly six months after news broke that the Sierra Nut House, which saw its Clovis store close in January, would also be surrendering its Villagio location, making space for Sam’s Italian Deli and Market to expand its footprint into North Fresno.

Lewis Smith with commercial real estate firm Retail California confirmed the lease extension Thursday. Retail California represents the Villaggio Shopping Center.

Earlier this year, Smith confirmed that the agreement between Sam’s Italian Deli was not binding, but that a letter of intent to lease the space had been signed. Sam’s Italian Deli owner Nick Marziliano said the delay will potentially end up benefiting the store, allowing more time for planning and construction.

Marziliano said that the extension of the Sierra Nut House lease through December 2025 will allow time for more prep work for his planned second location. That includes time for dealing with PG&E — whose backlog on transformers have caused other projects to be delayed already this year — to power the building.

“Really with the construction and the timeline of construction and working with PG&E…we had a discussion with the landlord,” Marziliano said. “I still haven’t signed a lease; we’re still negotiating out the finals of the lease.”

The lease agreement between the shopping center and Sierra Nut House was set to expire at the end of this year. Sierra Nut House owner Joann Sorrenti said that the agreement between Sam’s Deli and Villaggio had been put on hold thanks to a neighboring tenant’s lease agreement extending through December 2025 — the same timeframe which Sierra Nut House’s lease extends through.

Wednesday evening, Sierra Nut House sent out an email announcing the news.

“To our loyal customers, we want to extend a grand thank you for your continued support,” the email reads. “We hope to see you soon as we get ready for another holiday season at the nut house.”

Despite the lease being extended through December 2025, Sorrenti said that Sam’s Italian Deli will still be moving into the space, as well as the space currently occupied by two neighboring storefronts — a T-Mobile store and Rejuvimed, a dermatology scar treatment center.

Sorrenti said earlier this year that she was blindsided by the talks of her storefront being forced out of its home; Sorrenti has been a tenant at the Villagio Shopping Center since the early 2000s.

Sorrenti, who has been searching for a new space for her one remaining store to call home, has not announced the future location of Sierra Nut House.

Sam’s Italian Deli, which is celebrating its 45th anniversary next year, had hoped to expand its footprint into North Fresno, eyeing the retail space near River Park as a prime location for customers throughout the city to visit; the space would have required heavy renovation to accommodate for customers, many of whom the store’s owner Nick Marziliano says come from as far as Bakersfield and Merced to visit Sam’s Deli.

Marziliano said that he expects Sam’s Italian Deli to open at its new Villagio location in January 2027, after renovations are complete.