Stoneridge Drive Is Moving at Two Different Speeds Right Now

Walk the parking field between Pacific Pearl and the old Nordstrom building on any weekday afternoon and you will see two contractor crews doing two very different jobs. One is measuring out a 1,000 square foot shell for a tea shop that has not opened yet. The other is standing outside a padlocked, two-story department store that has sat empty since 2020, waiting for someone to decide what it becomes next.

Both crews are working the same half mile of Stoneridge real estate. Neither is waiting on the other. That is the story of this corridor right now, and it explains something about Pleasanton that a single headline never could.

Four New Leases, One Announcement

Pacific Pearl Shopping Center, the strip mall at 2693-2733 Stoneridge Drive anchored by 99 Ranch Market, just signed four new restaurant tenants in one announcement. Chi Cha San Chen, an international Taiwanese tea brand known for brewed and milk teas, is set to open in a 1,037 square foot space at 2709 Stoneridge Drive by the end of this month. Eight Turn Crepe, a New York City brand built around gluten-free Japanese rice-flour crepes, has leased 1,647 square feet at 2693 Stoneridge Drive and is targeting a late September or early October opening. Yogurtland has signed for 1,220 square feet, also at 2709 Stoneridge Drive, with an opening date still to be announced. And HiroNori Craft Ramen, which has earned recognition in the Michelin Guide for its broths and rice bowls, is taking a 1,404 square foot space at the same 2709 address.

Three of the four leases land at one single street number. That is not a coincidence so much as a sign of how tightly packed this stretch already is, and how much demand there is for a spot in it.

The Building Next Door Just Changed Hands, Too

While those leases were getting finalized, a much larger and much slower deal was closing on the mall's own property. The former Nordstrom building, which opened in 1990 and has sat dark since the store closed in 2020, sold this July for roughly $10.7 million. The buyer is a local investor group, Danville-based 300 Venture Group led by Jerry Hunt, working with Christopher George of CMG Group. The parcel runs about 8.4 acres and includes the vacant building plus a large surface parking lot.

This is the same investor group that bought the former JCPenney building at Stoneridge back in 2022. JCPenney's own lease at the mall ended this past February when the company declined to renew, closing that store for good. Between the two purchases, 300 Venture Group now controls close to 18 acres of the mall's most visible, and most vacant, real estate.

A shopping center losing three anchor stores over the years can look like decline from the outside. But the fact that the same buyer keeps coming back for more of it tells a different story about how that land is being valued.

The Same Buyer, Twice

Simon Property Group still owns and manages the bulk of the interior mall, along with the two Macy's stores that remain the property's active anchors. The city of Pleasanton, for its part, has been trying to steer what happens next for years. Back in December 2023, the city council approved a framework tied to its state-mandated housing element, outlining guiding principles and a conceptual plan for how housing and mixed-use development could eventually fit onto the mall's underused parcels. That framework does not commit any specific owner to any specific project. It sets boundaries for a conversation that, as of this summer, is still mostly a conversation.

Here is where the anchor buildings stand today:

Consolidating two of the four major anchor parcels under one buyer does not guarantee a redevelopment timeline. It does mean that one of the biggest coordination problems, getting multiple owners with different priorities to agree on anything, just got a little smaller.

Why the Restaurants Aren't Waiting on the Mall's Master Plan

This is the part worth sitting with. The four new restaurant leases at Pacific Pearl are each under 1,700 square feet. A tenant that size can sign, build out, and open within a matter of months, which is exactly what Chi Cha San Chen is doing this August. The anchor buildings work on an entirely different clock. 300 Venture Group bought the JCPenney parcel in 2022 and, four years later, has not announced a specific reuse plan for it. The Nordstrom building has now been empty for six years and only just changed hands.

Small tenants move at the speed of a lease. Big anchor buildings move at the speed of entitlement, financing, and getting several property owners to agree on a shared vision, exactly the slower process the city's framework was built to manage.

The rest of the Stoneridge corridor backs this up. Workday recently sold a 60,000 square foot office building at 6000 Stoneridge Mall Road for about $5.5 million, and PG&E paid roughly $21.8 million for a five-story former Workday building nearby at 5928 Stoneridge Mall Road. Those same office parcels were part of a roughly $172.5 million buying spree Workday made around the mall back in 2021. Office space, retail anchors, and small-format restaurants are all turning over in the same square mile at the same time, just on completely different schedules.

What This Means If You Live Near Stoneridge

If your daily route runs anywhere near Stoneridge Drive, expect more construction activity around the 2709 address through September and October as three new tenants finish their build-outs at once. Parking near that stretch of Pacific Pearl may feel tighter on weekends once Chi Cha San Chen and, later, Eight Turn Crepe are both open and drawing their own lines.

The empty anchor buildings are a slower story, and probably will be for a while. What the July sale tells you is that local investors still see enough value in that land, sitting at the interchange of I-580 and I-680 and a short distance from the West Dublin/Pleasanton BART station, to keep buying it even with no finished plan attached. That is a very different signal than a mall simply being left to decline.

For homeowners near this corridor, corridor-level change like this eventually shows up in how appraisers and buyers think about a neighborhood's amenities and access. If you are ever curious about how shifts like this factor into your own home's value, or you are weighing a move within Pleasanton and want a clearer read on what is happening block by block, the team at Luisi & Associates is glad to talk it through. You can request a free home valuation and consultation any time, no obligation attached, just a conversation grounded in what is actually happening on the ground here.