"There is so much demand for tenant space at Broadway Plaza. We just don't have the space." Macerich CEO Jackson Hsieh said this on an Aug. 4 call with Wall Street analysts, as SiliconValley.com reported. In the same answer he was talking about the one building at the center that has had nothing but space for more than five years.
The former Neiman Marcus at South Main Street and Mt. Diablo Boulevard has three levels and 85,900 square feet. It has sat empty since 2021. Broadway Plaza celebrates its 75th anniversary on Saturday, Oct. 17, and the dark corner can look like a sign of trouble. The rest of this year's tenant moves point the other way. The center doesn't lack tenants. It lacks the right size of room, and it has spent 2026 moving tenants between the small rooms it already has.
The Corner That Outlasted Its Replacement
Neiman Marcus opened in Walnut Creek in March 2012. It had closed for good by January 2021, a run of less than nine years. For a while this year the corner looked settled. RH first brought the city a plan in February 2026 for a complex it called "The Corners." It would have torn down the Neiman building at 1000 South Main St. and the closed Chico's at 1401 Mt. Diablo Blvd. In their place would go four single-story buildings totaling 29,908 square feet on a combined 1.14-acre lot. The plan included a showroom, a pedestrian walkway and a 2,700-square-foot restaurant in a glass conservatory. A sample menu listed a $44 grilled branzino and a $115 wagyu ribeye. City documents estimated at least 140 jobs. It would have been RH's fifth restaurant-and-retail location in the Bay Area, after San Francisco, Palo Alto, Yountville and Corte Madera.
On May 29, the architect representing RH emailed city planners to withdraw the application. That was one week before the project was set to go before the Planning Commission. No reason was given. Mayor Kevin Wilk called the speed of the reversal "shocking" and described it as the biggest retail project underway in Walnut Creek at the time, the Walnut Creek Record reported. City economic development manager Mike Nimon noted that projects this large can cost tens of millions of dollars and depend on interest rates and corporate risk decisions. RH still runs its smaller concept store inside Broadway Plaza.
The RH plan would have replaced an 85,900-square-foot box with roughly 30,000 square feet of new low buildings. That is about a third of the floor area, and nearly all of it for one company. Macerich's new direction for the box looks more like the rest of the plaza.
Where the Demand Went Instead
While the corner stayed empty, almost every change elsewhere in the center this year involved a tenant moving into a space another tenant had left.
| Business | Space it took | Status as of late September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| The North Face | 78 Broadway Lane, former White House Black Market | Signs say Fall 2026; no date posted |
| Sur La Table | 1205 Broadway Plaza, former P.F. Chang's | Store page reads "Opening Late Fall" |
| 7th Avenue | 1233 Broadway Plaza, Suite C46, former Saje Natural Wellness | Opened July 18 |
| gorjana | New spot near the fountain, same center | Open by June 4 |
The North Face move shows the pattern most clearly. The brand already has a store near Nordstrom. It is taking a second storefront in the same center, the space White House Black Market left in May. This comes shortly after The North Face closed its longtime Berkeley outlet in July, which ended its retail presence in the city where it once had its headquarters.
Sur La Table is moving into a storefront that had been empty for more than three years. As of Sept. 29, its store page still showed the location closed every day. Anyone who remembers its cooking classes should know the company's page says this store won't offer them. 7th Avenue is a Los Angeles furniture brand, and Walnut Creek is its third Bay Area showroom after Hayes Valley and Santana Row.
Some spaces opened up as others filled. SoulCycle closed its studio at 116 Broadway Lane on June 14. Recent arrivals include Vuori, Mango, New Balance and Läderach. The directory also lists SKIMS, American Eagle Outfitters and Rowan, a nurse-run piercing studio, as coming soon. "Coming soon" doesn't come with a date. The city's project page for SKIMS still listed it as "Under Review."
North Main Street Is Running the Same Play
The same pattern runs past the plaza. Nearly every downtown opening this summer took over a named former business:
- Doppio Zero opened at 1522 N. Main St. in the former PRIMA Ristorante space and was open by June 8.
- MIXT opened July 14 at 1105 S. California Blvd., replacing Genova Delicatessen.
- Taqueria Extra & Cantina moved a few blocks to 1359 Locust St., the former Fuego Tequila Grill, and was open there by July 15.
- VICI Collection set its grand opening for Sept. 12 at 1366 N. Main St., formerly Paia Mercantile. The brand was founded in Walnut Creek by Sandra Sayegh Dudum and Aimee Dudum Colorado and also has permanent stores in Nashville and Fairfield.
- Salt & Lime was announced Sept. 25 for 1521 N. Main St., the former Oyama Sushi.
Milky Flakes, which serves soft serve and Korean bingsu, was open at 1399 N. Main St. by July 6. Downtown has lost businesses too. The Starbucks at 1663 N. California Blvd., on the ground floor of the Mercer building since Feb. 24, 2014, closed after Sept. 26 as part of a company-wide closure round. That leaves 1340 N. Main St. as the nearby downtown location.
Downtown's storefronts keep finding new tenants, from one to the next. The corner of South Main and Mt. Diablo is the exception, and it is also the one site that isn't storefront-sized.
What Splitting the Box Would Change
Hsieh described Macerich's next step for the corner as converting it into "more inline opportunities." That means smaller shops under one roof, and he said the result would be "more accretive" than the RH deal would have been. It is the plaza's 2026 pattern applied to the building that never fit it. If the people moving into old White House Black Market and P.F. Chang's spaces are the demand Hsieh means, a divided Neiman box would give them somewhere new to go.
Nothing is scheduled yet. As of the latest reporting on Aug. 20, no new tenant, final plan or construction timeline had been announced. The city has said it is looking at opportunities with future tenants for the site. The building's footprint is what has changed. Under the RH plan, a three-story box would have become low, open buildings with a glass restaurant. Under Macerich's idea, the existing structure stays and gets divided into shops. Until there's a filing, there's nothing more to report.
Seventy-Five Years, and the Fall Calendar Around Them
Broadway Plaza opened in 1951 with 38 stores, including Sears. Capwell's was built three years later. The anniversary event, "Once Upon A Street," runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17, on Broadway Plaza Street. It includes flower-crown making while supplies last, a princess meet-and-greet with the Fantasy Forum Actors Ensemble, ballerina photos with The Ballet School Performing Arts, performances by Beloved Little Circus and a 360-degree photo booth.
After that, the season stacks up quickly:
- Oct. 11 and Dec. 13: HEAD WEST Marketplace on North Main Street.
- Nov. 20, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.: Holiday Tree Lighting at Civic Park.
- Nov. 20 through Jan. 18, 2027: Walnut Creek on Ice returns to Civic Park.
- Dec. 3, 6 to 8:30 p.m.: Broadway Plaza's Holiday Parade of Lights and Tree Lighting.
Sur La Table's "late fall" and The North Face's "Fall 2026" put both openings somewhere in this same stretch. Neither company has announced a date.
Some Walnut Creek owners have been watching their own street the way Macerich watches the Neiman corner, wondering what a space is worth now and what it could become. The Knapp Team can give you a clear home valuation built on what's selling in Walnut Creek right now, so you know where your home stands before the holidays.
