The highly anticipated River Street Marketplace is months away from opening in San Juan Capistrano as construction is slowly coming to completion, according to its developers.
The River Street Marketplace will be an outdoor community gathering space, a project that has been in the works for several years, that will feature rustic and native Californian-inspired architecture, with six buildings around a central green area for pedestrians to congregate.
The project will feature various dining concepts and retailers, local art work, a butcher, a cheese shop and a full bar and brewery. It will also hold an area of communal tables for outdoor dining.
Construction on the 60,000-square-foot development is slated to finish around early 2024, said Dan Almquist, the founder and CEO of Almquist Developers, with tenants of the marketplace to begin opening throughout the first months of the new year.
“It has been such a personal journey,” said Almquist, a San Juan Capistrano resident. “I have been working on this for almost 10 years now. It is really neat to see all the thought and work that has gone into it, and right now, it feels really good to have people express their excitement for the project.”
Overall, 35 retailers or restaurants are expected to occupy the River Street Marketplace, said Almquist. And that includes Bred’s Hot Chicken, Capistrano Brewing, Free People, McConnell’s Ice Cream, Mendocino Farms, Toes on the Nose and Ubuntu Café.
“I know I speak for many residents when I say that we cannot wait,” said Mayor Howard Hart. “I am supremely confident that with the amount of thought and effort Dan Almquist and his team have put into this project. San Juan Capistrano will benefit for generations.”
The vision for the project, said Almquist, is creating a gathering place for the community to come together.
“As you see it come to life, I know that is what it is going to be,” he said. “It will be really impactful for not only San Juan Capistrano but south Orange County as well.”
Built in the Los Rios district of San Juan Capistrano, one of the oldest neighborhoods in California, the River Street Marketplace will feature agrarian architecture broken up across smaller buildings. It will have walkways for pedestrian use throughout the marketplace.
The project is located in the heart of downtown San Juan Capistrano next to Zoomars at River Street Ranch, a petting zoo that the Almquist family also owns.
This project has been in discussion since 2016 after Almquist Developers, previously known as Frontier Real Estate Investments, pitched the concept to the City Council after it purchased the property Ito Nursery, which shuttered in 2021. Then, Almquist billed it as a “legacy project” that could make San Juan Capistrano a dining destination.
The City Council originally approved the project in October 2019, and the project’s footprint was eventually reduced — and extra green space added — to address residents’ concerns about traffic and noise, among other issues.
For Almquist, it has been all about establishing trust with the community.
“Everything that happened, in retrospect, was an opportunity for everyone in the project to get comfortable with each other, and we ultimately ended up with a better project,” said Almquist. “Change is hard, and San Juan Capistrano is constantly changing. I understand that people are going to have hesitations and questions, and it is on us to foster the relationship and do things in a transparent and forthright way.”
Developers officially broke ground on Feb. 16, 2022, with an expected completion date of late 2022 or early 2023, but wet weather pushed the project back about a year, said Almquist.
Besides River Street Marketplace, Almquist Developers has been in the process of constructing similar developments in Whittier and downtown Fullerton and is in talks to collaborate with the Great Park in Irvine. Almquist Developers has additionally assisted in the developments and updates of other local spots in the San Juan Capistrano, such as Capistrano Plaza, Mayfield Restaurant and Marketplace, Breezy’s and Heritage’s Barbecue.
