On Sunday, August 2, Marmalade Cafe served its last meal at The Commons at Calabasas. It had been there since 1998 — one of the center's original tenants, twenty-eight years.
The company's explanation was blunt. "The ongoing construction throughout the shopping center has resulted in a devastating decline in business," it said, adding that "despite our best efforts to weather these changes… the landlord declined to help." The Acorn reported that Marmalade asked for construction-period rent relief and was refused.
Fresh Brothers Pizza is gone too.
Almost everything written about the Commons redevelopment describes what's coming. This is the part that's already happened — and most of the coverage still in circulation describes a version of the project the city replaced two years ago.
Executive Summary
- The Calabasas City Council approved the project twice: Resolution 2023-1880 on December 6, 2023, then a scaled-down Resolution 2024-1927 on October 9, 2024.
- The approved project shrank by 16%: from 119 apartments and 210,921 square feet of new floor area to 80 apartments and 176,261 square feet.
- Affordable housing dropped from 12 units at low-income to 4 units at very-low-income, under a 55-year affordability covenant.
- New commercial space grew slightly, to 27,411 square feet, for 12 to 14 shops and restaurants. No tenants have been publicly announced.
- The traffic study projects 437 net new daily trips, 69 in the AM peak and 65 in the PM peak — after crediting roughly 998 daily trips removed with the 567-seat movie theater.
- Commercial parking drops from 1,059 spaces to 931 — a loss of 128, or 10.7%. Projected peak demand is 896 spaces.
- The 2024 downsizing was approved as a consent calendar item. The Planning Commission never reviewed it.
- Site prep began January 2026 and construction broke ground February 3, 2026. Some shops are targeted for end of 2026; all construction including the apartments completes Fall 2027.
- Marmalade Cafe, an original 1998 tenant, closed August 2, 2026, citing construction. Fresh Brothers also closed during construction.
- The plaza green space grew in the revision, from 2,840 to 4,720 square feet, planned for community events, children's programming and outdoor movies.
The numbers most coverage still gets wrong
If you have read about this project, you have probably seen 119 apartments and 210,921 square feet. Those figures are real, but they describe the plan the council approved in December 2023 — not the one being built.
In October 2024 the council approved a materially smaller project. Here is what changed:
| Approved Dec 2023 | Approved Oct 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Total new floor area | 210,921 sq ft | 176,261 sq ft |
| Apartments | 119 | 80 |
| Affordable units | 12, low-income | 4, very-low-income |
| New commercial | 24,163 sq ft | 27,411 sq ft |
| Building B height | 46 ft, 3 stories | 33 ft, 2 stories |
| Subterranean parking | Included | Eliminated |
| Plaza green space | 2,840 sq ft | 4,720 sq ft |
| Earthwork export | 10,600 cubic yards | 400 cubic yards |
Building A stayed at 85 feet and eight stories.
Two things in that table matter more than the rest. The project got physically smaller and generated far less truck traffic during construction — 400 cubic yards of exported dirt instead of 10,600. And the affordable housing was cut by two-thirds.
One note on a figure you may also encounter: coverage of the February groundbreaking described roughly 190,000 square feet of new construction. The number entitled by the city is 176,261. Where the two came from is not documented; the city's figure is the one in the resolution.
How an 85-foot building happened in a 35-foot zone
The Commercial Mixed-Use zoning at this site limits buildings to 35 feet. Building A is 85 feet.
That gap was bridged by California's State Density Bonus Law, which lets a developer who includes affordable housing request waivers from local development standards. The detail worth knowing: Caruso asked for a density bonus of zero percent. No additional units. The law was used entirely to obtain the height waiver, smaller parking stall dimensions, and the state's reduced residential parking ratios.
At the December 2023 hearing, Councilmember James Bozajian called the 85-foot height "extraordinary" and asked that the project return to council if it grew in final design.
The city's own staff report noted that denying the requested concessions would require further analysis under the Housing Accountability Act — the state law that limits a city's ability to reject qualifying housing. A pro-housing organization, the California Housing Defense Fund, submitted a letter pressing that point.
This is worth understanding if you were surprised by the outcome. Calabasas voters rejected a 161-unit apartment proposal in 2020 by 77.5% to 22.5%. Six years later a project with a taller building was approved with broad public support and no organized opposition. State housing law is a large part of why the second one was harder to stop.
The traffic question, answered
Traffic was the most common concern raised at the hearings. The study is public, and it is more specific than the conversation around it.
Linscott, Law & Greenspan analyzed the project in July 2023. Their conclusion:
- 437 net new daily trips, roughly 218 in and 217 out
- 69 net new trips in the AM peak hour
- 65 net new trips in the PM peak hour
Those are net figures. The demolished movie theater — 567 seats — was generating about 998 daily trips and 45 PM peak trips, and that reduction is already subtracted. So the honest summary is that trips go up, but by less than the new construction alone would suggest.
The study also screened the project out of vehicle-miles-traveled analysis under SB 743, on two grounds: the commercial component is below the 50,000-square-foot threshold for local-serving retail, and the site sits in an area the county already classifies as low-VMT for residential. Freeway ramp queuing was screened out as well, with fewer than 25 added trips at any nearby ramp.
Whether 437 more daily trips on Calabasas Road feels like a lot is a judgment call. But it is the number, and it comes from the study the city relied on.
The parking math behind the empty tables
The parking numbers explain more about the merchant situation than the traffic numbers do.
KOA Corporation's shared parking analysis found:
- The center had 1,059 commercial spaces
- The completed project provides 931 — a reduction of 128 spaces, or 10.7%
- Projected peak demand, on a December weekend afternoon, is 896 spaces
That leaves a projected margin of 35 spaces at the busiest hour of the year. The study concluded the project "is not anticipated to generate adverse off-site parking effects."
That is the projection for the finished center. It is not a description of what parking looks like during two years of construction, when portions of the lot are fenced. Valet now runs Friday through Sunday, 11am to 7:30pm.
The October 2024 report on the downsized project gives no revised parking counts, so the post-reduction numbers are not on the public record.
How the smaller version was approved
The December 2023 approval went through the full process: a Development Review Committee meeting, two Architectural Review Panel sessions, two Planning Commission hearings, and a council public hearing with 38 speakers. The Planning Commission recommended approval 5–0 after the applicant added 26 voluntary conditions.
The October 2024 revision took a different route. It was placed on the consent calendar — the portion of a council agenda reserved for routine items approved in a single vote without individual discussion. It was pulled for separate consideration after public comment and passed unanimously. The Planning Commission did not review it.
Reducing a Housing Element site from 119 units to 80 required the council to make written "no net loss" findings under state law, confirming the city could still meet its housing obligations elsewhere. It found that 329 units are still required and 1,157 units remain available across other opportunity sites.
Speaking as a private citizen at that meeting, Planning Commissioner Michael Harrison objected to the placement of the four affordable units, describing them as "located next to the trash area at the bottom, in the back facing the driveway and the cement wall."
What opens when
- January 2026 — site preparation began
- February 3, 2026 — groundbreaking
- Now — construction underway on both the new shops and restaurants and the apartment parking structure. The center remains open, with normal hours.
- End of 2026 — some new shops and restaurants targeted to open
- Fall 2027 — completion of all construction, including the residential building
The finished center adds 12 to 14 shops and restaurants, a landscaped paseo, and a green space roughly two-thirds larger than the December 2023 plan called for, intended for community events and outdoor movies.
No tenants for the new space have been publicly announced.
The theater
The Edwards Grand Palace opened at The Commons on December 18, 1998, with six screens and 649 seats. It closed in September 2022 when Regal's parent company went through bankruptcy, reopened that Christmas under Regency Theatres with recliner seating, and closed for good at the end of 2025.
Caruso's stated reason is that a movie theater "made a lot of sense when The Commons opened in 1998, before the advent of streaming services." Worth noting the sequence: the entitlement approving the theater's demolition passed in December 2023, two years before it closed.
Its closure leaves no movie theater between Thousand Oaks and Woodland Hills.
What this means if you live or own nearby
I am not going to tell you what this does to your property value, because the data doesn't support a claim either way yet. There were 18 sales on the streets closest to the site in the past twelve months. That is not enough to separate a construction effect from which houses happened to sell.
What I can tell you is what's practical.
If you're selling nearby before Fall 2027, buyers will see the construction and ask about it. Knowing the completion date, the traffic figures and the parking plan turns an objection into an answer. Being vague about it is what costs you.
If you're a Commons merchant or looking at commercial space there, the parking arithmetic above is the number to plan around, and Marmalade's experience is the case study on what construction-period revenue can look like.
If you're considering downsizing into one of the 80 apartments, Caruso names "seniors looking to downsize" as a target resident. Those units come online in Fall 2027. If selling a Calabasas house is part of that plan, the sequencing question — when to list, whether to bridge, what to do if the timelines don't line up — is worth working out well before then, not in 2027.
The next twenty-eight years
It is worth remembering what was here before The Commons. A roughly 70-acre dirt field. Caruso didn't buy this center — he built it, from the ground up, and it opened in November 1998. For twenty-eight years it has been where Calabasas actually gathers. Not a mall. The place you run into people.
What's being built is a bet that it stays that way for the next twenty-eight.
The green space at the center of the plan grew rather than shrank in the revision — from 2,840 square feet to 4,720, laid out for community events, children's programming, local music, and outdoor movies. There's a landscaped paseo with wide sidewalks at pedestrian scale. Twelve to fourteen new shops and restaurants. Eighty homes for people who want to live somewhere they can walk to dinner, which in this part of Los Angeles County is close to unheard of.
There's a small irony in it that I like: the replacement for a demolished movie theater includes screening movies outdoors, in a park, for free.
At the groundbreaking, Rick Caruso said something about Calabasas that is easy to skip past: "Capital flows where it's safe, and where it's allowed to grow. In an era where so many cities are struggling, the City of Calabasas is just the opposite."
None of that erases the cost of getting there. Marmalade was open for the entire first twenty-eight years and did not make it to the twenty-ninth. Both of those things are true at the same time, and I'd rather tell you both than pick the half that's easier to read.
What I could not confirm
A few things are unresolved, and I would rather say so than fill the gap.
Sources disagree on the theater's exact final day — reporting variously gives late December 2025, early January 2026, and February 2026. No record of the actual demolition date is public. Post-downsizing parking counts were never published. A $120,000 traffic mitigation fee was reported by The Acorn but does not appear in the traffic study or the resolution. And Caruso has not publicly responded to the merchant concerns; The Acorn noted it was unable to reach the company.
Common questions
Is The Commons open during construction? Yes. All stores and restaurants remain open with normal hours — Monday through Thursday 10 to 7, Friday and Saturday 10 to 8, Sunday 11 to 7. Surface parking remains available, and valet operates Friday through Sunday from 11am to 7:30pm.
When will the new shops open? Some are targeted for the end of 2026. All construction, including the apartment building, is scheduled to complete in Fall 2027.
How many apartments, and are any affordable? Eighty apartments. Four are deed-restricted as very-low-income under a 55-year covenant. The December 2023 approval called for 119 units with 12 affordable at the low-income level; the October 2024 revision reduced both.
Will traffic get worse? The traffic study projects 437 more daily trips and about 69 more in the morning peak hour, after accounting for the roughly 998 daily trips the closed movie theater no longer generates. The project was screened out of further vehicle-miles-traveled analysis under state law.
Is parking being reduced? Yes. Commercial parking goes from 1,059 spaces to 931, a 10.7% reduction. The shared-parking study projects peak demand of 896 spaces at the busiest time of year.
Why is Building A 85 feet when the zoning limit is 35? State Density Bonus Law allows waivers from local standards for projects including affordable housing. The developer requested no additional units — a 0% density bonus — and used the law for the height waiver and reduced parking standards.
Is the movie theater coming back? No. The theater site is where the apartment building is going. The plan does include outdoor movie screenings in the new green space.
A note on sources
Entitlement figures come from City of Calabasas Resolutions 2023-1880 and 2024-1927 and the associated staff reports. Traffic figures are from the Linscott, Law & Greenspan analysis dated July 21, 2023; parking figures from the KOA Corporation shared parking analysis dated July 12, 2023. Construction status and hours come from the City's Commons Lane project page and shopcommons.com. Merchant closures are from The Acorn's reporting of August 7, 2026.
Where published figures conflict, I have used the city's entitlement documents and said so.
I have spent thirteen years and about $152 million in sales volume in this market, and my office is on Calabasas Road, a few minutes from the site. I've watched this center be the middle of town for most of my career, and I'm looking forward to what it becomes.
If you own nearby and want to talk through what the next two years look like for your timing, call me — whether or not you're selling.