New San Juan River Street Marketplace set to open this fall

Bird’s eye view of the River Street Marketplace construction. | Frontier Real Estate Investments

The River Street Marketplace, a construction project on Los Rios Street in San Juan Capistrano that broke ground February 2022,  will open for business fall of this year. This project is walking distance to the historic mission, hotels, coffee shops, restaurants, bakeries, a petting zoo and a movie theater. 

Historic San Juan draws in tourists from around the world, as well as locals, said Dan Almquist, president and CEO of Almquist Development. Considering the town’s popularity, an outdoor gathering area for the community where people can shop and dine seemed to be the missing piece of what the town needed, he added. 

“Much has been said about San Juan Capistrano becoming a hot spot destination, and we’re so incredibly proud to help usher in a new chapter for the city and community,” Almquist told the Los Angeles Times in March. 

He added that downtown San Juan’s charm and integrity is something that will remain in the River Street Marketplace.

“All of the buildings have an agriculture agrarian style architecture,” he said. “So we have a Red Barn, a Greenhouse, sit-down restaurants in a building called The Farmstead, we have a Hayloft, and a workshop.”

Local businesses are hopeful for what this new development will have to offer for the town of San Juan Capistrano and the attraction that it will add to their businesses.

“What’s good for San Juan is what’s good for us,” said Dave Vandenberg, owner of FKN Bread. “So as long as there are people walking the streets, we’re going to have people coming in.” 

FKN Bread is a family-owned bakery on Camino Capistrano, located north of the River Street project. 

“Dan has the city’s best interest at heart,” Vandenberg said. 

The River Street Marketplace is expected to include near 35 retailers and restaurants, including clothing store Free People, Mendocino Farms restaurant and Capistrano Brewing.

“You always look at things in San Juan and you say you got one shot and can this be here 100 years from now,” Almquist said. “I think this project is going to fit really well. I think it’s going to bring more people to San Juan, not just for the retailer restaurants but really to appreciate what this city is and its historical roots and the things that are so unique about it.”

Here’s a full list from a March announcement:  

Retailers

• Seager
• Free People
• Toes on the Nose 
• Common Thread
• Wildfire Mercantile 
• SALT optics

Dining

• La Vaquera
• McConnell’s Ice Cream
• Fermentation Farm from Costa Mesa
• Bred’s Hot Chicken
• Finca
• Ubuntu Café
• the Meat Cellar Market and Steakhouse
• Nom
• Kozan Tea & Boba
• Nana’s Fish Chippery
• Gueros Cevicheria
• Mendocino Farms
• Shootz Hawaiian
• Hudson’s Cookies
• Capistrano Brewing

Anna Casper and Diego Crawford go behind the scenes on the River Street Marketplace construction for a Channel 39 news story for the OC News Team.

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