"The demand for best-in-class retail and dining in this market is real," Jeff Dodd, senior vice president of retail at Sunset Development, said in a press release this spring announcing three more additions to City Center Bishop Ranch.
He's not wrong about the demand. Over the past year, the open-air complex at 6000 Bollinger Canyon Road has cycled through enough tenant announcements to make it feel like a different place every time you walk Alexander Square. But look closely at what's actually landing in those storefronts and a quieter pattern shows up underneath the headlines: most of what reads as new is a like-for-like swap, one national brand or fast-casual concept stepping into the exact footprint another one just vacated. Only two additions changed what a San Ramon evening at City Center can actually look like.
What Actually Changed the Menu
KHAKI is the clearest example. The modern Indian bar and canteen arrived in summer 2025 in a 3,124-square-foot second-floor unit facing Alexander Square, and it took over the exact space Curry Up Now used to occupy. That's not a lateral move. Curry Up Now built its business on fast-casual Indian street food. KHAKI is run by chefs Sujan and Pujan Sarkar, and Sujan is James Beard-nominated and earned a Michelin star at Indienne in Chicago. The menu leans into regional cooking most Bay Area diners haven't had the chance to order locally, including a Bihar-style mutton sealed in a clay handi and slow-cooked without added liquid. Swapping a quick-service counter for a chef-driven kitchen in the same square footage is the kind of change that alters what the address means, not just who's leasing it.
Meyhouse did something similar from a different direction. Co-owners Omer Artun and Koray Altinsoy opened their first Meyhouse in Palo Alto in August 2023, added a second location in Sunnyvale, and picked San Ramon as their third. City Center gave them their largest footprint yet, at 5,359 square feet, and the restaurant confirmed it was open as of late May. Nothing at City Center before Meyhouse combined Turkish mezze and mesquite-grilled meats with a built-in live jazz program. That's a genuine category addition to the complex, not a rebrand of a category that was already there.
What Just Changed Names
Everything else in the current wave is closer to a costume change.
Rico Rico Taco, the Oakland taqueria known for handmade tortillas and spit-roasted al pastor, was targeting a February 2026 opening in a 1,464-square-foot space wedged between West Elm and Fieldwork Brewing Company. That space belonged to C Casa until it closed in 2025. A taco counter took over a taco counter's lease. As of a late-May report the space was still marked "coming soon," which suggests the opening slipped past its original target, but the category never changed. Quick-service Mexican-style food left, and quick-service Mexican-style food is what's replacing it.
lululemon's arrival tells the same story in retail form. The brand announced a one-year pop-up in June, taking over the 5,448-square-foot space Nike vacated. Athletic apparel left, athletic apparel came back. The specific logo changed. The function of that storefront in a resident's Saturday didn't.
Lil Sweet Treat is the closest thing to a wildcard in the group, and even it lands in the same bucket once you look at the address. The globally sourced candy shop, known for a rotating weekly selection and a following built on Pinterest and TikTok, is taking over the former Miette Bakery spot. A confectioner replacing a bakery is a change in supplier, not in what the storefront sells you on a weekend walk through Alexander Square.
One more name is worth flagging precisely because it hasn't landed yet. Palmetto Superfoods, the acai bowl concept with existing locations in San Francisco and Burlingame, was still listed as "coming soon" in City Center's own tenant directory at the time of this writing, in a roughly 1,035-square-foot space near LB Steak. Unlike the swaps above, acai bowls don't have an obvious predecessor in that unit, so this one could end up being a third genuine addition once it opens. For now it's a placeholder, which is its own kind of data point: turnover here moves fast enough that even confirmed leases sit unopened for months.
What Didn't Move While the Storefronts Did
The one fixture that hasn't churned sits in the same plaza as all of this. The San Ramon Farmers Market runs every Saturday on Alexander Square, and this year marks its 20th season, according to the market's own listing. That's two decades of the same weekly rhythm anchoring a plaza that has otherwise seen its ring of storefronts flip repeatedly in just the last twelve months.
The rest of San Ramon's recurring calendar sits outside City Center entirely, which is its own useful contrast. The Street Smarts Community Bike Festival returned to the Iron Horse Middle School blacktop on Alcosta Boulevard this September, offering the same bike safety course and kid-focused programming the city runs annually. Third Thursdays Arts and Eats keeps its monthly slot at the Dougherty Station Community Arts Center, with the next installment landing October 15. None of that depends on which restaurant brand currently holds a specific lease a few miles away.
That's the part worth carrying into how you read the next round of City Center announcements. A new name on the directory tells you a lease changed hands. It doesn't tell you whether the actual experience of showing up changed with it. This year, that distinction mattered twice, once when a fast-casual counter became a Michelin-adjacent kitchen, and once when an empty format at the complex became a Turkish restaurant with a working jazz stage. Everything else was the same kind of business getting a new sign.
If you're weighing whether San Ramon's daily rhythm still fits your life, or you're comparing it against Danville, Alamo, or another East Bay town you're watching, the Mary Bonham Team knows this stretch of the 680 corridor well enough to walk you through it block by block. Reach out when you're ready to talk specifics.
