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The Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com are embarking on a cover story series in 2025 exploring the downtowns throughout the Tri-Valley. Our project arrives at the freeway crossroads for reporter Jude Strzemp’s feature on the future envisioned for downtown Dublin.
The city aims to redevelop its downtown over the coming decades, beginning with the Dublin Place shopping center. Seen here is a rendering of an envisioned town square sited in the present-day shopping center. (Image courtesy city of Dublin) 
The retail district of downtown Dublin is a vehicle-centric area that the city intends to shift towards a more pedestrian-friendly gathering space. (Photo by Jude Strzemp) 
Target currently anchors the Dublin Place shopping center. (Photo by Jude Strzemp) 
Spirit Halloween has been a temporary occupant the past two autumns for the large storefront vacated by Hobby Lobby. For the rest of the year, it is among several notable empty buildings in Dublin Place dormant amid real estate dealings and redevelopment proposals. (Photo by Jude Strzemp) 
As part of the previous Dublin Commons project proposal, the sites housing PetSmart and neighboring businesses were slated for use in research and development. (Photo by Jude Strzemp) 
Three Sheets Craft Beer Bar manager Ana Snoh is among the community members who don’t see the city as having a downtown. (Photo by Jude Strzemp) 
Dublin’s first traffic signal, located at the intersection of San Ramon Road and Amador Valley Boulevard, is sited in the city’s present-day downtown. (Photo courtesy of Dublin Heritage Park & Museums)
At the intersection of two main throughways, large lettering announces the entrance to “Downtown Dublin”.
Cars zip past the sign and along Dublin Boulevard, buffered on each side by large parking lots and big-box retailers.
It was a typical mid-September afternoon in Dublin.
As the city aims to create a walkable, mixed-use area at its center, the shift away from expansive parking lots and vehicle-centric roadways is anything but immediate.
Following years of project planning, movement toward redeveloping the city’s downtown receded from public view late last year when a developer pulled project entitlements from City Council consideration.
The retracted Dublin Commons project proposal sought to develop the Dublin Place shopping center, an area currently anchored by Target, located at 7200 Amador Plaza Road.
Proposed by property owner American Realty Advisors in concert with Hines, Dublin Commons was a mixed-use project of up to 275,000 square feet of retail – consisting of 155,000 square feet of new retail and 120,000 square feet of existing retail — 535,000 square feet of research and development in life science, 1,510 multifamily residential units and a new town square, as of September 2024.
The proposed site is envisioned by the city as the starting point to revitalizing its downtown into a pedestrian-friendly gathering place with mixed-use developments that are also visually appealing.
The Dublin City Council was set to hold a public hearing regarding the project at the Oct. 1, 2024 regular meeting, but it was postponed to an undetermined date upon the applicant’s request.
Since the last staff update in October 2024, staff and the property owner continue to work together on a revised plan that incorporates feedback received during city council meetings, said Hazel Wetherford, Dublin deputy city manager. They are currently reviewing the proposal layout, final design and necessary agreements, Wetherford added.
However, no upcoming council actions are expected at this time regarding the Dublin Commons project, Wetherford said.
It is not yet known when construction will begin on the city’s vision of a revitalized downtown, Wetherford added.
“The revitalization is intended to enhance quality of life by creating more public spaces and walkable streets where people live, work, socialize, create and gather, becoming a full-blown center of community life,” Mayor Sherry Hu told the Weekly.
A lay of the land
Under the Downtown Dublin Specific Plan, the city’s downtown spans 284 acres of land generally bound by Village Parkway to the east, Interstate 580 to the south, San Ramon Road to the west and Amador Valley Boulevard to the north. However, some of the plan area extends beyond these bounds.
The DDSP, originally adopted in February 2011, also sections the downtown into three areas with specific guidelines for each: the retail district, transit-oriented district and Village Parkway district.
Currently, downtown Dublin serves primarily as a regional retail hub, Hu said.
Retailers such as Target, Ross and Marshalls represent a “unique niche” in the region and attract patrons from the entire Tri-Valley, the DDSP states.
The area also provides some transit-oriented housing, but is largely focused on auto access and big-box retail, Hu added.
Downtown Dublin is currently dominated by automobiles due to the area’s large block sizes, wide and busy roadways, large building footprints and expansive parking lots, the DDSP notes.
By comparison, neighboring downtowns are pedestrian-friendly with small boutique stores, shops and restaurants, Wetherford explained.
But unlike Pleasanton and Livermore, Dublin never had a railroad stop, Wetherford said.
As she explained, it is common for railroad stops to organically grow into a main street with hotels, restaurants and markets. “We have a downtown,” Wetherford said. “What we don’t have is a main street experience that you see in neighboring communities, like in Livermore and in Pleasanton.”
“It’s something that this community has asked for,” Wetherford added. “In the 14 years that I’ve been here, that’s been the one thing that I’ve constantly heard from the community.”
But according to some members of the community, the city doesn’t even have a downtown at all.
Local historian Steve Minniear told the Weekly that in his opinion, “There is no downtown Dublin.”
City takes aim at a vision
Building up a downtown with the “main street experience” has been a yearslong goal for the city, according to Wetherford.
Based on community feedback, Wetherford pointed to Pleasanton, Livermore, Walnut Creek and Danville as having inspiring downtowns.
The planned revitalization is also meant to support local economic growth, attract new businesses and strengthen Dublin’s identity as a regional destination, Hu said. In becoming a more walkable area, the work will also improve sustainability.
Prior to the DDSP, there were five specific plans applicable to areas considered downtown Dublin. Previous plans — the majority of which were adopted in 2000 — permitted the additional development of nearly 3.2 million square feet of non-residential development, 740 dwelling units and 150 hotel rooms, according to the DDSP.
Guy Houston, who was mayor during those deliberations in 2000, said downtown Dublin was envisioned with inspiration from Walnut Creek.
Just as Walnut Creek is at the crossroads of I-680 and Highway 24, Dublin is at the crossroad of I-680 and I-580, he noted.
“I always said for years, downtown Dublin is Walnut Creek, 30 years later,” the former mayor said.
Building upon the DDSP, the council approved the Downtown Dublin Preferred Vision in November 2019 as a roadmap to improving the retail district of downtown Dublin over the next 30 to 50 years, according to the city website.
The three main principles of the preferred vision are the siting of a 1-acre town square, a new street grid network with walkable blocks and “downtown character”, defined by mixed-use development.
The city would like to see construction of its vision begin with the town square and supporting restaurant and retail, but they acknowledge that the starting point can take on different forms, Wetherford said.
As part of the preferred vision approved in 2019, the city aimed to achieve the town square and related surrounding development in the next five years.
Notably, the preferred vision is different from a plan, Wetherford explained.
“The Downtown Preferred Vision was developed to illustrate the types of land uses and development patterns the community wanted to see — it is a vision, not a detailed redevelopment plan,” Wetherford said.
It is expected that a property owner or developer would use the city’s preferred vision as a conceptual foundation when preparing an actual proposal, Wetherford explained.
Market factors play a role in the downtown redevelopment, said Inge Houston, president and CEO of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce.
“We can all say, ‘We want this.’ But a developer is going to come in and say, ‘But we’re willing to build this. This is what we want to invest our money in’,” she said.
The city would need to pay for the projects in order to get exactly what it envisions, she added.
The desire for a more pedestrian-friendly, main street experience that Wetherford touched on is reflected in the views of longtime residents and business owners who don’t see their city as having a true downtown.
When Dublin formed at the historic crossroads near present-day I-580 and I-680, there were a couple hotels, a church and houses from about 1860 to about 1960, Minniear explained.
“That was the little, off-roads market town that was Dublin,” Minniear said.
“The developers come in from the 1960s basically to now, and they build housing developments and strip malls,” he added.
But arguably, there was a semi-modern downtown recognized in the 1980s and ’90s along Village Parkway, from Amador Valley Boulevard to Dublin Boulevard, Minniear said.
Noting the busyness of intersections, Three Sheets Craft Beer Bar manager Ana Snoh agreed that Dublin doesn’t seem to have a downtown. “It just kind of feels like one major street,” Snoh said.
Dick Green, owner of Dublin Vacuum along Village Parkway, said he doesn’t see the city as having a downtown either.
Pleasanton’s Main Street is an old-timey downtown, according to Green.
“Dublin really doesn’t have that kind of situation,” he said.
When does the vision take shape?
Within the retail district sits two shopping centers, Dublin Place and Dublin Plaza.
On one side of the district, Dublin Plaza is known for housing businesses such as CVS, Daiso and Fitness 19.
On the other side is Dublin Place, featuring stores and restaurants such as Target, PetSmart, Chipotle, Panera Bread and Yafa Hummus.
Dublin Place also hosts empty storefronts that were once home to Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ restaurant in the northeast corner, Toys “R” Us, Burlington, Coco’s Bakery Restaurant and Hobby Lobby — the latter of which is momentarily occupied by Spirit Halloween.
“It’s a ghost town, instead of a downtown,” former Dublin planning commissioner Stephen Wright said of the area.
Dublin Place serves as the city’s first area of focus in the downtown revitalization, according to Wetherford.
Since the preferred vision was approved in 2019, ARA — current-day owner of Dublin Place — began working with a developer to create the Dublin Commons project proposal, according to Wetherford.
Following multiple purchases at Dublin Place – including ARA’s recent purchase of the building that formerly housed Burlington as well as nearby Bassett Furniture — ARA became the sole property owner of the shopping center.
Project applicant Hines and ARA, submitted their formal application May 17, 2024 for the Dublin Commons project.
Target was slated to remain in its present-day location, while the areas currently featuring PetSmart, Yafa Hummus, Chipotle and Panera Bread were proposed for new uses in research and development.
By Sept. 10, 2024, the Planning Commission recommended the approval of the Dublin Commons project to the City Council.
Separate from the Dublin Commons project proposal, but located in the same shopping center, the council approved a project dubbed Dublin Place North in August 2024.
Applicant Hines proposed the construction of a new 33,125-square-foot, multi-tenant commercial building and associated site improvements at the northeastern corner of the shopping center. Anticipated tenants include existing Dublin Place lessees, PetSmart, Panera Bread, Chipotle, BMO Bank and Yafa Hummus, according to an Aug. 20, 2024 staff report prepared by Dublin principal planner Amy Million.
As part of the project, Hines proposed tearing down two existing commercial buildings – formerly housing a bank and Grocery Outlet — totaling 28,800 square feet.
Previously in 2019, ARA acquired the property through a partnership with the city for the purpose of relocating existing tenants, according to the staff report. ARA committed $3.7 million toward the purchase and the city committed $3 million.
As part of the city’s commitment of those funds, ARA agreed via memorandum of understanding through June 2023 – among other actions — to obtain termination rights and or relocation rights for any future leases.
“The proposed project possesses unique development challenges and attempts to address these while eliminating barriers to implement the Downtown Dublin Preferred Vision and the Dublin Commons project,” the staff report states.
The development was made to align with the city’s long-term vision for downtown Dublin, the applicant wrote to the city in July 2024 in an appeal of the Planning Commission’s previous denial of the project’s site development review permit.
“The (Dublin Place North) project is our critical first step to make this vision a reality,” according to the applicant.
Ownership does not have unilateral right to terminate or relocate the tenants, according to the appeal.
“Consequently, to convince these tenants to agree to relocate, the project was specifically designed to accommodate the tenants’ many requirements, with ownership providing considerable financial concessions,” the appeal states.
“If the proposed site plan ignored the tenants’ specific requirements, the tenants would simply stay in place for the duration of their leases and the DDSP vision would be unachievable for the next several decades,” the applicant added.
Neither ARA, Target nor PetSmart responded to requests for comment.
While the kick-off to construction toward a reimagined downtown Dublin is currently unclear, the city continues to work with ARA on revising the Dublin Commons proposal as part of implementing its preferred vision.
“Ultimately, the goal is a downtown that is active, inclusive and beneficial for residents and visitors alike,” Hu said.
