"The plan that you can look through on the city's website is not economically feasible to build." That's Kelly Snider, a San José State development consultant, talking to KQED about the Cambrian Park Plaza redevelopment this spring. If you live anywhere near Union and Camden avenues, you've probably had a version of that thought yourself every time you drive past the same half-full parking lot you've been driving past since the city council approved this project back in 2022.
The 2022 approval did not set a construction start date. It began a permit timeline, which has since been extended by one year, with a second one-year extension available under the permit conditions. For those waiting for Cambrian Village, the permit dates and pending amendment are the key updates.
The Permit Timeline
The city issued the Planned Development Permit for the project, file number PD20-007, at a hearing on November 2, 2022. That permit came with a four-year expiration: November 2, 2026. City permit records reviewed for this piece show the project has already secured what's described as "the first of two one-year extensions allowed" under the permit's own conditions, pushing the deadline to November 2, 2027. A second extension, if the developer requests and gets it, would carry the runway to November 2, 2028, which lines up with the 2028 expiration date KQED cited in its April 2026 reporting on the project.
Here's the timeline as the paper trail actually shows it:
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| City Council certifies EIR, pre-zones site | August 9, 2022 |
| City Council annexes county parcel into San Jose | September 13, 2022 |
| Planning Director approves PD20-007 and tentative map | November 2, 2022 |
| Original permit expiration | November 2, 2026 |
| Developer submits Permit Adjustment for phasing change | February 2026 |
| First one-year extension granted | Runs to November 2, 2027 |
| Second extension available (if used) | Would run to November 2, 2028 |
The dates show the permit's current deadline and the later deadline available if the second extension is granted.
What the Amendment Would Change
In February 2026, the ownership team, now operating as Weingarten Nostat, Inc. with Kimco Realty as the listed applicant, filed a Planned Development Permit Amendment asking to build the housing portion of the project before the retail, hotel, and open space pieces that were the whole reason residents backed the plan in the first place. City records list the file as PDA20-007-01, and the filing itself states there's no change to unit counts or total commercial square footage, just a reshuffling of what gets built when.
The amendment would put the housing portion of the project ahead of the retail, hotel, and open-space components. Kimco acquired the site through its 2021 merger with Weingarten Realty, the original developer that spent years negotiating design changes with the neighborhood. The project has not yet broken ground. KQED quoted Kelly Snider on the approved plan:
"The plan that you can look through on the city's website is not economically feasible to build."
That's not a critic talking. That's a professor who studies land use, describing the gap between what was approved on paper and what a developer can actually finance today.
Tenants and Permit Conditions
Walk the plaza today and you'll still find the tenants who've been fixtures for years, anchored by Dollar Tree and BevMo!, alongside longtime independents who have more riding on this timeline than anyone.
Alfonso de Tagle has run De Tagle Jewelers out of the plaza for nearly four decades and belongs to the community group Friends of Cambrian Park Plaza. Back when the design was still being reworked with community input, he told San José Spotlight that a slower timeline "makes me feel more optimistic in the sense that we're going to be here a little longer," while also noting the tenants have no real say in the outcome. He has leased space in the plaza for decades as the project timeline continues.
Jolanta Kobylinski opened Heartbeat Cafe in 1996. When the draft environmental report went out for public comment in late 2021, she told Spotlight she'd like to reopen in whatever eventually replaces the current plaza, but flagged a concern that had nothing to do with rent or relocation: whether there's enough water available to support a hotel, apartments, and houses all landing on the same 18 acres at once. That infrastructure question hasn't been publicly resolved in any of the filings since.
The city's approval conditions do offer some protection, but only to a specific slice of tenants:
- According to San José Spotlight, any business that has leased space in the plaza since 2015 or earlier is entitled to relocation assistance when demolition begins.
- Those same businesses must be offered space in the completed redevelopment.
- Newer tenants include the fitness studios, learning academies, and daycare operators that have filled space as retail has thinned out.
Mary Burks, who leases space to run the gym Lifeworx, put it to CBS San Francisco the way most tenants here would: "I really, really want to remain here." Whether she can depends entirely on lease dates and phasing decisions still being finalized in a planning office, not on anything happening at the plaza itself.
The Carousel Sign in the Approved Plan
The one constant in every version of this plan, going back to the earliest community meetings, is the carousel sign. Built in 1953 alongside the original shopping center, it received historic status in 2016. Every approved design, including the current one, calls for retaining the sign and relocating it along Union Avenue, positioned between the new apartment building and the senior living residence.
The approved design calls for retaining and relocating the carousel sign along Union Avenue; the project timeline remains uncertain.
What to Watch For
The council's 2022 approval also required the developer to keep space available for the farmers market and the seasonal Christmas tree lot that already use the plaza's parking lot, both during construction and after the project is finished. Those approval conditions specify the space, and it's worth checking on directly if those events matter to your household calendar.
Peter Clarke, speaking for Friends of Cambrian Park Plaza, has advocated for sit-down restaurants rather than drive-through chains and against a cut-through street through the planned central park. Those preferences shaped the 2022 design. The effect of the proposed phasing change on those features remains to be seen.
The entitlements are in place, the extensions are built into the permit, and the site isn't going back to unincorporated county land. The questions ahead are whether Cambrian Village is built, which piece comes first, and what that sequence could mean for tenants at the plaza. If housing comes first, as the pending amendment proposes, residents could be living next to new apartments for a year or more before a single new storefront opens. If that sequencing shifts again, the timeline shifts with it.
Keep an eye on the city's project page, where filings under PDA20-007-01 will show the next decision point. That's a better predictor of what your neighborhood looks like in five years than any rendering that's circulated so far.
If you're weighing what a property near a long-horizon redevelopment like this is actually worth to hold or to sell, Samit Shah and the team can walk through what projects like this tend to mean for value and timing in specific pockets of Cambrian. Work With Us when you're ready to talk it through.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
