On Island Drive, the Safeway at Harbor Bay Landing still has a steady stream of carts going in and out. Its neighbors are quieter. In Building 891, La Penca Azul is serving again. China Villa was still closed at the end of September. La Val's Pizza has closed for good.
People who live on Bay Farm Island can easily list what used to be here. What can come next is set by a rule. Alameda rezoned this site in 2023 to allow housing, and it kept a requirement that any project there include a grocery store and significant commercial space. The empty storefronts are real. The zoning still requires a grocer and commercial space on this site, and that makes the grocery anchor the deciding piece in whatever is built here next.
How Building 891 went dark this summer
The restaurant closures in August came out of a sewage problem that started in January. Alameda Post reported on Sept. 4 that the problems built up over the spring and summer:
- January 2026. The Community of Harbor Bay Isle Owners' Association (CHBIOA) told the City's Public Works Department that raw sewage was collecting near the lagoon behind Building 891 and leaking into it. The City sent the center's property management company, Sequoia Commercial Group, a Notice to Comply.
- April. Sewer repairs were reported finished, but they were done without a permit.
- June. At La Val's, the floor under the cold-storage unit failed. A City inspection later that month found the restaurant had to stay closed until the property owner made repairs.
- Early July. CHBIOA raised the problem with the City again.
- August 4. A 48-hour Notice of Violation expired without the problem being fixed, and City staff red-tagged La Val's Pizza, La Penca Azul, and China Villa Restaurant. La Penca Azul and China Villa stopped operating. La Val's was already closed and stayed closed.
- August 11. The City issued a fourth Notice to Comply. It also began charging $3,000 a day, $1,000 for each of three municipal code violations, in addition to fines from the earlier notices.
- Late August into September. Sequoia's contractor repaired leaking plumbing and drain pipes in the crawlspace under China Villa and pumped contaminated water out of the lagoon. La Penca Azul's Harbor Bay location was inspected on Sept. 1.
At the Sept. 1 City Council meeting, Councilmember Tracy Jensen said La Val's would not reopen. A manager at La Penca Azul explained the split in responsibility to the Post. The landlord handles repairs underneath a building. Tenants handle work above ground. Because the problem was under the building, whether the restaurants could reopen depended on repairs by the property owner.
The summer closures came after years of departures
The red tags were the most visible event, but they did not start the vacancies. In an Alameda Post op-ed published Oct. 19, Gene Kahane, a Bay Farm resident since 1997, listed the businesses that are gone. The gas station closed recently. CVS has been gone for years. Angel Fish Japanese Restaurant, Coffee and Tea Traders, and the nail salon have also left. He described the shopping center of the late 1990s, with Cafe Enrico, the Alameda Ice Cream Dock, a small bookstore, and La Penca Azul when it was still called La Piñata.
The City had already cited the property's condition before the restaurants closed. In late January, Code Enforcement issued a separate Notice of Violation over debris, peeling paint, graffiti, damaged walkways, and potholes in the parking lot. The center belongs to Burlingame-based Harbor Bay Landing, LLC, and the Post reported in September that the owner's plans for the property were unknown.
A center that keeps losing tenants looks like one on its way to becoming something else. In fall 2025, a developer filed a preliminary application to make it exactly that.
The 2025 housing plan, and the rule it ran into
On Sept. 26, 2025, The True Life Companies filed an SB 330 preliminary application for the Harbor Bay Landing site. The plan had 305 homes and no retail. It included 217 for-sale homes and 88 rentals, and 50 of the units would be affordable. The City described True Life as a developer considering buying the shopping center to redevelop it.
City staff responded quickly, and the City posted their position on its Major Planning Projects page:
"This proposal does not meet City requirements. Specifically, Alameda's Zoning requires a mixed-use development at this site, with significant commercial space and a grocery store."
The requirement comes from the 2023 rezoning. That year the City opened the site to housing to help meet state housing targets, and it kept the grocery store requirement in place. The City never voted on the plan. A preliminary application under SB 330 is not a formal project application, and the City does not act on it until a formal application arrives.
True Life withdrew the application on Nov. 21, 2025. The City said the developer wanted to keep looking at a "viable commercial and residential mixed-use project that the City and community will support" but could not give a timeline for submitting again.
City staff told the developer that its plan, which left out a grocery store, did not meet the zoning, and True Life later withdrew it. Under the current zoning, any future plan for the site, from True Life or from someone else, has to include a grocery store.
Why the grocery anchor matters more than the empty storefronts
That requirement makes a grocery store the one use any future project there must keep, and right now the grocer on the site is Safeway. The Post's September reporting called it "the bustling Safeway" and the anchor of Harbor Bay Landing. It also reported that Safeway had announced no changes to its operations there.
The City has shown where it stands. In October 2025, the same month True Life's plan was under review, City staff met with Safeway officials to express support for keeping the store at the site. At a candidate forum this fall, Councilmember Jensen spoke about her ongoing conversations with Safeway management about keeping the chain there.
The smaller tenants keep leaving, while any redevelopment of the site has to include a grocery store and significant commercial space. That gives the store already operating there, and the City's effort to keep it, more bearing on what Harbor Bay Landing becomes than any single vacancy.
What the next council inherits
On Sept. 26, about 200 people came to the Social Hall at the Mastick Senior Center for the Alameda Post's candidate forum, where Harbor Bay Landing came up directly. The three mayoral candidates described two different approaches:
- Malia Vella and Tony Daysog said the City should press the landlord and follow the "Nob Hill" approach of the early 2000s. In that effort, the City worked with a developer on a shared plan for what became the Bridgeside Shopping Center. Daysog said the first priority was "making a clear statement that we need to keep Harbor Bay Isle shopping center as a vibrant community shopping center."
- Tracy Jensen said she doubted the City has the authority or the money to repeat the Nob Hill approach at Harbor Bay Landing. She focused on keeping Safeway at the site instead.
In the Alameda County Registrar's preliminary results, last updated Nov. 6, Vella led the mayoral race with 46.75 percent of the vote. Jensen had 27.90 percent and Daysog had 25.36 percent. The results are unofficial until certified. If that lead holds, the incoming mayor is a candidate who pointed to the Bridgeside approach, a partnership with a developer on a plan that keeps commercial space on the site.
Updates on any future proposal will come through the City, not the storefronts. The City's Major Planning Projects page still lists the Harbor Bay Landing file, PREPLN25-0029, and offers an email subscription for updates on the project. Anyone who wants to know before a new plan reaches a public meeting can subscribe there.
For homeowners on Bay Farm, whether a full-service grocery stays within walking distance is part of how the neighborhood works day to day, and part of how buyers will see it. The Anthony Riggins Team follows Harbor Bay Landing closely and is glad to talk through what the center's direction means for your home and your plans. Work With Us.
