Magnolia Avenue Is Refilling From the Small Rooms First

"It looks and feels exactly the same," Max Perry said of the Silver Peso in May, just before the bar's grand reopening at 450 Magnolia Ave. On that block of downtown Larkspur, "the same" now applies to fewer places than it did a year ago.

In 2026, Magnolia Avenue lost a 32-year-old French brasserie and moved its library off the street. Over the same months it gained a children's bookshop and a coffee cart, and an old bar reopened after a refresh. The former Lucky grocery at the other end of downtown has been closed since 2023. The pattern is consistent. The small rooms refill quickly, usually with operators close to home. The large rooms stay empty, because what happens to them depends on a corporate owner, a restaurant group's finances or a city committee.

One stretch, six addresses

Every space that has reopened is a bar, a cart or a small shop. Every space still dark held a restaurant with more than fifty employees, a 26,000-square-foot grocery or a public library.

The rooms that filled

The Silver Peso shows how quickly a small space can turn over when the people involved live nearby. Tommy and Shannon Lamanna, a Larkspur couple, bought the historic building in late 2024. Early in 2026, Corte Madera resident Max Perry and Conor Flaherty of Tiburon, managing partners at Sam's Anchor Cafe in Tiburon, took over the lease from Rebel Lee. Lee had tended bar there for more than a decade before buying the business in 2015. They spent a few months on new floors, new bar siding, paint and upgraded bathrooms. They also added new pool tables and better televisions and refurbished the shuffleboard table. The new taps pour IPAs and Kolsch-style beers. The chalkboard cocktail list runs to margaritas, negronis and martinis. The bar is open noon to 2 a.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends, and the team plans to keep bringing in food vendors for events and on weekends.

Next door to the old Left Bank, at 501 Magnolia, Stef Tousignant opened The Phoenix Used Bookshop on May 13. The shop specializes in used books for children and teens, and its motto is "books build community." According to its website, an all-ages store is already in the works.

At 455 Magnolia, the Feerma Love coffee cart opened in mid-February. In February, the Marin Independent Journal described a full Feerma restaurant at the same address as planned for summer. We have not found any reporting since then that confirms the restaurant has opened. For now the cart is the open part of the project, and it was the first new thing on the block in 2026.

The rooms still waiting

Left Bank closed for reasons that had nothing to do with the space it occupied. Vine Hospitality ran seven restaurants around the Bay Area, and it told employees on the Monday after Father's Day that all of them were closing. In a WARN notice filed with the state, the company said it had tried and failed to raise enough capital to keep operating. The Larkspur location lost 54 jobs. Tiburon's Petite Left Bank, which had opened in 2022, closed at the same time and lost 20. Larkspur was where the chain began. Ed Levine and chef Roland Passot founded Left Bank there in 1994, and over the years it became known for its Bastille Day and Beaujolais Nouveau Day celebrations. The Larkspur restaurant served its last meals on a Tuesday and Wednesday after the announcement. Left Bank was on the mayor's list of oral-report topics at the July 1 City Council meeting, but the minutes record no tenant, sale or plan for 507 Magnolia. We have found no successor announced since then.

The former Lucky at 570 Magnolia has been empty much longer. The store closed in 2023 after about 40 years. Albertsons owns the building, and Save Mart Companies ran the store. The building has 26,344 square feet on about two acres and is listed for sale at "best offer," with no price. The city zones the parcel "transitional downtown," which allows residential, commercial and other uses. In a letter to the City Council, a resident asked the city to "figure out a way to get us an affordable grocery store in the former Lucky's space."

The city has limited options, and Mayor Stephanie Andre said so in July. "The Lucky's parcel is a privately owned parcel, so the government only has so many levers it can do," she told the Marin IJ. "We can't really dictate what goes in that space, although we can try to use the tools we can to encourage a market." One of those tools is already in the housing element. A developer who includes a grocery store on the site gets a faster approval process. Andre also said the city has talked with grocery operators about other locations but could not give details while those talks continue.

The council also discussed a ballot measure to tax properties left empty for long periods. It is not on the November 3, 2026 ballot. The county's list of measures shows no Larkspur vacant-property tax. The Larkspur measure that is on the ballot, Measure S, is the Ross Valley paramedic-services tax.

The one large room with a plan

The old library space at City Hall is the one large vacancy on Magnolia with a written plan, and that is because the city controls it. The library reopened at 10 Rose Lane on March 28. A staff report for the July 1 council meeting proposed interim uses for the space it left behind. Administration staff would move from Recreation into a refreshed former staff area. The former DVD alcove would become a compliant lactation room and employee lounge. The old reading room and circulation area would become a general-purpose meeting space. Without significant spending, the former stacks can only be used for storage, and staff were still deciding whether the old children's and technical areas would stay library storage. At that meeting, the council directed staff to take applications for a citizens' committee to review a City Hall rehabilitation. The minutes record no final decision on the rehabilitation.

A city that owns a building can schedule its next use. A city that does not can offer incentives and wait, which is the situation at both 507 and 570 Magnolia.

Further down Magnolia, a longer timeline

The southern end of Magnolia Avenue has its own study underway. Larkspur approved a $91,730 consultant study of the 0.8-mile stretch from Doherty Drive to the southern city limit. The work includes surveys and community meetings, and it will produce a plan covering possible pedestrian, bicycle, traffic-calming, transit and wayfinding changes. This is a planning study. No construction has been approved, and the community meetings are where residents can weigh in on what the street looks like next.

A short October on and near Magnolia

1. Any weekday morning. Get coffee at the Feerma Love cart at 455 Magnolia, the newest of the year's small openings.
2. Saturday, October 10. The Piper Park Pumpkin Patch runs 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 250 Doherty Drive, just off the top of the Magnolia south corridor. The same morning, Marin Country Mart holds its 14th Annual Pie Baking Contest at its farmers market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
3. Tuesday, October 20. The Phoenix Used Bookshop lists two events in Larkspur that day. One runs from 1 to 2 p.m. at Dark Park, and the other runs from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at a location still to be announced.
4. Any weekend. The Silver Peso opens at 10 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, and the team has said food vendors will set up on weekends.
5. Whenever the agenda posts. The citizens' committee on City Hall and the community meetings for the south corridor study are where the next decisions about downtown will be made in public.

As of October 3, 2026, no new tenant, sale or plan has been reported for 507 Magnolia, and nothing new has been reported for 570 Magnolia since July.

If you own near downtown and want to think through how these vacancies might affect your plans, Rick van der Wal follows Magnolia Avenue closely and can tell you what each new filing or announcement means. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.