If you've driven down Foothill Boulevard more than once this year, you've probably noticed the same thing: a new sign, a soft-opening banner, a construction fence that wasn't there last month. It's easy to read that as general momentum, the kind of thing that happens when a town is doing well. But look closer at where these openings are actually landing, and a more specific pattern shows up. Nearly everything new is squeezing onto Foothill itself, into suites between businesses that were already there. The one project that needed real room, a from-scratch meat market with its own parking and outdoor seating, didn't go on Foothill at all. It went one street over, on Arrow Highway.
That split isn't random. It's what happens when a commercial strip runs out of space to hand out.
Why the Signs Keep Landing on the Same Boulevard
The City of La Verne's own economic development office has been tracking this for a while. Heading into the end of 2025, the city was projecting a vacancy rate of just 4.4% along Foothill Boulevard citywide, with Old Town landing at what the city itself described as effectively zero. That's not a healthy-but-competitive retail market. That's a corridor with almost nowhere left to put a new tenant.
What that number means in practice is what you're seeing this year: new businesses aren't opening in freestanding buildings or brand-new construction along Foothill, because there isn't freestanding space left to build on. They're opening in suites, wedged between businesses that were already anchoring the block. If a business genuinely needs a bigger footprint, a full lot, its own parking, room for a to-go operation and outdoor seating, Foothill can't accommodate it anymore. That business ends up somewhere else.
What Opened This Summer
Start with the suites, because that's where the actual openings have been happening.
Rev'd Up Coffee & Classics soft-opened June 1 at 2320 Foothill Blvd, Suite B, in the space between Trader Joe's and Jimmy John's. That location tells you almost everything about the current market: there was no vacant building to move into, just a gap between two existing tenants that a new coffee shop could fit into.
A couple of doors down, Tutti Frutti Cafe reopened as a flagship concept at 2357 Foothill Blvd earlier this year. The frozen yogurt brand isn't new to Southern California. It was founded in 2008 and at one point grew to more than 700 locations across 28 countries. What's new is the version of it now running in La Verne. Ali Zia, who leads operations and branding for the location while finishing an MBA at Cal State Fullerton, and his father Faruk Zia, who advises the venture, scouted the site back in June 2024. It took roughly two years to get from that scouting trip to an open door, which gives you a sense of how long the pipeline runs even for a well-established brand trying to land a spot on this stretch.
"We saw the community, the university, the high school, the surrounding plazas," Ali Zia said of the decision to choose this block. The plan isn't to expand quickly. It's to use the La Verne store as a proving ground before building a small cluster of locations within roughly a ten-mile radius.
Then there's Sí Roma, the newest arrival. The Italian street sandwich shop moved into Gateway Pointe, at 1253 Foothill Blvd, and held its grand opening August 1 with five-dollar sandwiches and free desserts for the first customers through the door.
Here's a quick reference for what's actually open right now versus what's still in progress:
| Business | Location | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Rev'd Up Coffee & Classics | 2320 Foothill Blvd, Suite B | Open (soft-opened June 1, 2026) |
| Tutti Frutti Cafe | 2357 Foothill Blvd | Open (flagship concept, opened earlier in 2026) |
| Sí Roma | 1253 Foothill Blvd, Gateway Pointe | Open (grand opening Aug. 1, 2026) |
| Larios' Meat Market | 1912 Arrow Highway | Under construction, no opening date announced |
| Locally owned discount grocer | Not yet public | Targeting a September 2026 opening |
| Grocery Outlet | Not yet public | Signage installed as of June 2026, no opening date announced |
Why Larios' Went to Arrow Highway Instead
Larios' Meat Market has been one of the most anticipated openings in town, and one of the slowest to materialize. The family, which already runs locations in Covina and Chino Hills, secured a Conditional Use Permit for a Type 20 beer and wine license back in April 2024. As of this year, construction was still underway at 1912 Arrow Highway, with no firm opening date set.
Part of the reason it's taking this long comes down to what the family is actually building. Jorge Larios, who helps manage the business alongside his father Jorge Larios Sr. and his two sisters, has said the La Verne location will be larger than the existing stores: primarily a to-go concept, with a bigger shopping area and some outdoor seating. That's a footprint Foothill Boulevard simply doesn't have room for right now. Arrow Highway does.
The family's connection to the area predates the project. Jorge grew up in nearby Pomona and attended Damien High School, and he's described the decision to open in La Verne as building on roots that were already there rather than picking the town cold.
"We have roots and history here," Larios said. "We're excited to open in La Verne and be part of the community."
The Ones Still Filling In
Not every new business needs a storefront big enough to notice from the street, which is part of why Old Town keeps absorbing new tenants even at close to zero vacancy. La Verne Music School has been building out a program of private lessons, toddler classes, and ballet, the kind of service business that can operate out of a small studio space rather than needing retail frontage. That's a different category of tenant than a restaurant or a grocer, and it helps explain how a nearly full district still finds room for new arrivals.
The two grocery stories in play are both still pending. A locally owned discount grocer has been hiring and has said it's aiming for a September 2026 opening, with a stated focus on deep discounts and a community-first approach. Separately, the space slated for a Grocery Outlet location picked up new signage back in June, though no opening date has been announced. Neither is open yet, so if you've been watching for one specifically, patience is still the answer.
Reading the Next New Sign
If you want to keep track of what's actually happening without checking every storefront in town, three things are worth watching for:
- A suite between two established tenants, not a freestanding building, usually means a new business squeezing into the Foothill corridor's remaining gaps.
- A longer construction timeline on a side street like Arrow Highway usually signals a business that needs more room than Foothill has left to offer.
- A service business with no need for a big storefront, like music lessons or a small studio, can still land in Old Town even when the district is reporting close to zero vacancy.
None of this requires a real estate transaction to notice. It's just what a nearly full commercial strip looks like from the outside, and once you know what you're looking at, the pattern is hard to unsee.
If you're the kind of person who tracks these details about your own street the way we track them about the whole town, we'd love to hear what you're noticing. And if all this local activity has you curious what it means for your own property, Shannon Brady can pull together an instant home valuation whenever you're ready to take a look.
