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Walk through the Evergreen Village Square in San Jose today and you’ll see a neighborhood hub that feels mostly complete. There’s a library, some decent food spots, and a fountain where kids burn off energy on the weekends. But there is a massive, lingering question mark that has haunted this specific corner of Silicon Valley for nearly a decade. People still ask about New Seasons San Jose. They search for opening dates. They wonder why the signs never went up.
It’s weird.
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Usually, when a grocery store deal dies, it happens quietly behind closed doors before a press release ever hits the wire. This wasn't that. New Seasons Market, the Portland-based darling of the organic grocery world, didn't just express interest; they signed a lease. They were the "anchor." They were the promise made to homeowners in Evergreen who were tired of driving across town for high-end produce and sustainably sourced meats.
Then, everything stalled.
The Expansion That Hit a Brick Wall
Back in the mid-2010s, New Seasons Market was on a tear. They were the "Ultimate Neighborhood Grocery," a B Corp that managed to feel more local than Whole Foods and more curated than Safeway. They decided to move south. San Jose was the big prize. They picked a 25,000-square-foot footprint in the Evergreen area.
The excitement was real. If you live in San Jose, you know the "Evergreen hole"—that pocket of the city that feels slightly isolated from the tech campuses and high-density retail of North San Jose or Santana Row. A premium grocer wasn't just a place to buy kale; it was a property value booster.
But then the leadership changed. This is where things get messy and where most corporate post-mortems lose the plot. New Seasons brought in Forrest Hoffmaster as CEO, and the strategy shifted almost overnight. The company realized they were overextended. Managing supply chains in the Pacific Northwest is one thing; trying to crack the cutthroat Northern California market—dominated by the likes of Lunardi’s, Zanotto’s, and a massive Whole Foods presence—is a different beast entirely.
Why the San Jose Site Stayed Dark
It wasn't just a "business decision." It was a retreat.
In 2017 and 2018, the cracks started showing. The company killed off plans for a store in Sunnyvale first. Then, the San Jose project—which was already delayed—went into a sort of corporate purgatory. Honestly, the timing sucked. Construction costs in the South Bay were skyrocketing. Labor was tight. New Seasons eventually decided to pull the plug on the entire California expansion, selling off their existing "New Leaf Community Markets" (which they owned) and sticking to their home turf in Oregon and Washington.
The Evergreen site sat empty. For years.
You’ve probably seen this happen in other parts of the city. A developer promises a marquee tenant, the neighborhood gets hyped, and then… nothing. For the residents of Evergreen, the New Seasons saga became a symbol of development frustration. It wasn't just that the store didn't open; it was that the space remained a vacuum in a shopping center that desperately needed a heartbeat.
The Neighborhood Impact
Evergreen Village Square was designed to be walkable. That’s a tough sell in San Jose, a city built for cars. Without a grocery store, the "walkable" dream sort of fell apart. People still had to hop in their SUVs to go to the Silver Creek Safeway or the Fowler Road Sprouts.
Small business owners in the square felt it too. A grocery store brings "mission-driven" foot traffic—people who show up three times a week because they ran out of milk. Without that anchor, the surrounding cafes and boutiques had to work twice as hard to get people into the parking lot.
Who Filled the Void?
After New Seasons officially exited the California market (and was eventually acquired by Good Food Holdings, the same parent company that owns Bristol Farms), the San Jose site needed a savior.
Enter Garden City Market.
If you're looking for New Seasons San Jose today, you won't find it. But you will find an independent grocer that tried to bridge the gap. Garden City Market eventually took over that ghost space in Evergreen. It’s a different vibe—more focused on the diverse, international palate of San Jose than the Portlandia-style organic branding of New Seasons.
Does it hit the same note? For some, yeah. For those who wanted the specific New Seasons brand of community-giving and specific Pacific Northwest products, it was a letdown. But in the world of San Jose real estate, a filled storefront is always better than a "Coming Soon" sign that’s been bleached white by the sun for three years.
The Reality of Grocery Margins in the South Bay
Why did New Seasons fail here while others thrive? Basically, it comes down to density and the "middle-to-top" market squeeze.
- Whole Foods already has the high-end organic market cornered in the South Bay.
- Trader Joe's owns the "affordable quirky" niche.
- Asian markets like H-Mart and 99 Ranch offer produce quality and variety that a Portland-based chain just couldn't match in this specific demographic.
New Seasons realized, perhaps too late, that they were trying to out-Whole-Foods Whole Foods in a market where they had zero brand recognition. They would have had to build an entirely new distribution network just for a couple of stores in Santa Clara County. That’s a recipe for burning cash.
What This Tells Us About San Jose Development
The New Seasons San Jose story is a cautionary tale about "lifestyle" retail. We see this all the time in the Bay Area. We see it in the North San Pedro area, in the Google Downtown West (Jay Paul/Lendlease) shifts, and in the various "urban villages" the city tries to promote.
Developers love to use names like New Seasons to get projects approved. It sounds green. It sounds upscale. It sounds like something a city council member can brag about at a ribbon cutting. But the gap between a "signed letter of intent" and a "stocked dairy aisle" is a mile wide.
If you are a resident looking at new developments in San Jose, don't buy the hype until the refrigeration units are being moved in. Retail is volatile. Grocery retail is even worse.
Practical Steps for Evergreen Residents and Shoppers
Since New Seasons isn't coming back—and the company has moved on to focusing on its core Portland market—here is how you should navigate the current landscape if you live in the area:
1. Support the current anchor. Garden City Market is the reality of that space now. If you want the Square to remain viable, that's where the foot traffic needs to go. Independent grocers in San Jose live and die by neighborhood loyalty in a way that big chains don't.
2. Look to New Leaf for that specific vibe. If you were specifically looking for the New Seasons "feel," New Leaf Community Markets is the closest you’ll get. They are owned by the same parent company now and share a lot of the same sourcing standards. There are locations in Half Moon Bay, Capitola, and Santa Cruz. It's a drive, but if you're obsessed with their specific brand of sausage or bulk goods, that’s your destination.
3. Watch the North San Jose developments. If you're a "grocery nerd" (yes, they exist), keep your eyes on the North San Jose and Berryessa areas. With the BART expansion and the massive influx of housing, that’s where the next "premium" grocery war is going to happen. We're already seeing more interesting, smaller-format stores looking at those transit-oriented developments.
4. Don't expect a New Seasons return. They've settled into their niche. The California "experiment" is over for them. When a company of that size retreats, they rarely pull a U-turn and come back to the same zip code.
The story of New Seasons San Jose is really just a story of a city outgrowing its own promises. San Jose is a tough place for outsiders to thrive, especially when they bring a Pacific Northwest playbook to a Silicon Valley game. It’s a reminder that in this city, the only thing that’s permanent is change—and maybe a really long wait for a decent parking spot.