"Some of those shoppers never really stopped calling them 'Lucky.'" Save Mart spokeswoman Alicia Rockwell said that in September 2007. Save Mart had just bought the Albertsons stores in Northern California and was putting 72 of them back under the Lucky name. One of those 72 was the store on San Ramon Valley Boulevard, next to what was then Longs Drugs. It closed on a Wednesday and Thursday and reopened that Friday with a new sign, a refreshed interior and new uniforms for the staff. David Kerr had lived in Danville for 45 years and lived a mile and a half away. He told the reporter he had shopped there no matter who owned it.
Nineteen years later, the building at 660 San Ramon Valley Boulevard has its most likely next chapter, and it is another grocery store. What is different this time is how much of the building has to come apart first.
A two-day closure, then a decades-long run
The site has gone through several names, but the same use has carried through all of them. DanvilleSanRamon.com described the store as an anchor tenant at the address for multiple decades. It switched from Lucky to Albertsons in 1999, then went back to Lucky in 2007. The paper's 2006 reporting explains the gap between those years: Albertsons bought the Lucky chain in 1998 and converted its supermarkets to the Albertsons name a year later.
| Year | What happened at 660 San Ramon Valley Blvd. | How long it took |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Lucky stores take the Albertsons name after the 1998 merger | Changed the sign and identity |
| 2007 | Save Mart returns the store to the Lucky banner | Closed two days, reopened on a Friday |
| 2019 | Renovated and relaunched as Lucky California | Renovated while it stayed a Lucky |
| July 17, 2026 | Lucky California closes at 5 p.m. | Building now empty |
| Proposed | Whole Foods, contingent | About a year of work, estimated |
The 2019 relaunch was the biggest change the store saw under Save Mart. The renovated store added salad and soup bars, more grab-and-go food, products from local vendors and a larger selection of organic items. Store manager Mark Poston called it "a fresh way to shop." For the reopening, the company "adopted" John Baldwin Elementary through its Adopt-A-School program and gave two $500 donations alongside Kids Country, the Danville out-of-school care organization.
Seven years later, the store was gone. Save Mart told Patch in June that it routinely reviews store performance and sometimes has to close an underperforming location. Patch also noted that this was the second Lucky in the Tri-Valley to close in under three years, after the Fallon Gateway store in Dublin. Lucky California still has stores in San Ramon, Pleasanton and Livermore.
What the planning chief actually said
For about a month after the closure there was no public news. In early August, the Town said it had received no application for the space and had nothing new to share.
At the September 8 Planning Commission meeting, Danville Chief of Planning David Crompton told commissioners that the property owner has an agreement with Whole Foods, and that the agreement is still in a contingency period. The San Francisco Chronicle reported the update first. Bay Area Telegraph followed on September 14, and The Danville Dispatch newsletter on September 24.
Here is what Crompton described if the deal goes through:
- Footprint: Whole Foods would stay within the former Lucky space and would not expand it.
- Interior: The owner would strip the interior, including the concrete floor, to leave an empty shell for the new store.
- Exterior: Changes would be fairly limited, mostly new signs and some work near the entrance.
- Parking lot: The project would trigger requirements for electric-vehicle chargers.
- Timing: Roughly a year of work, which is an estimate and not an opening date.
Some things are still missing from the record. Whole Foods has not announced a Danville store, and the Town has not approved a completed project. As of early October, we found no newer report of a filed application, an announcement from Whole Foods or Amazon, or the contingency period ending. Until one of those happens, the year-long estimate only starts once there is a final deal.
Why "same use" still means a long wait
That floor detail is what makes this change different from the earlier ones. In 2007, going from Albertsons to Lucky meant two closed days and a new sign over the same aisles. In 2019, going from Lucky to Lucky California was a renovation of a store that kept the same banner and the same operator. Whole Foods is proposing something none of the earlier changes involved. It would take the building back to a bare shell, concrete included, and build a new store inside the old walls.
From the outside, Sycamore Square would barely change. The Dispatch made the point that swapping one full-service grocer for another keeps the center anchored by the same basic use, so it doesn't have to find a new purpose for an unusually large storefront. The building stays a grocery store. But the plan as described doesn't include a quick reopening like the one in 2007.
Danville has seen a grocery building sit empty before. The Albertsons on Diablo Road near I-680 closed in 2006. When Save Mart bought the chain a year later, that store was left out of the deal. The San Ramon Valley Boulevard store came back in two days because its operator only had to change the name.
The rest of Sycamore Square is still here
The center runs from 650 to 730 San Ramon Valley Boulevard. Its property manager, La Jolla Management Company, describes it as anchored by CVS. CVS is the same corner Longs Drugs held in 2007. The center's online directory lists Melo's Pizza and Pasta, Creative Paint, All Fur Love Grooming, H&R Block, Learn and Play Montessori School, Made to Fit Alterations, Modern Nails, The UPS Store and YogaSix. That same directory still lists Lucky, so call ahead before counting on any one business.
If a deal is finalized, the work Crompton described would happen next to those storefronts for about a year. Watch for a new sign over the old entrance and EV chargers in the lot as the first visible signs that the contingency is over.
Where the grocery list goes in the meantime
The Dispatch noted that Danville still has Safeway, Trader Joe's, Lunardi's and Smart & Final, and that the nearest Whole Foods stores are in San Ramon and Walnut Creek. Here is where they are:
| Store | Address | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Trader Joe's | 85 Railroad Ave., Danville | Danville Square, downtown |
| Lunardi's | 345 Railroad Ave., Danville | Iron Horse Plaza |
| Smart & Final EXTRA! | 460 Diablo Road, Danville | Green Valley Shopping Center, off I-680 |
| Safeway | 3496 Camino Tassajara, Danville | Camino Tassajara |
| Whole Foods | 100 Sunset Drive, San Ramon | San Ramon |
For anyone who walked or drove a short distance to Lucky from the streets just south of downtown, the two Railroad Avenue stores are the closest stops for a smaller grocery run. A full Whole Foods trip means heading to Sunset Drive in San Ramon, at least until the contingency is resolved and the year of work is done.
The Dispatch summed up the Nextdoor rumor about "big plans" for the old Lucky this way: this time it had a public planning update behind it, and it still had a contingency period. The next public step would be an application filed with the Town of Danville. Until that happens, 660 San Ramon Valley Boulevard has a likely tenant, a rough scope of work and no opening date.
At AJ Cohen, we keep track of changes like this one because the anchor store a few blocks away shapes what everyday life feels like in that part of Danville. If you want to talk about what Sycamore Square's next chapter could mean for your street, Let's Connect.
