A Plan to Attract What’s Next In Retail
The Retail Action Plan, completed in October 2025, is one of the first major deliverables of San Leandro’s 2024 Economic Development Strategy—a 10-year roadmap to grow the local economy, strengthen the city’s regional identity, support small businesses, and improve quality of life. The Retail Action Plan provides a clear, actionable framework to help the City improve, expand, and modernize its retail base in response to shifting demographics, market realities, and national retail trends.
Key Findings
The Retail Action Plan identifies findings in four key categories for implementation over the next several years:
Retail Attraction Priorities
The consultants conducted Retail Leakage & Void Analysis studies that identified missing or underserved retail categories and helped determine which categories could realistically support new stores—and which cannot.
Shopping Center Evaluations & Recommendations
The plan includes an evaluation of three key shopping centers—Greenhouse Marketplace, Pelton Center, and Estudillo Center. Each center represents a different part of the city’s retail ecosystem. San Leandro’s retail inventory is diverse but aging, with smaller spaces leasing well and older anchors posing the greatest challenges. Recommended improvements include: refreshed signage, updated and consistent aesthetics, long-term placemaking plans, security, improved leasing strategies, and strengthened communication between ownership, tenants, and the City.
Next Steps to Implement the Plan
These early actions set up the infrastructure for long-term retail attraction and support.
Overall, the Retail Action Plan aligns with the City’s broader economic development goals—fostering innovation, supporting small businesses, and revitalizing key districts. The Plan will help San Leandro to grow its retail presence, improve quality of life, and reinforce its identity as a diverse, thriving community.
There needs to be more African American businesses and more of an African American presence in leadership. We live here too and we should be represented.
There are many African American businesses already. The city manager is African American, but at the end of the day San Leandro seeks the best and most prepared regardless of race. SL seeks to provide equal opportunity and be color blind, seeking to unite and not divide by skin color.